‘as [Prince Genji] woke up Kogimi [, who] lay asleep near by,...
(Genji, vol 1, p. 117. Cited in Kuroda 1992: 136)
c. [ume-no hana ori kazasitutu morohito-no asobu]-o mireba
plum-GEN blossom cut hold=up many people-GEN play-ACC see
miyakozo omohu
capital think
‘To see many people playing with holding a branch of plum blossoms
up over their heads reminds me of the things about the capital’
(Manyoshu 843. Cited in Kinsui 1995)It is notable in the examples from (10) that the subordinate clauses exhibit
a nominal property. This is illustrated by the internally headed relative clause
(10b) and the complement clause (10c), whereby an accusative case particle is
attached directly to these clauses, a clear indication of nounhood. This form of
subordinate clause disappeared from Middle Japanese. Instead, a nominalizer
(or a complementizer-like element) no came to be attached to the attributive
form. For example, (10c) has to be “... morobito-no asobu-no-o mireba.. .”
(to see many people playing.. .) in Modern Japanese. Kinsui (1995) relates
this diachronic change to the collapse of the attributive and conclusive forms in
the thirteenth century, when the former came to be used in matrix clauses for
rhetorical reasons. The collapse of the two forms made it diffi cult for the attribu-
tive form alone to mark subordinate clauses, which might have promoted the
emergence of a marker to introduce subordinate clauses. Although the form of
internally headed relative clauses without a nominalizer like (10b) disappeared
because of the diachronic change, the form of nominal clauses like (10c) remains
in Modern Japanese as a fossilized expression. The following example illustrates
that an attributive clause can be a subject to which a nominative case particle
is directly attached.
(11) nigeru-ga saizyoo-no saku da
run=away-NOM best-GEN strategy is
‘To run away is the best strategy’ (Kuno 1976: 38)
Kuno (1976) observes that the attributive form can occur as an object with
an accusative case particle being attached in Raising-to-Object constructions, as
shown in (12b).
(12) a. Yamada-wa [nigeru-ga saizyoo-no saku da to] omotta.
Yamada-TOP run=away-NOM best-GEN strategy is that thought
‘Yamada thought that to run away was the best strategy’
b. Yamada-wa nigeru-o [saizyoo-no saku da to] omotta.
Yamada-TOP run=away-ACC best-GEN strategy is that thought
‘Yamada thought that to run away was the best strategy’ (Kuno 1976: 39)
58 Mihoko Zushi