As was argued in the preceding paper ([Iida, 2012]), typically a new argument is introduced as “indirect theme” in Japanese indirect passive. In order to explicate the nature of a relation between the newly introduced argument and the old arguments, we undertake a systematic study of relational nouns in Japanese. In the present part, we concentrate on relational nouns that express kinship and other social relations. A relational noun is a noun which takes an argument, and is an “unsaturated” expression in Fregean sense. Relational nouns, however, may give rise to some “saturated” expressions which are not relational. They are (i) nouns which express relationships themselves, (ii) relational nouns used “absolutely”, and (iii) relational nouns used as classificatory labels.

論文