The case particles GA and NO in Esopono Fabulas: A morphosyntactic analysis of the Japanese language spoken in the XVI century.

• Grant number: 24/16582-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Modern Foreign Languages
• Principal Investigator: Eliza Atsuko Tashiro
• Grantee: Giordan Minozzi Camilo Silva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/00341-0 - The Case Particles GA and NO in Esopono fabvlas: A morphosyntactic analysis of the Japanese language spoken in the 16th Century, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

This research involves two areas of research in Japanese Studies - linguistic studies, since it involves an analysis of the syntactic structure of the language, and literary studies, since the material under examination is Aesop's fables translated into Japanese. More specifically, the linguistic elements under analysis are the case particles (in Japanese, kaku joshi ¿¿¿) GA (¿) and NO (¿) used in the fables translated by the Jesuits on a mission in Japan during the period known as Azuchi-Momoyama (16th century) in Japanese historiography. These fables make up the teaching material intended for reading entitled Esopo fabvlas (1593), prepared for the learning of the Japanese language in the educational establishments of the Society of Jesus in the Far East. By reading the fables, listing the sentences containing the aforementioned particles, examining their use and comparing them with the descriptions made in grammars and dictionaries and vocabularies by the same Jesuits at the same time, we seek to understand, even if partially, the syntactic structure of the spoken Japanese language and the form of explanation carried out by the Jesuit missionaries.