A study of -ni naru and -to naru in Japanese: Based on corpus
Jong-Seung Park · The Japanese Language Association Of Korea · 2023
The verb NARU is a change verb that indicates a change in state or shape and is used in two forms: -ni naru and -to naru. Until now, the differences in meaning and usage between the two forms have been approached mainly from an expressive or semantic perspective. This paper describes the difference between the two forms by using a corpus to analyze the preceding nouns just before -ni naru and -to naru. The bias in the distributions of -ni naru and -to naru is shown by Yahoo! Answers (OC), blogs (OY), and white papers (OW), respectively. For reference, not a single example of -ni naru is detected in the law (OL). The semantic characteristics of -ni naru are: (i) the change occurs naturally in the course of time, and the focus is on the process of change. (ii) Pre- and post-phases of change are envisaged. (iii) The noun that precedes it is more common in words of Japanese origin than in Sino-Japanese words, and it also receives interrogatives. (iv) It draws the aspect of change to one"s own side and sees it as a “Uchi” situation or matter. On the other hand, the characteristics of -to naru are: (v) It does not assume the intermediate stages, and the focus is on the result of the change. (vi) The change is not general and takes on the aspect of a sudden change. These features are taken as “surprises” by the speaker. (vii) The aspect of change is pushed aside and taken as a “Soto” situation or matter.