格助詞｢で｣の意味と用法に関する研究

The Meaning and Usage of the Case Marker DE

There have been many studies of Japanese case marker DE. Most of them are concerned with different uses between NI and DE, so there are few works that deal with the meaning and usage of DE itself. Even those studies treat only limited uses of DE such as “place”, “cause and reason”, and “means”, neglecting the fact that there are various uses of DE. Besides, the above-mentioned three kinds of uses are too simple to cover the whole meaning of DE. Take an example of the use of “place”. The previous studies of “place” try to capture a variety of places in the world under a single category “place”. This results in confusion to the learners of Japanese. This paper intends to examine how the meaning and usage of DE differs in the context of what comes before the case marker and how to sub-classify its meaning and usage. This will provide us with a way to explain its meaning and usage not only to the native speakers but also to the learners of Japanese as a second language.