Diachronic Semantic Shift of Sequential Conjunction: the Causal to Conditional Path

Abstract

This paper analyzes the semantic shift of a Japanese construction V-e-ba from causal to conditional. The conventional meaning of the V-e-ba construction is a sequential conjunction in the sense of update semantics. The causal meaning in Old Japanese is obtained by an I-implicature, while the conditional meaning in Modern Japanese is obtained by Q-implicatures. The proposed diachronic development is in accordance with Deo's (2015) Evolutionary Game Theory model.