From truth to truly: The case of shinni ‘truly’ in Japanese compared to Chinese, Korean and Thai counterparts

This study traces the development of the adverb shinni ‘truly’, a hybrid form consisting of the Sino-Japanese noun shin (眞/真) ‘truth’ and the adverbializer -ni of Japanese origin, in the history of Japanese. The goal of the study is to compare the developmental pathway of shinni with that of ‘truth’-related words derived from the same Chinese word 眞/真 in Chinese, Korean, and Thai in order to seek commonalities and differences among them. In these languages, it is reported that some words with眞/真 have developed from “true” to “intensive”, and have further developed a number of interactional functions as discourse markers (DMs). The data were obtained from various historical and modern corpora and database. A total of 1810 occurrences of shinni in written and spoken Japanese of various genres were analysed with the focus on their pragmatic function. The study confirms a commonality in the development from “true” to “intensive” in shinni , illustrating its evolution from the noun shin (“true”) to the use of shinni that can be interpreted as serving to intensify the illocutionary force of what is being said (i.e., “intensive”). In contrast, this study finds that shinni does not bear any DM functions that some words with眞/真in Chinese, Korean, and Thai have developed. This study discussed the possibility that, due to various factors, the pace of change at advanced stages of grammaticalization may be more diversified than has previously been suggested.