国立国語研究所学術情報リポジトリ
宜蘭クレオールの格表示
メタデータ

言語: English
出版者:
公開日: 2016-01-29
キーワード (Ja):
キーワード (En): Taiwan, Yilan Creole, Japanese, Atayal,case marking
作成者: 簡, 月真, CHIEN, Yuehchen
メールアドレス:所属:

URL

https://doi.org/10.15084/00000806

国立国語研究所論集 (NINJAL Research Papers) 10: 1–17 (2016)
ISSN: 2186-134X print/2186-1358 online

1

Yilan Creole Case Marking
CHIEN Yuehchen
National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan / Project Collaborator, NINJAL [–2013.09]
Abstract
Yilan Creole is a Japanese-based creole language spoken in Taiwan. It has been used as a first
language by indigenous Atayal and Seediq people living in Yilan County. This paper is a descriptive study that attempts to clarify the linguistic nature of Yilan Creole through an examinationof its case-marking system. Both word order and postpositions are used for case marking in
Yilan Creole. Basically, the subject and direct object are indicated by word order, while the indirect object and other arguments are marked by five postpositional case particles: ni, de, to, no, andkara. The case particles are derived from the lexifier language, Japanese. The paper concludes that,compared to the Japanese case particles, the case particle ni has undergone an extension of functions, and some other particles, on the contrary, saw a reduction of functions in Yilan Creole.*
Key words: Taiwan, Yilan Creole, Japanese, Atayal, case marking

1. Introduction
Taiwan was colonized by Japan from 1895 to 1945. During this period, the Japanese language
was taught through school education and social education, following the colonial government’s
policy to make the Taiwanese use Japanese. Language contact between Japanese and the local
languages—Austronesian languages, Southern Min, and Hakka—during the fifty years of colonial rule caused a number of linguistic phenomena, which can be categorized into three types:(i) the bilingual use of Taiwanese languages and Japanese;1(ii) the borrowing of Japanese words into Taiwanese languages;(iii) the creation of a creole based on Japanese and Austronesian languages.
* This paper is one part of the revised version of an oral presentation entitled “Yilan Creole Phonology and
Syntax,” presented (with Prof. Shinji Sanada) at NINJAL on Aug. 31, 2013. This study is a result of theCore Research Project, “Formation Processes of Japanese Language Varieties and Creoles,” headed by Prof.
Shinji Sanada.
1 People educated during the Japanese colonial period are over seventy-five years old now; most of them arebilingual, speaking their own ethnic group language and Japanese fluently. Even today, among members of
the older generations whose ethnic group languages are different (e.g., Austronesian languages, Southern
Min, and Hakka), Japanese is used as a lingua franca for communication, as the older generations can speak
Japanese more fluently than the present official language, Mandarin. The variety of Japanese they speak(which is not a creole) is becoming extinct as the older generations pass away. Based on data from naturally
occurring conversations, Chien (e.g., 2006a, 2006b, 2009, 2011) has described this variety of Japanese’s
structure and processes of change by examining the usage of personal pronouns, negatives, potential expressions, modal expressions, style-shifting, and so forth. Chien’s study drew on variation theory to clarify thevariation in Japanese ability between informants and the speech style variation of each informant (speechstyles were observed to differ when this Japanese variety was used as a lingua franca between Taiwanese incontrast to when it was used in interviews with Japanese researchers).

2

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)

While phenomena (i) and (ii) can be observed widely throughout Taiwan, phenomenon (iii)
can only be found in Yilan County in eastern Taiwan (Map 1), where a creole based on Japaneseand two Austronesian languages, Atayal and Seediq,2 is used.

Map 1 Yilan County, Taiwan
Little research on Yilan Creole had been carried out until recently. In the last few years, however, several studies have discussed how and why Yilan Creole evolved (Sanada & Chien 2007,2008a, 2008b, Chien & Sanada 2010a, 2010b, among others) and the linguistic structure of Yilan
Creole (Sanada & Chien 2007, 2008a, Abe et al. 2008, Otani & Huang 2009, Chien & Sanada
2011, Chien 2015). However, its structure has not yet been fully researched. In order to clarify
the syntactic structure of Yilan Creole further, this paper describes its case-marking system.
Previous research on pidgin and creole languages shows three main types of case marking:no marking, adpositions, and serial verb constructions. As Haspelmath (2013a, 2013b) notes,
there is no marking for the patient role and agent role in most APiCS languages.3 However,some creoles use adpositions—prepositions or postpositions—to mark cases (Verhaar 1995,
Holm & Patrick 2002, Michaelis et al. 2013). Finally, according to Winford (2008: 21, following Bickerton 1981), one of the creole prototype features is “[t]he use of serial verb constructions
in which serial verbs have a ‘case-marking’ function, introducing directional, benefactive, dative,
and instrumental arguments.” Yilan Creole uses word order and case particles to mark cases. As
its lexifier language, Japanese, has postpositional particles, and its substrate language, Atayal, has
prepositional particles, it is particularly important to examine Yilan Creole’s case particle system
to answer the following questions: How is Yilan Creole’s case-marking system influenced by
Japanese and Atayal? What kind of language change brought about its case particle system?
This paper aims to clarify the case-marking system of Yilan Creole. We will describe thesociolinguistic background in Section 2 and present a brief description of the case-marking systems of Japanese and Atayal in Section 3. Next, Section 4 gives a brief account of the data collec-

2 Atayal is also known as Tayal, and Seediq as Sediq.
3 “The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures (APiCS) brings together the expertise of 88 lan-

guage experts to provide a systematic comparison of key structural features of 76 creoles, pidgins, and mixed
languages in the areas of syntax, semantics, morphology, lexicon, and phonology” (Michaelis et al. 2013:xxxi).

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)3

tion. Section 5 discusses Yilan Creole’s word order, and Section 6 analyzes Yilan Creole’s use of
postpositions for case marking. Section 7 concludes the paper.
2. Sociolinguistic background
Yilan Creole is spoken by indigenous Atayal and Seediq people living in four villages of Yilan
County. They are Hanhsi Village, Tungyueh Village, Chinyang Village, and Aohua Village, as
illustrated in Map 1. It is used in daily life by all generations excluding some younger people.
It is not clear precisely how many speakers this creole has, but the population of the four
villages is about 3,500.4 Excluding those living in areas where Yilan Creole is not used and the
younger generations who have shifted to the dominant language, Mandarin Chinese, speakers of
this creole likely number fewer than 3,000 people.
The language was named Yilan Creole for Yilan, where it is spoken, by Chien and Sanada(2010a). However, the speakers of the language do not use this term to refer to their own formof speech. Each village has a different name for it, for instance, Tang-ow no ke, Tang-ow nohanasi, tifangyuyen in Tungyueh Village; Kinus no hanasi, Poailutehua in Chinyang Village; zibunno hanasi, jihpentuhua in Aohua Village; and Kangke no ke, Kangke no hanasi, Hanhsi Atayal in
Hanhsi Village. The word Nihongo is also commonly used to refer to Yilan Creole in all four
villages.
Given what we know about the development of creoles (Winford 2003, among others), it isreasonable to assume that in the 1910s, during the Japanese colonial period, a contact language(which we can consider a pidgin) was used as a lingua franca between Atayal and Seediq people.
For some of them, it then developed into a native language, and it has been a first language
for Atayal and Seediq people in this area since the 1930s. Nowadays, all generations use Yilan
Creole in their daily life, but in Tungyueh Village, most of those born from the 1980s onward
cannot speak it, while in Aohua Village we found young fluent speakers born in the 1990s.
Although there is variation in the level of endangerment between the four villages, Yilan Creoleis undoubtedly threatened by the dominant language, Mandarin.
3. The case-marking systems in Japanese and Atayal
Japanese is the ‘lexifier language’ for Yilan Creole, and Atayal is the ‘substrate language.’5 Before
going on to the main subject, we will take a brief look at the case-marking systems in Japaneseand Atayal.
3.1 The case-marking system in JapaneseJapanese is basically a verb-final language and has case particles occurring after the noun or noun

4 The population data are from the homepage of the Yilan County Government (http://www.e-land.gov.
tw/ct.asp?xItem=53265&CtNode=888&mp=4, accessed 7/12/15/).
5 The linguistic system of Yilan Creole reflects a heavy influence from Japanese and Atayal, but little influence from Seediq. It may be inferred that the Seediq were fewer than the Atayal in the population. According to Utsushikawa et al. (1935), in 1931, 85.4% of indigenous people living in Yilan County were Atayal,
while 14.3% were Seediq, and some Seediq people had shifted their language to Atayal. Nowadays, almost
all people in this area are registered to the Atayal group instead of the Seediq group. (Utsushikawa et al.
1935 was a study conducted by the faculty of the Institute of Ethnology, Taihoku Imperial University; it issometimes also cited as Taihoku Imperial University 1935).

4

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)

phrase. The particles are postpositions and function as morphosyntactic devices to designate thecase roles and grammatical functions of noun phrases in sentences, as illustrated in (1a) and (1b).
(1)		Japanese		
a.		
neko		ga			naku
				cat			 nom		 cry				‘A cat meows.’/‘A cat will meow.’		b.		
watashi		ga			neko		o			daku
				1sg			 nom		 cat		 acc		 hug				‘I hug a cat.’/‘I will hug a cat.’
In (1a), the agent neko ‘cat’ is marked as the subject with the nominative marker ga, while in (1b),the patient neko ‘cat’ is marked as the object with the accusative marker o.
Japanese has nine case particles: nominative, accusative, dative, instrumental, locative, lative,
ablative, comitative, and genitive. They are shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Case particles in Japanese (data from Shibatani et al. 1982)
Case
Particle

NOM

ACC

DAT

INS

LOC

LAT

ABL

COM

GEN

ga

o

ni

de

de

e

kara

to

no

ni

ni

In daily Japanese conversation, ga, o, and e are sometimes omitted (Takahashi 2005). In somefunctions, ni can be omitted in spoken Japanese. For example, when ni marks the goal role or
stative locative role, it can be omitted in spoken Japanese (Maeda 1998).
3.2 The case-marking system in Atayal
Atayal is basically a verb-initial language. The case relationship in Atayal is indicated by prenominal markers. Examples appear in (2a) and (2b).
(2)		Atayal (Squliq dialect used in Wulai)
		a.		m-iru’ -saku’			 na’ enpit qani				af-write-1sg. bn ins pen		 this				‘I write with this pen.’
		b.		
musa’ -ku’		m-tzyaw		sa’			ulay
				asp-1sg.bn af-work		 loc		 Wulai				‘I will work in Wulai.’

(Huang 1995: 274)
(Huang 1995: 274)

As (2a) shows, the instrument enpit qani ‘this pen’ is marked with the instrumental case marker
na’. And in (2b), the marker sa’ precedes the noun ulay ‘Wulai’, indicating its locative role.
Atayal has two major dialects, Squliq and C’uli’. The substrate language of Yilan Creole
includes both dialects. For reference, their case markers are shown in Tables 2 and 3. As can beseen in the tables, the Atayal Squliq dialect makes a distinction between common nouns andproper nouns (Table 2), while the Atayal C’uli’ dialect does not make such a distinction (Table3). However, as Huang (1995, 2008) have pointed out, these case markers are seldom used indaily conversation, especially in the younger generations’ speech. Meanwhile, Seediq has only

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)

Table 2
Noun

5

Case markers in Atayal Squliq dialect (Huang 2006, 2008)
Case

ProperCommon

NOM

ACC

DAT

LOC

GEN

BEN

INS

COM

’i’

—

—

ki’

ni’

ni’

—

ki’

qu’

—

—

i’

sa’
te

na’

nqu’

nqu’

na’

—

squ’
Table 3
Case

Case markers in Atayal C’uli’ dialect (Huang 2008)
NOM

ACC

DAT

LOC

GEN

BEN

INS

COM

ku’

—

—

sku’

na’

—

—

—

the nominative case marker ka and the genitive case marker na, and does not make a distinction
between common nouns and proper nouns (Chang 2000).
4. Data
The data employed for this paper were collected in Tungyueh Village on several short visits
between June 2012 and October 2013, and during a supplementary investigation in July 2015.
The informants were eight native speakers of Yilan Creole born between 1943 and 1974.6 All
were born and brought up in Tungyueh Village. Their first language is Yilan Creole, and they arebilingual speakers of Yilan Creole and Mandarin.
The data come from fieldwork conducted by a team from Dong Hwa University, Taiwan,
consisting of myself and two of my students, and Professor Shinji Sanada of Nara University,
Japan. The student team members are Habaw Watan and Yabung Wilang, who are native speakers of Yilan Creole. The data our team has been collecting consist of two types: elicitations frominformants and recordings of naturally occurring conversations. The questionnaire used for the
elicitations in this study consisted of sentences in Mandarin, which the informants were asked
to translate. The sentences are based on sentences in Suzuki’s (1978) and Takahashi’s (2005)
Japanese grammars.
Yilan Creole does not possess its own literary tradition. Its speakers can speak it but cannot
write it. In this paper, Yilan Creole as well as Atayal examples are presented in the Atayal writing
system promulgated by the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan on December 15, 2005, andJapanese examples are presented in the Hepburn system. Glottal stop is marked by an apostrophe. For instance, /laʔi/ is written la’i.
5. Word order for case marking
The basic word order in Yilan Creole is SOV (Subject-Object-Verb), as shown in (3a–b).

6 The eight informants include a female born in 1943, a female born in 1947, a male born in 1951, a female
born in 1955, a male born in 1964, a female born in 1966, a female born in 1968, and a female born in 1974.
We also interviewed other speakers, both older and younger. The data in example (4) come from one ofthese other interviewees.

6

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)(3)		Yilan Creole		a.		wasi		 uwow		 nomu
				1sg		liquor		drink				‘I will drink liquor.’		b.		
ina							yasay			kiru
				daughter-in-law vegetable		 cut				‘The daughter-in-law will cut vegetables.’As can be seen in (3a–b), both the subjects (i.e., wasi ‘I’ and ina ‘daughter-in-law’) and theobjects (i.e., uwow ‘liquor’ and yasay ‘vegetable’) precede the verbs. This SOV word order is considered to come from the word order of the lexifier language, Japanese (see Section 3.1).
The three basic sentence types—declaratives, yes/no interrogatives, imperatives—all have
SOV ordering. In Yilan Creole, interrogatives tend to have no particle, but in some contexts, they
allow the sentence-final particle ga. In either case, interrogatives employ rising intonation. The
particle ga is considered to be derived from the substrate language, Atayal.
We have also observed some SVO word order sentences in Yilan Creole, especially inyounger generations’ speech, as in (4).
(4)		Yilan Creole		wasi no mama		 tapuy-toru gohang		 1sg		 gen mother		 cook-asp rice/meal		‘My mother is cooking rice/a meal now.’
The speaker who gave example (4) is a female born in 1984. She is a Mandarin-dominant bilingual. The use of SVO can be considered a result of her internal bilingual ability in Yilan Creoleand Mandarin. In contrast, the other, older informants indicated that the use of SVO word order,
as in (4), is not correct or not natural. In any case, SOV is the dominant pattern in Yilan Creole.
The agent and patient arguments of a typical transitive sentence in Yilan Creole are distinguished by word order, as in (5a–d).
(5)		Yilan Creole		
a.		
Hayong		gohang			tapuy-suru				Hayong		rice/meal		cook				‘Hayong will cook rice/a meal.’
		b.		are		 biyak yasina-ta
				3sg pig		 breed-past				‘She/He bred a pig.’		c.		wasi		 hong		 yomu
				1sg		book		read				‘I will read the book.’
		d.		hoying7		mizyu		nomu
				dog			water		drink				‘The dog will drink water.’

7 Hoying ‘dog’ has a variant, hoyung.

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)7

As (5a–d) show, Yilan Creole marks neither agent noun phrases nor patient noun phrases. The
noun phrase that appears in the initial position of the sentence is the subject/agent, and the following noun phrase is the object/patient. When we tested sentences such as Hayong ga gohang
o tapuysuru, which is the sentence in (5a) with Japanese subject and object markers added, theinformants responded that they were not grammatical.
As discussed in Section 3.1, the lexifier, Japanese, has an overt nominative case particle ga formarking subject/agent and an overt accusative case particle o for marking object/patient nounphrases. However, both nominative and accusative case markers are often omitted in conversationin Japanese (Maeda 1998, Takahashi 2005). Yilan Creole’s absence of overt subject and object
markers may reflect the influence of colloquial Japanese. However, the situation in Yilan Creole,
where speakers never use a subject or object marker, is very different from that in Japanese, where
speakers can choose to use the subject marker ga and the object marker o (for example, in a formal situation, case markers do tend to be used in Japanese).
In fact, most creoles use word order instead of marking the subject and object noun phrases
overtly. For example, Berbice Dutch, a Dutch-lexicon creole in Guyana, “does not employ morphological case marking of subjects and objects or agreement marking on the verb form: word
order carries the full functional load of the differentiation of arguments” (Kouwenberg 1994: 234).
6. Postpositions for case marking
As Section 5 shows, it is Yilan Creole’s word order that marks the agent and patient argumentsof typical transitive sentences as subject and object. In contrast, other case relationships in Yilan
Creole are manifested by case particles following nouns. In other words, in addition to word
order, Yilan Creole also uses postpositions to mark some cases.
Using postpositions as case markers is also done in Japanese, but not in Atayal, where markers precede nouns. Moreover, as in Japanese, case markers in Yilan Creole can follow either
proper nouns or common nouns. There are five case particles in Yilan Creole: ni, de, to, no, andkara. These particles are derived from the lexifier language, Japanese (see Table 1). The following
subsections discuss Yilan Creole’s case particles in detail.
6.1 Case particle ni
The dative case particle ni in Yilan Creole has various functions. It marks a recipient participant
and a theme participant. It is also used to mark a theme participant for some stative predicates.
In addition, it marks a theme participant in a causative sentence. It also marks a patient participant in a passive-like sentence. It is used to mark a locative role and a goal role. Finally, the dative
case particle can be used as a temporal marker.
6.1.1 Marking the recipient role
One of the most common uses of the dative particle ni is to mark the recipient role of a named
participant, as shown in (6a–c).
(6)		Yilan Creole		
a.		
wasi		la’i		ni			pila			ageru
				1sg		 child dat		money		give				‘I will give money to my child.’

8

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)		
b.		
are			ngasang titi							ni			ageranay				3sg		house		younger. brother		dat		 give-neg				‘She/He does not give her/his younger brother the house.’		
c.		
kono		mono		wasi		are		ni			pulasangsuru
				det		 thing		 1sg		 3sg		 dat		 send				‘I will send her/him the thing.’
In (6a–c), ni is added to the nouns la’i ‘child’, titi ‘younger brother’, and are ‘her/him’, designating
the recipient participants. Note that the nouns must be animate nouns. The use of ni seems to be
obligatory in this context.8
6.1.2 Marking the theme role of action verbs
Another common use of the dative particle ni is to mark the theme role of an action verb, asshown in (7a–c).
(7)		Yilan Creole		a.		wasi nta ni		 yu-ta
				1sg 2sg dat tell-past				‘I told you.’		b.		wasi are ni		 sinyo-suru				1sg 3sg dat trust				‘I will trust her/him.’		
c.		
wasi sony		songcyo				ni		mi-ta
				1sg just		 village.headman dat see-past				‘I just saw the village headman.’
In (7a–c), ni is added to the nouns nta ‘you’, are ‘her/him’, and songcyo ‘village headman’, designating the theme participants. Note that, as in (7a–c), the nouns preceding ni must be animate
nouns; in particular, ni is used with nouns referring to persons. The use of ni seems to be obligatory in these contexts. Other action verbs like tanomu ‘ask for’ and saynaysuru ‘spoil’ also use ni
to mark the theme role. On a side note, the verb in (7c), mita ‘saw’, is a Japanese-derived word,
which expanded its meaning in Yilan Creole, where it also can mean ‘met’, at least for younger
informants. In Japanese, the noun preceding this verb takes the accusative marker o. (7c) showsthat even Japanese-derived action verbs use ni to mark the preceding noun in Yilan Creole.
6.1.3 Marking the theme role of stative predicates
The case particle ni can also mark direct objects of stative predicates like suki ‘like,’ sukanay ‘dislike’, and sehun ‘hate’ as a theme participant, as illustrated in (8).
(8)		Yilan Creole		wasi are ni			suki
		 1sg		 3sg dat		 like		‘I like her/him.’

In Japanese, (8) would be as in (9).

8 Because the case marker ni is obligatory, the word order in sentences in which it occurs becomes free. For
example, (6a) could alternatively be expressed as wasi pila ageru la’i ni. This is also the case in spoken Japanese.

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)9(9)		Japanese		
watashi wa kare		ga			suki-da		 1sg			 top 3sg		 nom		 like-cop		‘I like him.’
The predicate suki ‘like’ is a nominal adjective of emotion. In Japanese, it requires the nounphrase indicating its object to be marked by ga as an argument. As Shibatani et al. (1982) point
out, Japanese structures like (9) are very rare cross-linguistically.
Comparing (8) and (9), we find that Japanese uses the nominative case particle ga to markthe theme kare ‘him,’ while Yilan Creole uses the dative case particle ni to mark the theme
are ‘her/him.’ For speakers of Yilan Creole, wasi are ga suki is ungrammatical. This is expected
because Yilan Creole has no nominative case particle ga; the dative case particle ni expands its
function to include that of ga as used in Japanese.
In Yilan Creole, it seems that the nouns that precede ni must be animate nouns. When person nouns precede ni, the use of ni is obligatory. When the noun preceding ni is not a person
noun but an animate noun, as in (10a), some informants use ni while other informants do notallow ni in this context. For example, the informant born in 1947 told us that ni can be used only
when the noun is a person noun (including pronouns). In (10b), the noun preceding ni is inanimate, and ni is not allowed.
(10)		Yilan Creole		
a.		
wasi kono hoying		ni/ø				suki
				1sg dem		 dog			dat/null like				‘I like this dog.’		b.		
wasi kono kabang		*ni/ø				suki
				1sg dem		bag			*dat/null like				‘I like this bag.’
6.1.4 Marking the theme role in a causative sentence
The case particle ni may also mark the theme role in causative sentences, as illustrated in (11a–c).
(11)		Yilan Creole		
a.		
wasi la’i		ni			gohang			takarasyeta
				1sg child dat		 rice/meal		 cook-caus-past				‘I made my child cook rice/a meal.’		b.		
mama		Yukan		ni			tayhoku ikarasyeru
				mother		 Yukan		 dat		 Taipei		 go-caus				‘Mother makes Yukan go to Taipei.’		c.		
wasi		are		ni			naku-ra-sang
				1sg		 3sg		 dat		 cry-caus-neg
				‘I will not make her/him cry.’In these examples, the case particle ni follows the nouns la’i ‘child,’ Yukan (personal name), andare ‘her/him,’ denoting the theme role of the named participant. The usage of the case particle
ni in (11a) is the same as in Japanese. However, in an intransitive sentence equivalent to (11b),
Japanese could use either the accusative case particle o or the dative case particle ni to mark the

10

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)

causee,9 while in Yilan Creole the causee can only be indicated by ni.
Furthermore, as (11c) shows, an undergoer of an uncontrollable event (e.g., naku ‘cry,’ warau‘laugh’) is also marked by ni in Yilan Creole. In Japanese, it can be marked only by o, because
ni indicates higher volition. As Iwasaki (2002: 145) points out, in Japanese o is the unmarked
particle to mark the causee noun phrase in an intransitive-based causative, but when the causee’s
volition and/or ability to respond to the causer’s intention becomes an issue, the higher degree ofcausee volition/ability may be indicated by the choice of ni.
It seems that in Yilan Creole, ni is used to indicate the theme in an accusative sentence,
whatever the degree of the causee’s volition or ability. Yilan Creole uses ni to mark the causee
in either transitive-based causatives or intransitive-based causatives. Note that, again, the nouns
preceding ni must be animate nouns, and the use of ni is obligatory.
6.1.5 Marking the patient role in a passive-like sentence
The marker ni following a noun (phrase) can also designate the noun in the patient role as theobject in a passive-like sentence.
(12)		Yilan Creole		
a.		
hoying		wasi		ni			kan-da				dog			1sg		dat		 bite-past				‘A dog bit me.’ = ‘I was bitten by a dog.’		b.		
are		no		papa			are ni			pelung-ta
				3sg gen		father		3sg dat		 beat-past				‘Her/His father beat her/him.’ = ‘She/He was beaten by her/his father.’
The two examples in (12) are transitive sentences. The patients wasi ‘1sg’ and are ‘3sg’ in (12a) and(12b) are marked as objects by the dative case marker ni. In Japanese, they would be marked by
the accusative case marker o.
In fact, as the English translations show, (12a) and (12b) can be interpreted as either activeor passive. Authentic passive constructions do not exist in Yilan Creole. Speakers use active constructions instead, but the active construction in Yilan Creole is different from that in Japanese.
In the following Japanese examples, (13a) is active and (13b) is passive.
(13)		Japanese		
a.		
inu ga			watashi o			kan-da
				dog nom		 1sg			 acc		 bite-past				‘The dog bit me.’		b.		
watashi		ga			inu		ni			kam-are-ta
				1sg			 nom		 dog		 dat		 bite-pass-past				‘I was bitten by the dog.’
In (13b), a Japanese passive sentence, the patient watashi ‘1sg’ is marked as the subject by ga, andthe agent inu ‘dog’ is marked by a ni phrase. The suffix -are- attached to the verb converts theactive voice to the passive voice.

9 In Japanese, mama wa Hanako o Tayhoku ni ikaseru is interpretable as either a permissive or a coercive
causative, while mama wa Hanako ni Tayhoku ni ikaseru can only be interpreted as a permissive causative.
That is, ni highlights higher volition on the part of the causee (Iwasaki 2002: 145).

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)11

Unlike Japanese, Yilan Creole does not employ this kind of passive sentence structure. Again,
passive in Yilan Creole is expressed by active sentences, as shown in (12a–b). And as in the otheruses of ni discussed thus far, the preceding noun must be animate, and ni cannot be omitted.
6.1.6 Marking the locative role
In Yilan Creole, ni may indicate a locative role, including stative location and active location.
Co-occurring with the stative verbs oru ‘be’ and aru ‘exist,’ ni can express the stative locativerole, as in (14a–b).
(14)		Yilan Creole		
a.		
wasi		Tangow		ni/ø				oru				1sg		 Tangow		 dat/null be				‘I am in Tungyueh village now.’/‘I live in Tungyueh village.’		
b.		
soto		ni/ø				hoying			aru				outside dat/null dog				exist				‘There is a dog outside.’
In (14a–b), Tangow (place name) and soto ‘outside’ take the dative case particle ni, indicating thatthey are stative locations. In this context, ni tends to be omitted and zero-marking is used.
In addition, ni marks the location of an action. For example, in (15a–b), ni marks the locationof the activities of asondoru ‘playing’ and cukutoru ‘making.’(15)		Yilan Creole		
a.		
are		gako		ni/ø				ason-doru
				3sg school dat/null play-asp
				‘She/He is playing in school.’		b.		
okasang		lapo		ni/ø				lukus		cuku-toru
				mother		 room dat/null clothes		 make-asp				‘Mother is making clothes in the room.’
The place nouns, gako ‘school’ and lapo ‘room,’ are marked by ni as the locations where the actionof the verb takes place10. In Japanese, this kind of active location is marked by the locative caseparticle de, not by ni.
In other words, in Japanese, stative location is marked by ni and active location is marked byde, but this distinction seems to have disappeared in Yilan Creole, where ni is used as the locative
case particle whether the verb is stative or active.
The locative case particle ni in Yilan Creole tends to be omitted.
6.1.7 Marking the goal role
Yilan Creole ni is also used for the lative case, indicating the goal of a verb of motion, as in theexamples in (16a–b).
(16)		Yilan Creole		
a.		
wasi yama			ni/ø				i-ta
				1sg mountain		 lat/null		 go-past				‘I went to the mountain.’

10 While some informants indicated that de is allowed in some contexts, they do not use it often.

12

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)		
b.		
are		Tayhoku ni/ø				kuru
				3sg Taipei		 lat/null come				‘She/He will come to Taipei.’
Attached to the place nouns yama ‘mountain’ and Tayhoku (place name), and co-occurring withverbs of motion, ni indicates the goal role of the nouns. In this context, it alternates with zeromarking, and speakers tend to use zero-marking. For example, for ‘go to the mountain,’ speakers
prefer yama iku over yama ni iku.
In Japanese, e can be used alternately with ni to mark a lative case. But in Yilan Creole, e does
not exist. In other words, Japanese has two variants, e and ni, for lative case marking, while in Yilan
Creole, which has only one form for lative case marking, a reduction of variation has occurred.
6.1.8 Marking the temporal role
Yilan Creole ni is also used as a time marker, as in the example in (17). However, it is often omitted in this context.
(17)		Yilan Creole		wasi nanazi		ni/ø				okiru
		 1sg		 7 o’clock lat/null get up		‘I will get up at 7 o’clock.’
6.1.9 Summary: the multi-functional case particle ni
Table 4 summarizes the multiple functions of the case particle ni in Yilan Creole. It is not onlyused as a dative case marker, but also as a locative case marker and a lative case marker. It is alsointeresting to note that, as mentioned above, in Japanese, the use of ni or o depends on the degreeof causee volition/ability, the use of ni or de depends on whether the verb is stative or active, andthe use of ni or e depends on whether the meaning is concerned with the direction of the goal ornot. These distinctions disappear in Yilan Creole, where ni substitutes for the other forms: ni has
extended its functions compared to Japanese.
Table 4 Case particle ni in Yilan Creole
Function

Obligatory/Optional Noun precedes ni

The case particle
used in JapaneseMarking the recipient role

obligatory

animateni

Marking the theme role of action verbs

obligatory

animateni, oMarking the theme role for suki ‘like,’sukanay ‘dislike,’ etc.

obligatory

animatega

Marking the theme role in a causative
sentence

obligatory

animateni, oMarking the patient role in a passivelike sentence

obligatory

animatega

Marking the locative role

optional

inanimateni, deMarking the goal role

optional

inanimateni, eMarking the temporal role

optional

inanimateniCHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)13

6.2 Case particle deThe basic function of the case particle de in Japanese is to mark the location and instrument participants of an event. Meanwhile, in Yilan Creole, a location participant may be marked by ni as
described above, and the basic function of the case marker de is to mark the instrument participant only. Example is given in (18).11(18)		Yilan Creole		are		 hocyo de			niku		kiru
		 3sg		 knife ins		 meat		 cut		‘She/He will cut meat with a knife.’
The case particle de in (18) marks a typical instrument, hocyo ‘knife’. And in (19) it marks amaterial, take ‘bamboo’. De is obligatory. Omitting de would make the meaning of the sentences
obscure.
(19)		Yilan Creole		wasi take			de		tatak		cukuru
		 1sg		 bamboo ins hut		 make		‘I will make a hut out of bamboo.’
However, de in Japanese may indicate a cause, among other functions; for example, kare wa
kaze de neteiru ‘He is in bed with a cold’. In Yilan Creole de does not have this kind of derivative
function. De in Yilan Creole has fewer functions than de in Japanese.12
6.3 Case particle to
Yilan Creole has a comitative case marker to, which follows a noun (phrase) to indicate a cooccurring participant. To can follow either the companion or the agent, as (20) shows.
(20)		Yilan Creole		
a.		
wasi titi						to			asondoru
				1sg younger.brother com		 play-asp
				‘I am playing with my younger brother.’		b.		
wasi to			titi						asondoru
				1sg com		 younger.brother play-asp
				‘I am playing with my younger brother.’
The word order in sentence (20a) is similar to Japanese word order in that the comitative
case marker follows the companion; in contrast, the word order in sentence (20b) is similar to
Chinese word order in that the comitative case marker follows the agent. Apparently, these constructions result from the influence of both Japanese and Chinese. There is no significant difference in meaning between (20a) and (20b), and to cannot be omitted.
However, to in Japanese may indicate a comparative participant; for example, kare to onazi‘similar to him.’ Like Japanese, Yilan Creole also uses to for this function; for example, are to
onazi ‘similar to her/him.’ However, this to is not obligatory and speakers tend to omit it, as in areonazi ‘similar to her/him.’

11 De has a variant, re.
12 Instead of a postposition, Yilan Creole uses a structural noun tame to indicate a cause.

14

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)

6.4 Case particle no
Yilan Creole has a genitive case marker no that indicates the possessive relationship, with thepossessee following the possessor.
(21)		Yilan Creole		a.		yumin		 no		 hayya
				Yumin		 gen		 car				‘Yumin’s car’		b.		hoying		 no		 ngungu				dog			 gen		 tail				‘a/the dog’s tail’As (21a) and (21b) show, both proper nouns and common nouns can be followed by no. No cannot be omitted.
However, no in Japanese can be used as an appositive genitive case particle; for example,
onīsan no Tarō ‘the elder brother, Tarō,’ whereas no in Yilan Creole does not have this derivative
function. No in Yilan Creole has fewer functions than no in Japanese.
6.5 Case particle kara
Yilan Creole has an ablative case marker kara, which is used to indicate the starting point of anaction, as illustrated in (22).
(22)		Yilan Creole		a.		maki		 kara		 mikang to-ta
				tree		 abl		 orange		 get-past				‘(Someone) took an orange from the tree.’		
b.		
wasi		nanazi			kara		neru
				1sg		 7 o’clock		 abl		 sleep				‘I will sleep from 7 o’clock.’
In (22a) and (22b), kara follows nouns of place and time, respectively, to indicate spatial and temporal starting points. Kara cannot be omitted; without it, the meaning of sentences such as (22a)and (22b) would be obscure.
However, kara in Japanese may indicate a cause, among other functions, whereas kara in
Yilan Creole does not have this derivative function. Kara in Yilan Creole has fewer functions
than kara in Japanese.
7. Conclusion
This paper has described the case-marking system of Yilan Creole, based on data collected in
Tungyueh Village. Yilan Creole’s case marking postpositions are derived from Japanese. However,unlike Japanese, which uses only postpositions for case marking, Yilan Creole uses both word
order and postpositions for case marking. Basically, the subject and direct object are indicated byword order, while the indirect object and other arguments are marked by postpositions.
Compared to Japanese, which has nine postpositions, Yilan Creole has a smaller inventory of
only five. The postpositional case particles of Yilan Creole are shown in Table 5.

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)15

Table 5 Postpositions in Yilan Creole
Particle

ni

de

to

no

kara

Case

DAT

INS

COM

GEN

ABL

LOC
LAT

As Table 5 shows, de is the instrumental case marker, to the comitative case marker, no thegenitive case marker, and kara the ablative case marker. These case markers tend to show a oneform–one function correspondence. In other words, the language change that has taken place issimplification.
Furthermore, it is particularly noteworthy that Yilan Creole ni is multifunctional, and has
extended its functions to cover those that are expressed by ga, o, de in Japanese.
To sum up, simplification and extension have occurred in the development of the Yilan
Creole case system from the Japanese case system.
List of abbreviations
1sg = first person singular; 2sg = second person singular; 3sg = third person singular; abl =ablative case; acc = accusative case; af = agent focus; asp = aspect; ben = benefactive case; bn =bound nominative pronoun; caus = causative; com = comitative case; cop = copular; dat = dative
case; dem = demonstrative pronoun; gen = genitive case; ins = instrumental case; lat = lative
case; loc = locative case; neg = negative; nom = nominative case; pass = passive morpheme; past
= past tense; top = topic marker; ø = null.
References

Abe, Seiya, Shigeru Tsuchida, and Sumino Niida (2008) Atayarugo no kankei hōgen ni haitta nihongo: Taiwan genzyūmin gengo nōryoku shiken mondai ni okeru [Hanxi dialect: A Japanese-based creole in the
Formosan Austronesian language ‘Atayal’]. Tōyōbunka kenkyū [ Journal of Asian Cultures] 10: 29–63.
Bickerton, Derek (1981) Roots of language. Ann Arbor, MI: Karoma.
Chang, Yongli (2000) Saitekeyu tsankaoyufa [Seediq reference grammar]. Taipei: Yuanliou.
Chien, Yuehchen (2006a) Taiwan kōnensō no nihongo ni mirareru ichininshōdaimeishi [The remnants ofJapanese in Taiwan: Focusing on first person pronouns]. Nihongo no kenkyū [Studies in the Japanese
Language] 2(2): 61–76.
Chien, Yuehchen (2006b) Taiwan zanson nihongo ni mirareru hiteiji -nai to -n: Karenken o fīrudo ni[Negation -nai and -n in Taiwan Japanese: The case of Hualien prefecture]. Nihongo kagaku [ Japanese
Lingusitics] 20: 5–25.
Chien, Yuehchen (2009) Taiwan nihongo ni mirareru desho no sinyōhō [A new function of desho in theremnants of Japanese in Taiwan]. Shakaigengokagaku [The Japanese Journal of Language in Society]11(2): 28–38.
Chien, Yuehchen (2011) Taiwan ni watatta nihongo no genzai –ringafuranka toshite no sugata– [ Japanese as a
lingua franca in Taiwan]. Tokyo: Meiji shoin.
Chien, Yuehchen (2015) The lexical system of Yilan Creole. In: Elizabeth Zeitoun, Stacy F. Teng, and Joy
Wu (eds.) New advances in Formosan linguistics, 513–532. Canberra, Australia: Asia-Pacific Linguistics.
Chien, Yuehchen and Shinji Sanada (2010a) (Short notes) Yilan Creole in Taiwan. Journal of Pidgin and
Creole Languages 25(2): 350–357.
Chien, Yuehchen and Shinji Sanada (2010b) Dongtaiwan taiyazu te yilan keliaoer [Yilan Creole of the
Atayal people in eastern Taiwan]. Taiwan yuanzhumin yanjiu jikan [Taiwan Journal of Indigenous

16

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)

Studies] 3(3): 75–89.
Chien, Yuehchen and Shinji Sanada (2011) Taiwan no giran kureōru ni okeru hiteiji: -nay to -ng no henyōo megutte [Negation in Taiwan’s Yilan Creole: Focusing on -nay and -ng]. Gengo kenkyu [ Journal of the
Linguistic Society of Japan] 140: 73–87.
Haspelmath, Martin (2013a) Marking of patient noun phrases. In: Maria Susanne Michaelis, Philippe
Maurer, Martin Haspelmath, and Magnus Huber (eds.), 226–229.
Haspelmath, Martin (2013b) Alignment of case marking of full noun phrases. In: Maria Susanne Michaelis, Philippe Maurer, Martin Haspelmath, and Magnus Huber (eds.), 230–231.
Holm, John and Peter Patrick (2002) Comparative creole syntax: Parallel outlines of 18 creole grammars. London: Battlebridge.
Huang, Lillian M. (1995) The syntactic structure of Wulai and Mayrinax Atayal: A comparison. Bulletin of
National Taiwan Normal University 40: 261–294.
Huang, Lillian M. (2006) Case marking system in Plngawan Atayal. In: Yongli Chang, Lillian M. Huang,& Taan He (eds.) Streams converging into an ocean: Festschrift in honor of Professor Paul Jen-kuei Li on his
70th birthday, 205–238. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.
Huang, Lillian M. (2008) Atayal dialects. A report of the research project supported by the National Science
Council (NSC96-2411-H-158-008).
Iwasaki, Shoichi (2002) Japanese. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Kouwenberg, Silvia (1994) Berbice Dutch. In: Jacques Arends, Pieter Muysken and Norval Smith (eds.)
Pidgins and creoles: An introduction, 233–243. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Maeda, Akihiko (1998) Nichijō seikatsu ni okeru joshi no shōryaku [Particles omitted in vernacular conversation]. Nagasakidaigaku ryūgakusei sentā kiyō [ Journal of the International Student Center, Nagasaki
University] 6: 43–70.
Michaelis, Maria Susanne, Philippe Maurer, Martin Haspelmath and Magnus Huber (eds.) (2013) The atlasof pidgin and creole language structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Otani, Yuki and Lillian M. Huang (2009) Japanese impact on Han-xi Creole: A phonological perspective.
Poster presented at the 10th National Conference on Linguistics, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan, Taiwan,
November 27–28.
Sanada, Shinji and Yuehchen Chien (2007) Taiwan Atayaruzoku ni okeru nihongo kureōru [The Japanesecreole of the Atayal people in Taiwan]. In: Society for Japanese Linguistics (ed.) Proceedings of the 2007
Spring Conference of the Society for Japanese Linguistics, 167–174. Osaka: Kansai University.
Sanada, Shinji and Yuehchen Chien (2008a) Taiwan ni okeru nihongo ni tsuite [On a Japanese creole in
Taiwan]. Nihongo no kenkyū [Studies in the Japanese Language] 4(2): 69–76.
Sanada, Shinji and Yuehchen Chien (2008b) Taiwan no nihongo kureōru [A Japanese creole in Taiwan].
Gengo [Language] 37(6): 94–99.
Shibatani, Masayoshi, Tarō Kageyama and Ikuhiro Tamori (1982) Gengo no kōzō [Structure of language].
Tokyo: Kurosio Publishers.
Suzuki, Shigeyuki (1978) Nihongo bunpō·keitairon [Japanese grammar and morphology]. Tokyo: Mugishobō.
Takahashi, Tarō (2005) Nihongo no bunpō [ Japanese grammar]. Tokyo: Hituzisyobo.
Utsushikawa, Nenozō, Nobuto Miyamoto and Tōichi Mabuchi (1935) Taiwan takasagozoku keitō shozoku
no kenkyū [The Formosan native tribes: A genealogical and classificatory study]. Institute of Ethnology,
Taihoku Imperial University. Tokyo: Tōkōshoin.
Verhaar, John W. M. (1995) Toward a reference grammar of Tok Pisin: An experiment in corpus linguistics.
Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Winford, Donald (2003) An introduction to contact linguistics. MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Winford, Donald (2008) Atlantic creole syntax. In: Silvia Kouwenberg and John Victor Singler (eds.) The
handbook of pidgin and creole studies, 19–47. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

CHIEN Yuehchen / NINJAL Research Papers 10: 1–17 (2016)

宜蘭クレオールの格表示
簡

月真

台湾国立東華大学／国立国語研究所 共同研究員［–2013.09］
要旨
宜蘭クレオールは台湾で話されている日本語を語彙供給言語とするクレオール語である。台湾
東部の宜蘭県においてアタヤル人及びセデック人の第一言語として使われているが，若い世代では華語へシフトしつつあり，消滅の危機に瀕している。本稿は，この言語の格表示に焦点をあて，その特徴を記述するものである。宜蘭クレオールでは，語順及び後置詞を格表示として用いている。具体的には，主語と直接目的語は語順，間接目的語とその他の項は 5 つの格助詞「ni, de, to,no, kara」によってマークされている。これらの格標識は上層言語である日本語由来のものであるが，そこには異なった用法が存在し，単純化への変化が認められる。また，ni の意味用法の拡張なども見られ，独自な格表示のシステムが作り上げられている。
キーワード：台湾，宜蘭クレオール，日本語，アタヤル語，格表示

17