The paradigm of -haru

Abstract: The focus of this paper is the paradigm of the Kyoto realization of the dialectal honorific suffix -haru found in the dialects spoken in the Kansai area of western Japan. A number of hypothetical forms are examined and tested against the intuitions of a native Japanese speaker familiar with the dialects of the Kansai area, including the Kyoto dialect, and the morphological possibilities and constraints of the suffix are then elaborated upon through further examination of the tested forms deemed to be nonexistent. The aim of the present thesis is two-pronged as the author not only wishes to provide a comprehensive overview of the set of inflectional forms that make up the paradigm of the honorific suffix -haru but also dig deeper into the properties of the suffix and elucidate the causes of the ungrammaticality of some of the tested hypothetical forms.