International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, Vol. 5, No.

2, June 2019

Transitivity Parameters and the Transitivity Preference in

Myanmar Language Compared to Japanese and English
Ei Ei Soe Min and Yoshiko Matsumura


can reveal various grammatical properties of these
Abstract—This study is the comparative analysis of languages. Furthermore, the parameters such as aspect,
Transitivity based on some of the Transitivity parameters mood and agency allow the researcher to consider both
proposed by Hopper and Thompson. The comparison is made syntactic and semantic considerations while doing data
amongst the three languages; English, Japanese and Myanmar analysis. We chose these three parameters in this study
language. The ten Transitivity parameters consist of various
grammatical facets that are related not only to verbs but also because the data are analysed on the exact same narrative
to the participants (e.g., agent and patient.) The narrative events of the three versions of the novel. On account of that
events are analysed on the three versions of the novel Kitchen some of the parameters, for instance, Affirmation is not
by Yoshimoto Banana. The English version and the Myanmar showing the relative amount of the differences. In other
version are translated from the original Japanese one. The words, all the affirmative events in the Japanese version are
study is approached by applying some of the distinctive translated into affirmative in English and Myanmar versions
parameters out of the ten Transitivity parameters model. The
study aims to investigate the differences and similarities of the as well. Moreover, the Volitionality, i.e., whether the action
Transitivity features that the three languages possess. Amongst or activity is purposefully done or not, also reveals the same
the ten Transitivity parameters, parameters such as aspect, result in the translated events. Therefore, this paper reveals
mood, and agency show the different Transitivity preferences the three most distinctive parameters that show the different
in the three languages. The findings show that English prefers preferences of Transitivity in the three languages. The
to encode the narrative events highly transitive than its translations of the events are closely stick to the original
counterparts. The Japanese and the Myanmar language prefer
lower Transitivity in encoding the events than the English. Japanese work especially in the Myanmar version. The
English version has, no doubt, the structural differences in
Index Terms—Agency, aspect, mood, ten parameters model. the sentences whereas the same word order allows the
Myanmar language to translate very closely to the Japanese
original. Therefore, this paper firstly shows the literature
I. INTRODUCTION that inspired to do this comparative study amongst the three
Transitivity is traditionally understood as who does what languages. Secondly this paper shows how the data are
to whom? In Transitivity system, verbs are classified into selected and how they are analysed. Thirdly, the results will
transitive and intransitive in general. Transitive verbs take a be discussed with examples and finally the summing up of
direct object whereas intransitive verbs do not. There are the paper is described.
verbs called ditransitive which can be transitive as well as
intransitive verbs. In addition, verb is a main category in
encoding every event both in written style and verbal forms. II. BACKGROUND
Different languages have different Transitivity preferences Transitivity has long been studied from the different
for encoding the events. Language like English is highly approaches. Hopper & Thompson defines Transitivity as an
transitive in nature than Myanmar and Japanese. Although activity which is carried over or transferred from an agent to
the three languages are derived from the different language a patient [1, p. 251]. Their Transitivity hypothesis consists
families, the Myanmar and the Japanese are the verb final of ten parameters such as , Participants (two or more, agent
languages, i.e., SOV (subject, object, verb) in contrast with & object), Kinesis (whether the verb is action or non-action
the English word order SVO (subject, verb, object). v. one), Aspect (telic/completed v. atelic/ on-going action),
Previous studies on the Transitivity of English and Punctuality (the transitional phase of the verb is punctual v.
Japanese show that there are relatively big differences in non-punctual), Volitionality (volitional v. non-volitional),
encoding the narrative events. Although there are some Affirmation (affirmative v. negative), Mode/mood (realis
similarities between English and Japanese, Japanese has action corresponding to the real event v. the irrealis action
lower Transitivity than English. Since the Myanmar in a non-real world), Agency (agent high in potency, e.g.,
language is grammatically close to the Japanese, I am animate noun v. agent low in potency, e.g., inanimate noun),
interested to compare the Sino-Tibetan language family Affectedness of O/object (object totally affected v. object
derived Myanmar language to Indo-European language, not affected), and Individuation of O/object (object highly
English and Japonic, Japanese. The study of Transitivity individuated, i.e., the object is proper, human, concrete
noun etc., v. object non-individuated, i.e., the object is
common, inanimate, abstract noun etc.) [1, p. 252]. The
Manuscript received February 2, 2019; revised April 25, 2019.
Ei Ei Soe Min is with the Department of English in the Meiktila former categories of the parameters in the parentheses are
University of Economics, Meiktila, Myanmar (e-mail: related to the high Transitivity and the latter categories are
eisoemin@gmail.com).

doi: 10.18178/ijlll.2019.5.2.210 97
 International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 2019

related to the low Transitivity. These parameters can be each other. Therefore, when the data are analysed, the focus
applied to investigate whether high or low Transitivity a is on the tenses of the narrative events as well. Because the
language might have. different tenses of the three languages affect the different
Apart from the ten Transitivity model, SFL (systemic mood.
functional linguistics) approach proposed by Michael Another parameter that shows the differences is the
Halliday [2] is another well-known approach to the study of agency. Hopper & Thompson assigned the scoring system
Transitivity. He suggests persons and things are named by for the agency analysis. In this paper, the scoring system of
nouns, qualities by adjectives and processes by verbs [2, p. Hopper & Thompson (1980) is modified in order to meet
38]. In the study of Transitivity, the process types are the necessity of the three different sentence constructions.
divided into material, behavioural, mental, verbal, relational, The methods used in this study will be described in the next
and existential process types [2, p. 171]. This process type section.
approach is more closely related to the sociolinguistics
studies.
The aim of the study is to compare and find out the III. RESEARCH METHODS
Transitivity preferences of the three languages regardless of This study is based on the parameters such as aspect,
the social semiotic concern. The Transitivity parameters mood, and agency from the ten Transitivity parameters
(aspect, mood and agency) in this paper allow the researcher model. The material used for data analysis is the novel
to consider both syntactically and semantically while „Kitchen‟ by Yoshimoto Banana in three different versions.
analysing data. In addition, the parameters can be applied to The original Japanese version is translated into English by
investigate how different languages encode the same events. Megan Backus and translated to Myanmar by Ye Mya Lwin.
Although there are ten Transitivity parameters, this paper Some of the sentences and clauses that show the main
only reveals the most distinctive parameters that show the events of the novel are selected and analysed. The sentences
differences and similarities in the Transitivity of the are analysed manually in order to be compared with their
Myanmar language compared to Japanese and English. counterparts.
Aspect, Tense and, Modality play the vital role in the The summary of the novel is that Mikage was brought up
discussion of the Transitivity. Hopper states that the by her grandmother after her parents passed away in an
categories of Tense, Aspect, and modality are pervasive, accident. After her grandmother‟s death, her lonely life
universal as he claims no language lacks all three [3, p.3]. becomes more desolated. Fortunately, she met Tanabe
Regarding to the previous study on the Transitivity Yuichi, a kind young man who used to be her
comparison of Japanese and English, Toshio Ohori also grandmother‟s acquaintance. Then Tanabe who is somehow
uses the ten Transitivity parameters and states that the living an exceptional life with his transgendered mother,
Japanese prefer lower Transitivity, i.e., using intransitive Eriko, suggests that Mikage moves in with them. After
when encoding the events, than the English Transitivity being left alone in her desolate life, and being broken up
system. He analysed the folktales in Japanese and English with by her boyfriend, Mikage moves in with Tanabe and
versions for data analysis [4]. His findings show that there Eriko. Although she falls in love with Tanabe, she decided
are different Aspect and Punctuality, Tense, and Agency to move out and stand on her own feet again after her
between the Transitivity of Japanese and English. staying with the Tanabe family caused Tanabe and his
Aspect is a verbal category which describes whether an girlfriend to break up. When Eriko suddenly passed away,
event or action is on-going or completed. Bernard Comrie Mikage and Tanabea are in the same boat, being alone in
generally defines that aspects are different ways of viewing life. Eventually, that situation brings them together again
the internal temporal constituency of a situation [5, p. 3]. and they become closer than ever [7].
Moreover, in the study of aspect, most researchers in this In the examples the Roman transcription of Myanmar
field are familiar with the following classification of the language are described followed by the morphemic gloss,
inherent meaning of the verbs from the aspectual view literal translation of Myanmar sentence based on the
proposed by Zeno Vendler, which are Activities: running, morphemic gloss, Japanese data in Roman transcription
walking, swimming, pushing, pulling etc., along with morphemic gloss, and finally the free translation
Accomplishments: Painting a picture, making a chair, of the English version. (Japanese original sentences are not
building a house, writing a novel etc., Achievements: translated into literal translation like Myanmar data do.
reaching the summit, winning the race, crossing the border Japanese original data and English free translated version of
etc., States: having, possessing, desiring, loving, hating etc. Megan Backus are directly compared to the literal
[6]. Unlike the parameter as an aspect in the Transitivity translation of Myanmar data). For example:
study, Hopper & Thompson‟s view on aspect (telic v. atelic)
is more general. The aspect itself is a wide range of study in kyama. nanme apyei.asoun ka Sakurai Mikage. pa
the linguistic researches. Therefore, in this study, we simply My name full NOM Sakurai Mikage POL;
look at the aspectual view of the three languages based on be
the telic or atelic situation. The focus is placed on whether kyama. Miba napar:salone ngenge yweywe ne pe
the action or event is on-going or completed. sone
The different grammatical tense is also very distinctive in My parent both young PART
Myanmar language compares to its counterparts. die
Grammatical tense locates the time of an event or an action twar: khae kya te
in languages. Tense, aspect and mood are correlative with PART; certainty PART PL RL; PAST

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 International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 2019

standing)
‘My full name is Sakurai Mikage. Both my parents died Myn. At the door, (I) saw Tanabe Yuichi is standing Atelic
young.’ (Myanmar literal translation may be odd sometimes) firmly.
I put on the borrowed pajamas and, barefoot, went
Eng. Telic
watashi, Sakurai Mikage no ryoushin wa, into the silent living room.
I Sakurai Mikage GEN parents TOP, karita nemagi ni kigaete, shinto shi ta heya ni dete
Jpn. Atelic
so rotte wakaji ni shi te i ru both die young itta. (was going out)
STAT (Japanese original)
After (I) have worn (the) pajamas that (I) have
Myn. Atelic
borrowed a while, go into (the) living room…
My parents–my name is Mikage Sakuria–both died when …. a warm, golden sunlight filled the empty rooms I
Eng. Telic
they were young. (free English translation version). had once called home.
We can see that the translated sentences of Myanmar are
kiniro no amai hisashi ga nani mo nai watashi no
different from English and the Japanese. In this case, Jpn. Atelic
furusato de atta heya o suka shi te itta. (to hold up
English sentence is more closely translated into the original to the light)
Japanese style. As far as the data analysis is concerned,
Golden sunrays of evening are stretching out,
Myanmar data are very closely translated into Japanese Myn. Atelic
falling into (the) native room that I live.
except for some sentences like this. Sometimes, Myanmar
translator divides the one sentence of Japanese into two. In the examples, the events in the English version are
Therefore, the length of the sentence in the three versions is expressed as completed and closer to the end point than the
not exactly the same. However, the sentence length does not same events in the Japanese and Myanmar versions. In the
fairly affect the data analysis. English versions, the main verbs that describe the event
such as „stood, went, and filled‟ are in the simple past tense
and there are no auxiliaries or adverbs that show the
IV. THE DIFFERENT TRANSITIVITY PREFERENCES progressive situation. However, in Japanese, the verb
A. The Aspect Variation in Myanmar Language phrases such as „tatte itta, dete itta, and suka shit te itta‟ and
Compared to Japanese and English in Myanmar, „is standing, go into the living room, are
When analysing, the grammatical devices that indicate stretching out, falling into the native room‟ are all in the
the aspectual view such as V-ing (past/present participle), progressive. Even though some of these progressive events
V-ed (past or past participle) and unmark simple form of in Japanese and Myanmar refer to the time in the past, the
verbs in English are emphasised. The particle V-te iru (the description of the events is continuing rather than completed,
marker that can be used for on-going action or event as well in contrast to the English.
as the resultative states) [8] and V- ta (the past tense There are times the Japanese and English aspectual views
marker), and the plain form of verbs in Japanese are are telic while Myanmar encodes the same events in an
analysed to see the aspectual view. Regarding to the atelic aspect. The following examples illustrate this
Myanmar data, the verb modifier V nay (the marker for to variation.
be V-ing, V for the time being; to stay, remain V-ing), and TABLE II: TELIC ASPECT IN JAPANESE, ENGLISH AND ATELIC ASPECT IN
the particle V pyi that has many functions, as the verb MYANMAR
modifier V pyi= to finish, to complete V-ing, to have V-ed, Language Data Aspect
have already V-ed, as emphasising prior occurrence of V, sofa ni modotte suwaru to, atsui ocha ga de ta. Telic
Jpn.
(came out)
as verb attribute marker V pyi Noun (already V-ed) [9]
show the aspectual view in Myanmar language. Romeo also I went back and sat on the sofa, and out came Telic
Eng.
states, “the verb represents the basic informative unit in hot tea.
Burmese, contained in the nucleus of the clause‟ [10]. when (I) returned to sofa and sat, Yuichi comes Atelic
The analysis is made not only on the syntactic level but Myn.
(and) puts down hot green tea and hosts me.
also from the semantic point of view. The data analysis Jpn.
Watashi ha bikkuri shi te me o mihirai te shi
Telic
shows that English tend to use the telic aspect, which is matta. (opened wide eyes)
viewing the situation as a completed one, more often than I was so stunned, I gaped.
Eng. Telic
Japanese and Myanmar counterparts. The following
examples illustrate the fact where aspect in English version I, also, was very surprised and gazing/looking
Myn. Atelic
with (my) mouth agape.
is telic and Japanese and Myanmar are atelic. The Japanese watashi ha me o mihiraita mama mugon de Telic
sentences are transcribed in Roman transcription and the Jpn.
kare o mitsumete shi matta. (stared at)
italic Japanese verb/verb phrase are accompanied by the
I just stared at him in wide-eyed silence. Telic
English translation. The Myanmar data are described only Eng.
the literal translation to safe the space. I am, also, gazing/looking (at) him with wide Atelic
Myn.
opened eyes.
TABLE I: TELIC ASPECT IN ENGLISH AND ATELIC ASPECT IN JAPANESE Jpn. suru to, dewa ga natta. (rang) Telic
AND MYANMAR
Lang Eng. Just then the telephone rang. Telic
Data Aspect
uage
Eng. There stood Yuichi Tanabe. Telic Myn. At that time, telephone begins to ring. Atelic

Jpn. soko ni ha Tanabe Yuichi ga tatte itta. (was Atelic

In comparison with Japanese and English, aspectual view

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 International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 2019

in Myanmar language tends to be highly atelic. Moreover, conditionals [12].

the given examples describe that atelic aspects are often There are a few differences in the way events are encoded.
used by Myanmar language. In terms of Japanese, it can be In the example 1, English is more directly expresses the
said that Japanese has a more telic aspectual view than situation of the character; Mikage, when she is left alone in
Myanmar. However, when compare to English, Japanese her life after her parents and her grandparents died. As she
aspectual view is slightly more atelic. Thus, it can be is very fond of being in the kitchen, she felt a little nicer
considered that the Myanmar language encodes the being in the kitchen. To express this situation, Japanese and
narrative events in the continuous or progressive manner at Myanmar use the clause „I think’, „omou‟ respectively. That
the time of speaking. Japanese seems to be in the middle, shows that Japanese and Myanmar are likely to avoid using
i.e., neither lower than Myanmar nor higher than English. strongly declarative mood while English is more direct in
Amongst three languages, English encodes the events in the encoding the same event. The sentences are the Myanmar
highest aspectual view. Roman Transcription followed by morphemic gloss and
Myanmar language often encodes the events with the use then literal translation. After that Japanese Roman
of the verb modifier „nay‟ after a verb. Furthermore, in the transcription followed by the morphemic gloss and the free
Myanmar language, this particle can follow stative verbs in English translation at the last respectively.
contrast with English where those kinds of verbs are
normally in simple forms. The following example e: ta yaut hte: ahti:kyan hpyit pyi: kyanyit ta ne. sayin
illustrates this use. tot
alone be lonely and left PPM; compare to
Kyontaw thu ko chit nay tel po kaun: te lo. htin ta pa pe:
I she OBJ love CONT RL more nice NOM PART think that POL; be PART
I am loving her. (literal translation) ‘(I) think that compare to being lonely and left alone,
‘I am falling in love with her.’ Or ‘I still love her.’ (this is) nicer.’ (literal translation of Myanmar data)
jibun shika nai to ommo-te iru yori ha,
oneself only not PART- quoting think –PRES than TOP,
B. The Effect of Different Tenses on the Mood honno sukoshi mashina shisou da to omou
Not every language has the tense system and some just little better idea be that think
languages are considered as tenseless. As for the Myanmar It’s just a little nicer than being all alone.
language, some scholars claim that Burmese or Myanmar
language is a tenseless language. However, according to the Another example shows where Myanmar uses the future
Myanmar Language Commission, there are three tenses; tense „will‟ and also the use of „have to‟ to say that Mikage
past, present and future in Myanmar language [11]. The will go back to her lonely life even though she does not
tense markers for past, present and future tenses in want to. And it encodes the character‟s decision as quite
Myanmar language are the sentence final particles. Tenses determined. This shows the more realis mood than
in Myanmar language can be differentiated from the time Japanese and English. In Japanese the use of potential
reference phrases and sometimes from the contextual „hitorigurashi ni modoreru noka’ and the modals „would‟
meaning. Myanmar language marks the future tense and and „could‟ in English has less degree of reality than their
mood with the same particles. In Myanmar language, the counterpart.
past and present markers „te‟ /te/ is the marker for realis
mood and the future marker „me‟ /me/ is the irrealis mood kyama. ahpou. belou pe: hpyit hpyit
marker. I; FEM for how PART; (emphasis) whatever
When analysing the data, the focus is simply on the past, ta yaut hte: ahti:kyan te. bawa. hte: kou
present and future despite there are present/past participle one COUNT be lonely PART; N form life to OBJ
and present/past continuous forms. For instance, if an event pyanthwa: ya. tot me
is described in past continuous or past perfect and so on, it return have to PART; (emphasis) IRL: FUT
is assumed as being the past tense. The future tenses are ‘For me I will (have to) return to (the) lonely life that (I)
seldom seen in the data analysis. The tenses of the three am alone what so ever.’ (literal translation of Myanmar
selected versions are analysed first. The result shows that data)
Myanmar language has the least use of past tense with only jibun ga dono gurai tsuyoi noka,
in 15 sentences out of 130 sentences (the Japanese and Oneself NOM how much strong PART; questioning
English data are included in 130). Japanese has 37 and imasugu hitorigurashi ni
English has 41 past tense sentences. English uses the most right now living alone LOC
past tenses than its counterparts. Although Japanese and Modo-reru noka, kento mo tsuka na katta.
English are not so different in using past tenses for encoding go back- potential PART, have no idea PAST
the narrative events, Japanese sometimes encodes the events As to how strong I was, or whether I would soon be ready
with the present tense. Myanmar language is the most use of to go back to living alone, I couldn’t venture a guess.
present tense amongst the three. The use of past tenses may
relate to the irrealis encoding, such as some of the
conditional clauses that show unreal situations. However, C. The Agency Scoring and Differences
the data show that most of the Japanese and English data In terms of the parameter, agency, we adopted the agency
which encode the narrative events in past tenses are not scoring system and modified to meet the necessity to

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compare all three languages. The scoring assigned by (ImHS) implied human subject in Japanese examples when
Hopper & Thompson is, from 1 to 4, as in, 3rd pers. Human Myanmar version in this examples is encoded with Human
Pronoun 4 > Proper Name 3 > Human Noun 2> Inanimate proper noun „Yuichi‟. Amongst the three versions, English
Noun 1 [1]. According to the sentence structure in the gets the highest agency role than its counterparts. The
Myanmar and Japanese, the agent or subject is mostly Myanmar language and the Japanese is lower than English
embedded and not necessarily encoded to make sense. In because the human agent/subject and the dummy subjects
contrast with English, English is encoding the events mostly are not described in the narrative like English does.
with the agent or subject in the sentence. As we can look
into the above Myanmar literal translations, some sentences
include the subject in the (brackets) to make the literal V. CONCLUSION
translation meaningful for the readers. In actuality, the In conclusion, this study shows the different transitivity
original Myanmar version does not describe those (subject preferences in the three languages, Myanmar, Japanese and
in the brackets). The modified scoring for the agency is, English. Amongst the three, English prefers the high
Human noun, pronoun, proper name in Transitive Transitivity for aspect and agency. Myanmar language
clauses/sentences 5 > Human noun, pronoun, proper name seems to be prefer lower transitivity in aspect than Japanese.
in Intransitive clauses/sentences 4 > Implied human subject In terms of agency, Japanese is slightly lower than the
(ImHS) 3 > Inanimate noun/pronoun and dummy subjects Myanmar language. Therefore, when encoding the narrative
(e.g., it, there, demonstrative pronouns, e.g., this) 2 > events, Myanmar language uses agent or subject more often
Implied inanimate subject (ImINS), dummy subjects and a than Japanese. In contrast to the English, English is a
clause as subject (e.g., Clause….no ha、Clause….to iu no language that needs to express the agent or subject to
o…. , esp. found in Japanese version) 1. The data analysis encode the event and highly agentive than its counterparts.
for the agency scoring show that the agency score of In addition, this study shows that different tenses in
Myanmar is 140, the Japanese is 129 and the English is 153. encoding the narrative events has effect on the mood/mode
English has the highest agency score, that means English of the three languages. Since realis and irrealis mode are
encodes the events with more agent/subject than Myanmar one of the ten parameters of Hopper & Thompson, the
and Japanese do in the narrative events. At this time, different mode of languages effects on the transitivity
Japanese agency score is less than Myanmar. The following degree. English encodes events mostly in the past tense and
examples show this variation. The first sentences in each Japanese as well. However, Japanese uses present tense
example are the literal translation of Myanmar data and the more often than English. Amongst the three languages,
second part is the Romanized Japanese sentence with Myanmar language uses the present tense quite often and it
morphemic gloss. shows the descriptive nature of the encoding events in
Myanmar language.
Yuichi hsou ta ka. ahpwa: a.thu.ba. nei. toun: ka. When compared to Japanese and Myanmar language,
Yuichi NOM SUB grandma funereal day LOC; at English encodes the events more directly than its
asa.za. ayaya lait pyi: kunyi lout kain pei: sha counterparts. Japanese and Myanmar encode the narrative
te. events in a more indirect way while showing the character‟s
everything thing along help do PART; offer PART opinion or desire. As far as the data analysis is concerned,
PART; (N form) the use of the simple future tense is not seen in English data.
lu nge kalei: ta yaut lei The most tenses used in the three languages are past and
young man one COUNT SF; (euphony) present tenses. Although the tenses in the data analysis are
clustered under past, present and future tenses, we bear in
‘Yuichi’ is a young man who helped everything at mind that there are continuous and perfect tenses.
grandma’s funeral day. (literal translation of Myanmar Consideration of continuous and perfect tenses will be more
data) useful from the Aspectual point of view. Since tense, aspect
and mood are correlated with each other, it would be more
(ImHS) Soushiki no tetsudai o efficient to include the aspectual analysis to see the
Implied human SUB funeral GEN (the) help ACC transitivity preferences in each language. Having the same
takusan shi-te kure ta. narrative events for the data analysis does show some
many do- to do for someone PAST differences and Transitivity preferences in the three
languages. However, there might be some problem that the
Yuichi comes (and) puts down hot green tea and hosts me. rhetoric of the individual language, esp., Myanmar language
(literal translation of Myanmar data) in this case, becomes vague. The Japanese composition
style has considerable influence on the translation of
(ImHS) sofa ni modotte suwaru to, Myanmar version. This shows that Myanmar and Japanese
Implied human SUB sofa LOC return sit when, are quite alike in composing the literary work, i.e., some
atsui ocha ga de ta. translator‟s sentences are like Japanese rhetoric although it
hot green tea NOM come out- PAST might be slightly odd in the native speakers‟ eyes. However,
this does not imply that those kind of sentences are ill
The data analysis shows Japanese does not describe the formed and meaningless. Despite the fact that each
human subject when encoding events. We can see the language has its own composition style, the data analysis
shows that Myanmar language can be translated very

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closely like Japanese writing style. This suggests that it [2] M. A. K. Halliday, An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 3rd ed.
New York, NY: Hodder Arnold, 2004.
might be interesting to compare the texts that are Myanmar [3] P. J. Hopper, “Aspect between discourse and grammar: An
original and Japanese translated. This might solve further introductory essay for the volume,” Tense-Aspect: Between
research question like „Does Japanese style of writing Semantics & Pragmatics, pp. 3-18, 1982.
[4] T. Ohori, “Transitivity in grammar and rhetoric: A case from English
become vague if it is translated from the original Myanmar and Japanese,” Locus of Meaning: Papers in Honour of Yoshihiko
composition? Ikegami, pp. 389-406, 1997.
[5] B. Comrie, Aspect, 1 ed. New York, NY: University of Cambridge,
st

APPENDIX 1976.
[6] Z. Vendler, “Verbs and times,” The Philosophical Review, vol. 66, pp.
ACC accusative 143-160, Apr. 1957.
COUNT counter [7] Y. Banana, Kitchen, translated by M. Buckus, New York,
Washington Square Press, 1993.
Eng. English [8] W. M. Jacobsen, The Transitive Structure of Events in Japanese:
FEM feminine Studies in Japanese Linguistics, Kurosio Publishers, 1992.
FUT future [9] J. Okell and A. Allott, Burmese/Myanmar Dictionary of Grammatical
Forms, New York, NY. Routledge.
GEN genitive [10] N. Romeo, Aspect in Burmese: Studies in Language Companion
IRL irrealis Series, John Benjamins, 2008.
Jpn. Japanese [11] Myanmar Languge Commission, Myanmar Grammar, 2nd ed. Yangon,
2013.
LOC locative [12] F. R. Palmer, Mood and Modality, New York, Cambridge University
Myn. Myanmar Press, 1986.
N noun
Ei Ei Soe Min was born in Taunggyi, Southern Shan
NOM nominative State, Myanmar on November 3, 1985. She received the
OBJ object degree of M.A (English) from the University of
PART particle Taunggyi, Taunggyi, Southern Shan State, Myanmar in
2009. She earned the degree of M.A (language, media
PAST past
and communication), from the Kyushu University,
PL plural Fukuoka city, Japan in 2016. Her major field of study is
POL polite comparative linguistics.
PRES present She is an assistant lecturer at the Department of English in the Meiktila
University of Economics, Meiktila, Myanmar. She has 3 years and 7
RL realis months of job experience in the University of Economics. She started her
SF sentence final studying abroad in 2013, in Japan and is now a doctoral student in Kyushu
STAT stative University. She has published in the East Asian Journal of Studies on the
Japanese Language & Culture, Special Issue on Modern Studies of the
SUB subject Japanese Language and Teaching, Vol. 24. Ms. Soe MinDoctoral Student,
TOP topic Kyushu University, Japan. Assistant Lecturer, Meiktila University of
Economics, Meiktila, Myanmar.
REFERENCES
[1] P. J. Hopper and S. A. Thompson, “Tense-Aspect: Between
semantics and pragmatics,” Language, vol. 56, pp. 251-299, Jun.
1980

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