THE PHENOMENON OF “HITO GA ARU” IN JAPANESE EXISTENTIAL EXPRESSIONS

Abstract

In most Japanese language textbooks for foreign learners, explanations of existential sentence structures typically emphasize the influence of the nature of the existent entity on the choice between the existential verbs aru or iru. Specifically, these materials generally state that the selection of the verb depends on whether the subject is an animate being or not. However, in actual language use today, aru and iru are not always employed in a strictly complementary fashion based on animacy alone. This paper examines the phenomenon of hito ga aru and presents a preliminary analysis of structural shifts in Japanese existential constructions. Through this investigation, the study highlights the diversity and fluidity of existential expressions in modern Japanese. Furthermore, the findings presented here may serve as a useful reference for linguists and contribute to the pedagogy of Japanese language instruction for Vietnamese learners, particularly with respect to teaching existential sentence structures.