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영어

Aspects of God Names in Ancient Japanese - With an Emphasis on Contradistinctive Naming in Kojiki and Nihon-shoki - Choi, Kun-Sik This study compares aspects of contradistinctive naming of gods according to age order and monosyllabic morphemes in Kojiki and Nihon-shoki with those of contradistinctive naming of persons. It reveals the following differences and similarities: First, naming of gods and persons shows a difference in contradistinctive naming according to age order. Examples of contradistinctive naming according to 「兄─弟」 are found in personal names while no such examples are found in god names since there seems to be no need to be ordered according to age or power in the god's world. Some examples using 「大─若」 are, however, found in god names. It seems that they are allowed because they are originally euphemistic expressions. Second, naming of gods shows other characteristics. Some of the god names are from their birth places or stages of action while others are from expressions that describe their mythical plots. God names that are from seasons are also found, which seems to show that the god's world and human world are closely related. Third, naming of gods and persons shows a similarity in contradistinctive naming using monosyllabic morphemes. Like personal names, God names can also be contrastively distinguished by presence and absence of certain monosyllabic morphemes, two different monosyllabic morphemes, and the two different connective particles no(の)and tu(つ)in their names.