This paper is based on the assumption that there is a coexistence of “Combinatoriality”and“Unitarity”in the meaning of Japanese compound verbs, which is a different standpoint from the general Japanese compound verb studies that are based on Morphemism.
Bringing up “V1+kiru” as analysis subject, this paper investigates how a series of meanings of both properties can be formed, and what kinds of syntactic conditions are there in each case.
First, through the usage of “V1+kiru” from the corpora (BCCWJ), I examinated a deviation of frequency in categorical meaning of specific V1. Following that, I investigated the “Unitarity” of “V1+kiru” in the cases where individual meaning of word components could not be recognized from the meaning of the compound verb. As a result, it became clear that the property of formed a competition in various meanings “V1+kiru” and that it is related to the categorical meaning of V1.