A Meaning Analysis of yobu and maneku - On their Polysemic Meanings and Collocations -
SUZUKI, Tomomi

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Japanese polysemic verbs yobu and maneku. A synonymous meaning is observed when these two verbs are used to express a kind of abstract motion, as in the following sentences.
(1) Kare no hatsugen ga giwaku wo yonda. (Literally, “His statement called suspicion.”)
(2) Kare no hatsugen ga giwaku wo maneita. (Literally, “His statement invited suspicion.”)
Through investigations of their polysemic meanings and collocations, we can characterize the differences of the meanings between (1) and (2) as follows.
(3) Yobu in “giwaku wo yobu” expresses a meaning that the subject unintentionally makes a reaction or result happen, with the nuance that the reaction comes from a certain distance linearly.
(4) Maneku in “giwaku wo maneku” expresses a meaning that the subject unintentionally prepares the conditions to effect an unexpected situation, with the nuance that the subject might be blamed for it.
Additionally, in this paper I claim that the “secondary activation” of the semantic network has to be considered in order to grasp the differences of synonymous words adequately.