A Comparative Study of Motion Verbs ‘COME’ and ‘GO’ in Japanese and Sinhala

Abstract

This paper focuses on the differences between the usage of motion verbs COME and GO in the Sinhala and Japanese languages. When examiningthe two languages it is clear that the Japanese speakers usually take the speaker’s viewpoint whereas Sinhala speakers take the hearer’s viewpoint. In Japanese language, if the motion is directed away from the speaker, the verb GO (ikimasu) is used. But in Sinhala language, even the motion is directed away from the speaker, the verb COME (enawa) is used to take the hearer’s viewpoint.For example, when we say I’m coming to your place in Sinhala, it is ‘mama oyage gedara enawa’(I’m coming to your place) whereas in Japanese it is said that ‘watashi ha anatha no uchi he ikimasu’ (I’m going to your place).As ‘your place’ is a direction away from the speaker, Japanese speakers use GO (ikimasu), taking the speaker’s view point. But in Sinhala and English languages, the speaker uses COME (enawa), as ‘your place’ is the direction where the hearer is. In order to take the hearer’s view point, Sinhala and English speakers use COME (enawa). Here we find that the usage of the verbs COME and GO in the Sinhala language, is similar to the usage of COME and GO in the English language. It can be summarized that both Sinhala and English language are hearer – centered languages, whereas the Japanese language is a speaker – centered language