Chapter 133Hine, Akusu, and Narrative Progression

133.1 Hine and the presentation of successive information

Hine often links successive events. Tamura also describes a broader function: presenting one situation and then another, with each carrying its own informational weight. She contrasts this with the more integrated events commonly linked by wa Tamura (1997: 47–48).

Neither event succession nor a shared participant is obligatory in every use. In Satō's Chitose example, the speaker releases a cup and the cup breaks Satō (2008: 44).

Tamura also records hine at the beginning of an utterance after a conversation had ended tens of minutes earlier. Its discourse-linking uses therefore extend beyond a tightly connected sequence within one utterance Tamura (1997: 48). The different structural accounts are compared in Chapter 131 (Clause Linkage and Its Analyses).

133.2 Akusu and a following development

Descriptions of akusu and akus emphasize different aspects of the relation. Nakagawa describes a subsequent development related to the first event, whether or not the relation is causal Nakagawa (2024: 345, example 630). Satō describes a factual sequence in which the second event happens contingently after the first Satō (2008: 47).

Refsing gives Shizunai akus a more specific description involving something new or unexpected. Her examples include a bear suddenly appearing while two women are walking and talking Refsing (1986: 248, examples 433–434). Her Shizunai account is more specific than Nakagawa’s description of a related subsequent development.

133.3 Regional and genre preferences

Nakagawa notes that initial h in hine is often absent in ordinary-speed speech, and that Ishikari texts may write ine. For Tokachi he records hinne, as well as hine outside Honbetsu. His report that Honbetsu does not use hine/ine follows Masashi Tamura's description Nakagawa (2024: 338, after M. Tamura 2011:220–221).

Awa has uses close to those of akusu. Nakagawa reports a preference for awa in Saru verse, in Horobetsu, and in Ishikari; akusu is more frequent in his account of Shizunai and Tokachi. His Saru examples contrast a verse occurrence of awa with a comparable prose use of akusu Nakagawa (2024: 345, examples 631–633). These are tendencies in the descriptions, rather than mutually exclusive regional inventories.

133.4 Participant changes and narrative boundaries

The meanings above do not amount to a grammatical opposition in which hine marks the same subject and akusu a different subject. The cup example already shows a subject change with hine. Event relations and participant identity need to be interpreted separately.

There is a documented narrative tendency involving another construction. Yoshikawa finds a followed by p, korka, or wa at changes of scene, topic, or actor. Yoshikawa connects this with her analysis of a as perfective and expressing separation from the present Yoshikawa (2022: §4.1.1, examples 34–36). That is an attributed analysis of narrative boundaries, with the competing accounts of a discussed in Chapter 111 (A, Rok, and Aan: Earlier Situations and Discovery).