An ’I’ for an ’I’… : the semantic development of the first person pronoun in Japanese

By way of a diachronic analysis the semantic changes of Japanese first person pronouns will be discussed. The goal of the analysis is to shine some light on the history and evolution of Japanese pronouns in the first person and in so doing show that these pronouns have been subjected to change semantically throughout history. To bolster the analysis research in the form of a survey has been conducted specifically for the sake of this thesis. What the result of the survey shows is that use of personal pronouns in the first person is still changing semantically. With the results of the analysis and research as a foundation the end discussion will mostly deal with how Japanese first person pronouns change and how they might be evolving in the future