When should この世 be Heiban or Odaka?


Dictionaries list この世 as either Heiban or Odaka, presumably because 世 can
either be Heiban or Odaka. Are there rules of thumb for when 世/この世 should be
used in either its Odaka or Heiban forms?




In modern standard Japanese, 世 is accented (よ＼) and この世 is 尾高 (このよ＼).

One might wonder what the point of considering この世 as its own word is since
the location of the accent doesn’t change, but there is a good reason.

世, when followed by a の stays accented (as is usual for a one-mora word),
while この世 loses its accent when followed by a の (as is usual for almost all
odaka words):

  * このよ＼は
  * このよの
  * よ＼は
  * よ＼の

This is good enough reason to consider この世 its own lexical item because
otherwise there would be no way to account for this (as this does _not_
normally happen with この — e.g., この木の would be このき＼の).

あの世 behaves the same as この世.




In modern standard Japanese, 世 is accented (よ＼) and この世 is 尾高 (このよ＼).

One might wonder what the point of considering この世 as its own word is since
the location of the accent doesn’t change, but there is a good reason.

世, when followed by a の stays accented (as is usual for a one-mora word),
while この世 loses its accent when followed by a の (as is usual for almost all
odaka words):

  * このよ＼は
  * このよの
  * よ＼は
  * よ＼の

This is good enough reason to consider この世 its own lexical item because
otherwise there would be no way to account for this (as this does _not_
normally happen with この — e.g., この木の would be このき＼の).

あの世 behaves the same as この世.

