Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Associate Editors
Jacob L. Mey
University of Southern Denmark
Herman Parret
Belgian National Science Foundation, Universities of Louvain and Antwerp
Jef Verschueren
Belgian National Science Foundation, University of Antwerp
Editorial Board
Shoshana Blum-Kulka Catherine Kerbrat-Orecchioni
Hebrew University of Jerusalem University of Lyon 2
Jean Caron Claudia de Lemos
Université de Poitiers University of Campinas, Brazil
Robyn Carston Marina Sbisà
University College London University of Trieste
Bruce Fraser Emanuel Schegloff
Boston University University of California at Los Angeles
Thorstein Fretheim Deborah Schiffrin
University of Trondheim Georgetown University
John Heritage Paul O. Takahara
University of California at Los Angeles Kansai Gaidai University
Susan Herring Sandra Thompson
University of Texas at Arlington University of California at Santa Barbara
Masako K. Hiraga Teun A. Van Dijk
St.Paul’s (Rikkyo) University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
David Holdcroft Richard J. Watts
University of Leeds University of Berne
Sachiko Ide
Japan Women’s University
Volume 132
Japanese Discourse Markers: Synchronic and diachronic discourse analysis
by Noriko O. Onodera
Japanese Discourse Markers
Synchronic and diachronic discourse analysis
Noriko O. Onodera
Aoyama Gakuin University
Noriko O. Onodera
Japanese Discourse Markers : Synchronic and diachronic discourse analysis
/ Noriko O. Onodera.
p. cm. (Pragmatics & Beyond, New Series, issn 0922-842X ; v. 132)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
1. Japanese language--Discourse analysis. 2. Japanese language--
Conjunctions. I. Title. II. Series.
PL640.5.O66 2004
495.6’0141-dc22 2004059887
isbn 90 272 5375 7 (Eur.) / 1 58811 607 7 (US) (Hb; alk. paper)
To Ren
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Table of contents
Acknowledgments xi
Transcription conventions xiii
Chapter 1
Introduction 1
1.1 The problem 2
1.1.1 Historical approach 2
1.1.2 Phenomena to be investigated 4
1.1.3 Connection with typological features 8
1.1.4 Problems in diachronic analysis 9
1.1.5 Goals 11
1.2 Conceptual background: Definitions and assumption 12
1.2.1 Definitions 12
1.2.2 Assumption 18
1.3 Data and approach 18
1.3.1 Data 18
1.3.2 Approach for analysis 23
1.4 Sample analyses 24
1.4.1 Analysis of dakedo 24
1.4.2 Analysis of ne 26
1.5 Outline of this book 28
Chapter 2
Perspectives on Japanese Discourse Markers:
Synchronic and diachronic discourse analysis 31
2.1 Discourse/pragmatic perspective 31
2.2 Historical perspective 38
2.3 Typological studies 43
2.4 Syntactic and semantic aspects of conjunctions (demo
and dakedo) and interjections (ne and variants) 46
2.4.1 Syntactic and semantic aspects of conjunctions 46
TSL[v.20020404] Prn:8/12/2004; 9:41 F: PB132CO.tex / p.2 (viii)
Chapter 3
Functions of the conjunctions demo and dakedo in Present Day
Japanese (synchronic analysis) 57
3.1 Use and distribution of demo and dakedo 57
3.2 Referential contrast and pragmatically inferable contrast 60
3.3 Functional contrast 63
3.3.1 Functional contrast marked by dakedo and kedo 63
3.3.2 Another example of functional contrast 69
3.4 Contrastive actions 73
3.4.1 Point-making device 74
3.4.2 Claiming the floor 77
3.4.3 Opening the conversation 79
3.4.4 Changing the topic 81
3.5 Demo and dakedo: Markers of contrast 83
Chapter 4
Pragmaticalization of demo and dakedo (diachronic analysis) 85
4.1 Pragmaticalization of demo 86
4.1.1 Clause-final V-te + mo 90
4.1.2 Demo as a discourse marker 92
4.2 Pragmaticalization of dakedo 99
4.2.1 Clause-final V + kedo 100
4.2.2 Dakedo as a discourse marker 104
4.3 Pragmaticalization: Evolution of demo and dakedo
as discourse markers 111
4.4 Motivation for the pragmaticalization of demo and dakedo 114
4.4.1 The grammatical process leading to the adoption of demo
and dakedo as initial markers 115
4.4.2 The discourse process leading to the adoption of demo
and dakedo as markers 120
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Table of contents
Chapter 5
Functions of the interjections ne and na in Present Day Japanese
(synchronic analysis) 123
5.1 Harmony: The ultimate goal in Japanese conversation 124
5.2 Agreement (affirmative response) 127
5.2.1 Agreement 127
5.2.2 Back channels 129
5.3 Call attention (cataphoric) 132
5.3.1 Before new information 132
5.4 Call attention (anaphoric) 135
5.4.1 Reinforcement 136
5.5 Call attention (anaphoric and cataphoric) 138
5.5.1 Summons 138
5.5.2 Linking prior and upcoming information 140
5.6 Marker of rapport 143
5.7 Fillers 148
5.8 Atmosphere sustainer 150
5.9 Ne(e) and na(a): Markers of involvement 152
5.9.1 Involvement 152
5.9.2 Ne(e)/na(a) as markers of involvement 153
5.9.3 Metamessage level of interaction 154
Chapter 6
Pragmaticalization of ne and na (diachronic analysis) 157
6.1 Na elements in sentence-final position 160
6.2 Na elements in sentence-internal position 168
6.3 Na elements in initial position (as interjections
and discourse markers) 174
6.4 Pragmaticalization: Evolution of na elements as discourse
markers 185
6.4.1 Functional change relating to Traugott’s hypothesis 185
6.4.2 Subjectification and intersubjectification: From ideational
to interpersonal meanings 188
6.5 Some thoughts on motivation for the pragmaticalization
of na elements 191
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Table of contents
Chapter 7
Conclusion 197
7.1 Summary of this study 197
7.2 Grammaticalization 200
7.2.1 Development of discourse markers: A case
of grammaticalization 201
7.2.2 Demo and na elements: Grammaticalization or not? 203
7.3 Relevance of findings 205
7.3.1 Relevance to typological characteristics 205
7.3.2 Productivity 211
7.3.3 Conventionalization of conversational implicatures 214
Notes 219
References 227
Name index 241
Subject index 245
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Acknowledgments
In various stages of this work, many people have helped me in different ways.
First and foremost, I am deeply indebted to my professors of linguistics and
sociolinguistics at Georgetown University Ph.D. program, Deborah Schiffrin,
Deborah Tannen and Ralph Fasold. Debby Schiffrin’s guidance in discourse
analysis and support to my challenge of the new field has helped me to form
my uncultivated idea into shape. I would also like to thank Senko K. Maynard
for her useful suggestions and encouragement.
My debt to Sachiko Ide goes yet further back: it was her graduate sem-
inar where I first experienced much inspiration on the study of language in
use. Since those days, Professor Ide has furnished me the model as a scholar
and a teacher. I am grateful not only for her intellectual guidance and al-
lowance to use her collected data (Ide et al. 1984) for this study, but also for
her warmhearted encouragement. These people are the foundation of my own
cognizance in linguistics.
Since graduating from GU, I have been fortunate to work in the present
climate in linguistics. In the last decade, grammaticalization and pragmati-
calization have drawn more attention, and even the development of discourse
markers seems to have offered interesting topics. Relatedly, we now see a grow-
ing new subfield, Historical Pragmatics, under which the diachronic study of
discourse markers also seems to fall. I am thankful to the organizer of the panel
at IPrA ’98, Andreas H. Jucker, who has also probably coined the term, his-
torical pragmatics, and has always been encouraging. I express my gratitude
to Elizabeth C. Traugott who read the earlier chapters and has always given
constructive comments and much inspiration.
Completion of this book does not mean the end of exploration into this
theme. However, to present in this field, I have benefited from discussions with
many colleagues including Susan Fitzmaurice, Scott Saft, Yoko Fujii, Etsuko
Oishi, Hartmut Haberland, Kaoru Horie and Heiko Narrog. Ryoko Suzuki’s in-
sightful comments and good conversations with her helped in my elaboration
of this work. My sincere thanks go to them.
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Acknowledgments
Transcription conventions
Abbreviations
FP sentence-final particle
GER gerundive form
GN genitive
HON honorific
HUM humble
IP sentence-internal particle
LK linker
NEG negative
NOM nominalizer
PASS passive
PST past/perfect tense
Q question marker (assigned to a FP ka only)
QT quotative marker
SB subject marker
TAG tag-question-like expressions such as auxiliary verb forms (e.g.
desho, daro, ja-nai) and the interjection and FP ne(e)
TP topic marker
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Chapter 1
Introduction*
This book examines the historical process of how forms in two different groups
in Japanese, (1) demo type connectives and (2) na elements, have developed to
emerge and work as discourse markers (DMs). Demo type connectives seem to
have undergone the development whereby the clause-final connecting expres-
sions (e.g. V-de + mo1 ) eventually became the sentence-initial connectives and
discourse markers (e.g. demo). And na elements seem to have evolved whereby
the sentence-final particles (SFPs) change to the sentence-internal particles
(SIPs), then finally to the sentence-initial interjections. The process in which
an item acquires the functions of a marker, i.e. the process in which a lexical
item with rather restricted functions becomes one with more extended dis-
course functions, is what I call a pragmaticalization. The discourse-pragmatic
functions considered here are either textual or expressive functions, or both (cf.
Traugott 1989: 31).
It will be argued that the diachronic processes of the above two groups of
expressions are not the same. That is, while demo type connectives undergo
pragmaticalization and grammaticalization, na elements undergo pragmati-
calization with a syntactically positional change, which is a less clear case of
grammaticalization (see also 1.2.1.2 and 7.2).
As outlined above, ‘pragmaticalization’ and ‘grammaticalization’, among
conceptual terms and findings disclosed in prior investigations into historical
meaning changes (most indebted to Traugott’s serial works), offer the funda-
mental framework for this study. Traugott (1982) once proposed the direction
in general meaning change, ‘ideational > ((textual) > (expressive))’, based on
the functional-semantic model of language. The current study will employ this
language model because of its usefulness, which still holds today, in analyzing
functions of items.2
This study is a product of a multi-dimensional approach. Besides histor-
ical studies that supply an important frame for this study, several sub-fields
of linguistics provide additional perspectives: discourse studies, pragmatics,
typological studies, and syntax and semantics of conjunctions and interjec-
tions. The four realms, (1) discourse/pragmatic, (2) historical, (3) typological,
TSL[v.20020404] Prn:4/11/2004; 12:08 F: PB13201.tex / p.2 (2)
Chapter 1
and (4) syntactic and semantic aspects of conjunctions and interjections, alto-
gether comprising the perspectives for this study, will be reviewed in Chapter
2. Among the discourse/pragmatic works, Schiffrin (1987) defines “discourse
markers” and offers the guiding principle for analyzing discourse functions of
language. Linguistic typology pertains to this study since the historical changes
to be examined here appear to be productive processes involving typological
characteristics of language. Syntactic and semantic aspects of conjunctions and
interjections are required as the basic knowledge in the linguistic exploration
of these items. This book is thus a product of these multiple domains.
The rest of this chapter does the following. In (1.1) I state the prob-
lem which this study addresses. (1.2) defines the key terms of this study and
presents an assumption in order to build a consistent theoretical background
before starting the argument. In (1.3) the data and approach taken to the anal-
ysis are introduced. Then, (1.4) specifically gives sample analyses of the two
discourse markers. Finally, (1.5) anticipates the content of each chapter.
While this study owes a lot to the established historical perspective showed in
prior works (such as Heine, Claudi, & Hünnemeyer 1991; Hopper & Traugott
1993; Lehmann 1995; Pagliuca (Ed.) 1994; Traugott 1982, 1986b, 1988b, 1989,
1995a; and Traugott & Dasher 1987), this book will also make suggestions with
interests in developing the approach appropriate for analyzing the pragmatics
of any world languages and in seeking the linguistic universality in a true sense.
I will review my indebtedness to the historical perspective later (in 2.2), so
here I will address what this study suggests and supplements in the previous
historical studies.
The first suggestion is the necessary application of the pragmatic perspec-
tive to the study of semantic-pragmatic change. By the early 1990s, some stud-
ies of semantic-pragmatic change lacked the solid pragmatic perspective with
which to see and capture the speaker’s meanings (both implicature and other
speaker’s strategies). Although capturing such speaker’s meanings is essential in
arguing pragmatic changes, some early works only looked at intuitively made-
up sentences where no such speaker’s interactively negotiated/created mean-
ings exist. They had somewhat theoretical and methodological difficulties.
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Introduction
Chapter 1
with grammaticalization has for a long time been discussed mainly from the
observations of western languages. However, I wonder whether the same dis-
cussion is possible if phenomena in typologically very different languages
worldwide are fairly observed. Indeed, in my studies on the development of
Japanese discourse markers (Some cases of this process have been uncovered
as grammaticalization: see Onodera 1995, 2000), ‘scope increase’ and ‘decrease
in boundness’ have been recognized against the long discussed premise that
‘scope decrease’ and ‘increase in boundness’ are unidirectional parameters (cf.
Lehmann 1995). Further, at present, with some linguists’ more recent interests
in the evolution of English discourse markers (Brinton 1990, 1996; Traugott
1995b; Tabor & Traugott 1998), scope increase and decrease in boundness
themselves are newly considered as common features of grammaticalization,
based on the observations of English and Japanese discourse markers (Traugott
1995b; Tabor & Traugott 1998; Onodera 1993, 1995). This shows the inevitabil-
ity of surveys done on both western and non-western languages to argue
universality in linguistic phenomena.3
There are surely other works that have explored grammaticalization phe-
nomena in Japanese. Matsumoto (1988, 1998), Horie (1998), Ohori (1998a,
1998b), Suzuki (1998, 1999) and Mori (1996, 1999) are such works. Also, other
studies on grammaticalization in non-western languages include Akatsuka and
Sohn (1994) and Sohn (1996).
As one of the non-western studies, my earlier work (Onodera 2000) also
suggested that pragmaticalization and grammaticalization were processes in-
dependent of each other (see also 7.2.2).
This section introduces the items chosen for analysis in this study. The items are
selected from two categories, conjunctions (1.1.2.1) and interjections (1.1.2.2).
That is, a set of connecting elements that eventually develop into demo type
connectives whose grammatical class is ‘conjunction’, and a set of particles that
develop into na group of sentence-initial ‘interjections’ in the course of time.
First, in Chapters 3 and 5, demo type connectives and na group of interjections
as developed forms in their historical change will be examined respectively in
the synchronic analysis: Their pragmatic functions in Present Day Japanese will
be revealed. Then, in Chapters 4 and 6, the meanings and structural changes of
the same items will be elucidated in the diachronic analysis.
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Introduction
... Conjunctions
The two conjunctions demo and dakedo will be investigated. They belong to a
set of conjunctions that I call as demo type connectives. This group of conjunc-
tions are sentence-initial connecting expressions with a noticeable morpholog-
ical structure – all prefaced by d element (copula in Japanese). It seems that the
group members have similar historical processes of development and that such
process is even productive. Connectives4 such as dakara, datte, dewa, de, daga,
and nanoni are included in this category.
A riveting list of conjunctions which first awakened my interest in Japanese
discourse markers will be introduced. Demo and dakedo are included in this list.
The National Language Research Institute (NLRI, 1955) counted the frequency
of conjunctions used in ten hour-long tape-recorded conversations half a cen-
tury ago. Table 1.1 shows their results: the conjunctions are listed in the order
of frequency of appearance. Here, the variants are grouped together under the
numbers, 1, 2, . . . 5. The number besides the items indicates the actual number
of appearance. The percent designates the group’s proportion of appearance of
all the conjunctions.
The National Language Research Institute also counted the frequency of
the conjunctions used in written language (journals), and revealed that the
top-ranking items in spoken language (in Table 1.1) all rank lower in writ-
ten texts: e.g. de ranks 20th, demo 20th and dakara 22nd. This shows that the
set of conjunctions in frequent use in spoken Japanese are in infrequent use
in written Japanese. The National Language Research Institute accounts for
this distinctly high frequency of a certain set of conjunctions in spoken dis-
course by their function as “fillers”. The National Language Research Institute’s
Chapter 1
(1955: 158) recognition of fillers is that “the items with no connecting function
are added for almost no purpose”.5 This seems close to the notion of “‘stop-gap’
interjections” including expressions such as ‘well’ and ‘ah’ (the Proceedings of
the American Social Psychological Research Association 1885 cited in Schiffrin
1982b).6 There seems to be a similarity between the function of filling and
stopping gap.
I wondered, then, whether the most frequently used conjunctions in spo-
ken Japanese (listed in Table 1.1) were mere fillers. It is conspicuous that
the English equivalents to the conjunctions ranking between 1st and 5th are
‘and’ (sorede), ‘but’ (demo), ‘so’ (dakara), ‘then’ (sorekara) and ‘well then’ (jaa)
(see Table 1.1), that had ‘all’ been found to be discourse markers in English
(Schiffrin 1987). Discourse markers are well known by their efficient pragmatic
functions. Therefore, it seems very plausible to uncover the real functions of
these Japanese conjunctions, possibly pragmatic, were they newly approached
and analyzed in the frame of pragmatics. In this study, such analysis will be
attempted. Thus, my earliest interest in Japanese discourse markers began with
a question of the relevance between the high frequency in spoken language and
the functions.
To supplement the survey of 1955, I counted the frequency of the con-
junctions used in more recent spoken Japanese (of 1982). Table 1.2 presents
the conjunctions the most frequently used in the 1982 corpus of Japanese dis-
course.7 It shows the result strikingly similar to the 1955 survey despite the
gap of thirty years: The five top-ranking items in 1955 still all rank within the
top six, despite an assumption that thirty years would be long enough to see
some language change. This result implies that, for some reason, a limited set
of conjunctions has been the most frequently used in spoken Japanese without
a significant difference over decades.
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Introduction
Demo and dakedo, chosen for examination in this study, belong to the
group which ranks 2nd in 1955 and 3rd in 1982. It appears that the two ex-
pressions have undergone a similar process in which they developed from their
corresponding unit-final connecting elements. Besides this structural change,
the process whereby the functions of demo and dakedo have changed will be
explored.
... Interjections
The interjection ne and its variants will also be analyzed. What led me to pay
attention to interjections is that they also undergo an interesting process which
is parallel to that of demo type of connectives: i.e. an interjection ne and its
variants seem to have evolved from their corresponding unit-final elements
(sentence-final particles).
Ne and its variants are markers of involvement (discussed in 5.9). They
display harmony between the speaker and hearer (and also other participants
in conversation) in several ways by involving the participants in what is being
said in the conversation. Inoue (1989) claims that ne plays an important role
in Japanese conversation and points out the similarity in the functions of ne
and the English discourse particle ‘you know’. Inoue (1989: 239) suggests the
usefulness of Schourup’s (1982) analysis of ‘you know’ for that of ne: “‘You
know’ creates solidarity between the speaker and the hearer or their comraderie
in the utterance by confirming the identity of their private worlds”. Ne and ‘you
know’ (Schiffrin 1987; Schourup 1982) seem to function in a similar way in
conversation.
Hayashi’s (1983) proposal concerning the hierarchical expressive struc-
ture of an utterance gives much attention to the three positions where ne
occurs (sentence-final, clause-final and sentence-initial positions). Kitagawa
(1984: 31) states that Hayashi’s attention to these positions tries to capture
the expressive function of an utterance in a three-dimensional/hierarchical
way. Kitagawa then suggests that a structural or functional approach (such as
Hayashi 1983) is also possible in discourse analysis and that such an approach
would make it possible to observe the integrated or holistic function of such
expressive words which at first appear to be randomly placed. This study will
examine ne and its variants in the three positions, and observe the functional
change in each position as well as in the total process of pragmaticalization of
ne viewed as a single item.
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Chapter 1
He implies that the relatively free word order in Japanese is ascribed to the
explicitness in the relationship of phrases which auxiliary verbs and particles
mark. Agglutination appears to be another factor which prompts the develop-
mental process of discourse marker formation in some way.
Because there is a distinct shift of the elements from their original final po-
sitions to initial positions, a study of postpositional Japanese could provide
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Introduction
I should mention the problems I faced during the process of this work: The
problems are put together into three points that all pertain to diachronic study
but not to synchronic study.
The first problem which can be the biggest in any diachronic language
study is that in a crucial sense ‘nothing can be evidenced’. Treating language
of earlier days and discussing the diachronic courses since then, we often say
‘development’, ‘evolution’ or ‘changes’. But these processes cannot be evidenced
either visually or audibly. For analysis of today’s language, we have a better tool,
i.e. audio-taped or video-taped language data which facilitates analysis of hu-
man interactional dynamics. However, for diachronic discourse analysis which
I attempt in Chapters 4 and 6 in this book, we can only rely on “written records
of spoken language” (Jacobs & Jucker 1995: 7) that can be said to be second-
rate compared to the above data of naturally-occurring language which we can
indeed listen to or watch. This is the fate of diachronic study of language, es-
pecially concerning its interactional aspect. I should say, however, towards the
completion of this study, that it is still possible to analyze human communica-
tion including the speaker’s intentions and the participants’ possible actions in
this kind of study instead of its limited data. Referring to the feasibility of such
diachronic language study, Jacobs and Jucker (Ibid.) state:
It is plausible to suggest that written records of spoken language are closer to
the actual spoken language of the time than written language not based on
spoken language.
Many works in a new linguistic field now called “historical pragmatics” bear
the same problem, but deal with the same kind of data. In this study, for
data of Japanese of earlier days, ‘written’ colloquial segments (e.g. lines in
play scripts (of noo, kyoogen or kabuki), conversational parts from novels, and
ballads) are used.
The second problem seems to lie in the methodological difference be-
tween the two fields, sociolinguistics and historical linguistics. The current
study started with interests in pragmatic/communicative aspect of language.
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Chapter 1
To examine such aspect, study and perspective of ‘language in use’, i.e. soci-
olinguistics, seems useful. Here, however, I faced a problem: In sociolinguistics,
methodologically, induction is primarily taken. Sizable amount of data and
its analysis (at times statistical) prove our findings in this field. Works carried
out by this method are valued, and hence judged scientific. In the diachronic
study of language, on the other hand, we realize the limit in both size and
consistency of data from the beginning. Therefore, induction in the sociolin-
guistic sense is impossible. In the diachronic study of language, there is also
inclination, among researchers, to search ‘tendencies’ seen in changes in accu-
mulated examples of the prior scholarship. We attempt to predict the courses
based on the tendencies just mentioned, or try to make predictable sugges-
tions, too. Hypotheses also seem to play an important role in this field. Thus,
argument in such a study may sound ‘speculative’ at times (this feature may be
relevant in the first problem, too). This field indeed has the deductive feature.
During this study, there were at times conflicts raised by the above method-
ological difference in the two fields. A specific conflict was between induction
and deduction.
Thirdly, a specific difficulty in treating data of earlier Japanese was pointed
out while writing this book. This point is concerned with the regional differ-
ence in the history of the Japanese language: i.e. Tokyo (East) Japanese and
Kamigata (Kyoto and Osaka; West) Japanese have undergone two different
developmental courses, so these two Japanese varieties should be analyzed sep-
arately. To preserve the consistency of data, only one Japanese variety (either
Tokyo or Kamigata Japanese) should be the subject of analysis to see the di-
achrony of a linguistic item/expression in question. Tokyo Japanese, which
now also can be called standard Japanese, is considered to have started when
the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu entered Edo (in 1590 (cf. Komatsu 1985: 4–5;
Edo is the old name for Tokyo)). Until then, language used in Kyoto where
Japan’s capital had been located since the Heian period (794–1192) had been
regarded as standard. As Komatsu (1985: 5) states, “Edo Japanese gradually
formed along with the development of Edo city”. Thus, the history of today’s
standard or Tokyo Japanese is short compared to that of Kamigata Japanese:
It is because Tokyo/standard Japanese which was originally Edo Japanese had
started only in the 16th century, whereas Kamigata Japanese had succeeded
from the Heian period (8th–12th century) through Kamakura (12th–14th cen-
tury) and Muromachi (14th–16th century) periods (cf. Ibid.). Tokyo (East) and
Kamigata (West) Japanese, hence, have traveled completely different develop-
mental paths. The course of the language development from the Muromachi
period is considered to have evolved into the modern Japanese. To examine
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Introduction
.. Goals
This study has five main goals. The first is to find and describe the functions
of the linguistic forms in question and reveal how those functions change in
history. This change will be examined mainly relating to Traugott’s proposed
meaning change. In what follows, this study may either support Traugott’s pro-
posal or provide an account for counterexamples to what has been assumed in
this area, from the position of a non-western language.
The second goal is to attempt to explain why or how such pragmatic change
took place. Although what in fact brings about the change is not a simple ques-
tion, I will take the opportunity to consider this “essential question” (Traugott
1982: 265) in semantic change, taking advantage of a sizable amount of data.
This question will be discussed as ‘motivation for the pragmaticalization’ at
the end of Chapters 4 and 6.
The third goal is to see how the functional and structural changes found
in this study would be discussed in the framework of “grammaticalization”.
It includes a question – whether the changes seen in this study are cases of
grammaticalization or not. This issue will be argued in (7.2).
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Chapter 1
The fourth is to discuss the findings of this project, in relation to the fol-
lowing: (1) typological characteristics of languages, (2) productivity and (3)
conventionalization of implicatures. These issues will be addressed in Chapter
7 as conclusions.
The last goal is to support the original proposals regarding discourse mark-
ers in English (Schiffrin 1987) by showing the existence of the same sort of
markers in Japanese, a language quite different from English. This study is a
combination of the synchronic and diachronic analyses. The synchronic anal-
ysis of discourse markers at each time stage as well as the diachronic approach
to them altogether leads to the integrated understanding of discourse markers.
.. Definitions
In this section, I will define or introduce four key terms of this study, “pragmat-
icalization”, “grammaticalization”, “functional-semantic model of language”
and “discourse markers”.
... Pragmaticalization
I define “pragmaticalization”9 as a process of meaning/functional change in-
volving shifts from the semantic to the pragmatic domain. This is closest to
Traugott’s (1986a: 542) notion of “pragmaticization”. She also uses a similar
term “semantic-pragmatic change/process” (1989 and elsewhere).
Pragmaticalization is on the whole associated with two tendencies of
meaning shift: One, shift to a more “speaker-based” meaning, and the other,
shift to more “discourse-based” meaning. The shift to more “speaker-based” is
characterized as more “person-based”/“speaker-attributed” (1986a: 541). The
speaker-based meanings are in fact the result of the discourse-based meanings
since “the speaker-based meanings shift from referencing the situation outside
the discourse to referencing the situation inside the discourse” (Ibid.: 542). This
statement manifests that discourse-based meaning and speaker-based meaning
more or less refer to both sides of the coin. The shift to more discourse-
based meaning is mentioned in Traugott (Ibid.: 545), as referring “less to the
described situation, and more to the discourse situation”.
Traugott has put forward two more specific orientations that accompany
semantic-pragmatic change: the shift from “less to more personal” (1982: 253)
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Introduction
Chapter 1
... Grammaticalization
Among many other definitions, grammaticalization in this study refers to
the dynamic, unidirectional historical process whereby lexical items in the
course of time acquire a new status as grammatical, morpho-syntactic forms,
and in the process come to code relations that either were not coded before or
were coded differently. (Traugott & König 1991: 189)
Introduction
the resources a language has for expressing personal attitudes to what is be-
ing talked about, to the text itself, and to others in the speech situation. . .
[They] show not only cohesion but also attitudes toward, even evaluation of,
the propositions. . . (Traugott 1982: 248)
Halliday and Hasan (1976: 26–27) illustrate the same function as:
concerned with the social, expressive and conative functions of language, with
expressing the speaker’s ‘angle’: his attitudes and judgements, his encoding of
the role relationships in the situation, and his motive in saying anything at all.
Chapter 1
Introduction
Chapter 1
If the elements about to be examined in this study are truly discourse markers,
they should also fulfill the above conditions.
.. Assumption
An assumption is put forward before the analysis. That is, an item is judged
to have become a discourse marker when it gains either textual or expressive
function. Although the expressive function supplies a characteristic feature of a
marker, i.e. expressing the speaker attitude, acquisition of only textual function
also satisfies the condition of being a marker. Accordingly, there are items that
as markers may have only a textual or only an expressive function. Based on
this assumption, the point in time when an item becomes a marker will be
distinguished in this study.
.. Data
The pragmatic change of each item will be explored by the incorporated ap-
proach of discourse/pragmatic analysis and diachronic analysis (which will be
described in more detail in (1.3.2)). As stated in (1.2.1.1), this study will ex-
amine the pragmatic functions of language with a special focus on the speaker-
hearer interactive aspect. The language data which represents this aspect (the
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Introduction
Such written records of spoken language include play scripts (e.g. kyoogen and
kabuki scripts), popular ballads and conversational segments of popular fictions.
On the whole, my data consist of the best representatives of conversational
discourse for a given time period. These data are thought to reflect the inter-
active aspect of language the best. As stated in Jacobs and Jucker (1995: 10),
“historical pragmatics, [as a whole area,] will always have to rely on written
material. However, this should no longer be seen as detrimental” or restricted.
Modern sociolinguistic methodologies and attentive work will make it pos-
sible to distinguish which texts may be used as rough approximations to the
spoken language of that time. Such discreet treatment would bridge the tra-
ditional (and potential) problem in this area, the discrepancy of the mode,
spoken language vs. written language.
In the rest of this section, the profile of data will be provided. Data for
Present Day Japanese (1.3.1.1) and data for Japanese of earlier days (1.3.1.2)
are introduced.
Chapter 1
prior works more systematically, while the discourse studies conducted in the
1980s were not provided with “guidelines based on cumulative results from
past studies” (Schiffrin 1987: 44). With respect to data collection for discourse
analysis, I am personally indebted to the professors who taught my sociolin-
guistics classes. A few important points in collecting conversation as data are
noted from Professor Deborah Tannen’s graduate seminar of “Discourse Anal-
ysis (conversation)”:13
1. Naturally-occurring conversation where 2–4 people are participating would
be the best.
2. Participants should be those we are in regular contact with so we can play
back the tape afterward and get their reactions.
3. To avoid invasion of their privacy, ask permission first or get blanket per-
mission. In the transcript use pseudonyms.
Introduction
makes it possible to pick out the items truly used as markers. Second, to up-
date the survey run by the National Language Research Institute (1955) which
revealed the most frequently-used conjunctions in spoken Japanese (Table 1.1),
I offer a 1982 version of this survey by counting the frequency of conjunctions
that appeared in this corpus (Table 1.2). Both tables are shown in (1.1.2.1).
The profile of the main participant, Mrs. K, will be briefly given. She is in
her 40s, the wife of a middle class office worker, and has two daughters – Rika,
a senior in college, and Saki, a third-year student in high school. Mrs. K is also
a cooking instructor and is a PTA official at Saki’s school.
The topics of conversations vary in the given situations; as in the first
corpus, the conversations are all naturally-occurring. The situations where
tape-recording took place include a family conversation on Sunday morning;
conversations during and after cooking classes; talks when the daughter’s pro-
fessor visited the K’s; telephone conversations with other PTA members. They
were all recorded during Mrs. K’s everyday activities.
Chapter 1
[V + kedo/dakedo]: Edo → Present Day Japanese, [ne and its variants]: Nara →
Present Day Japanese.
The Nara period (710–784) is the earliest age in which Japanese language
is examinable through literature.15 There was no Japanese orthography at that
point, and Chinese writing was utilized. During this period, a modification of
the Chinese writing system was developed and it appeared as kana (Japanese
alphabet) in the next Heian period. The basic literature of this age includes
Kojiki (‘Record of Ancient Matters’),16 Nihonshoki and Manyooshuu. Songs will
be taken out of these collections and examined as examples.
The Heian period (794–1192) commenced when the capital was trans-
ferred from Nara to Kyoto. The prominent and substantial change in language
is that in the 9th century kana (hiragana and katakana) developed and became
widespread. This means that the Japanese first possessed a writing system of
their own. In the mid Heian, a collection of poems Kokin wakashuu (‘Collection
of Ancient and Modern Poems’) (905) appeared, and due to this appearance
the prosperity of the poetry and literature performed in the Japanese orthog-
raphy was predictable. One hundred years later, Genji monogatari (‘The Tale of
Genji’) (1008) and Makura no sooshi (‘The Pillow Book’) (1000) marked the
peak of such literature. The aristocracy of this period enjoyed singing the local
ballads Fuuzoku uta. Since interjections were used especially in the ballads and
poems, such texts are beneficial to this study and are examined. Ryoojin Hishoo
(1171) is a collection of ballads of the Heian period.
One of the features of language in the Muromachi (1336–1573) is the
separation of the spoken and written languages (‘genbun nito’). This fact is re-
flected in the texts of this period. Noo scripts and kyoogen scripts are comprised
mostly of the performers’ lines considered close to the spoken language of
those days. The collection of populace’s love songs reflect their candid everyday
spoken language.
The next period, Edo (1603–1867), begins and ends along with the Toku-
gawa shogunate. Since the government was established in Edo (later called
Tokyo), this period is so named. During this period, feudalism increased and
the system of the four social classes was settled. Also urban centers such as Ky-
oto, Osaka and Tokyo developed. This politically and socially shifting situation
brought about variety in spoken language according to the social classes and
regions. Gradually, the Edo language came into a model. The Edo period is also
the time when the townspeople, not the ruling classes, first gained their own
literature. An example of such literature is Ukiyoburo, a comic novel. Its text
is full of the Edo townspeople’s colloquial expressions, and therefore it is often
called the storehouse of the Edo spoken language. The gay-quarter novelettes
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Introduction
(share-bon) such as Yuushi Hoogen and Tatsumi no sono describe the life and
manners in gay quarters of those days.
The following three periods, Meiji (1868–1912), Taishoo (1912–1926) and
Shoowa (1926–1989), are grouped together as modern times. This age accords
the modernization of Japan. During this new epoch of Japanese history, a sig-
nificant change in language use is marked. The distinctive change was the uni-
fication of the spoken and written modes (‘genbun icchi’) of Japanese. Since the
Heian period, the written and spoken modes had evolved almost individually.
However after around 1888, novelists agitated for and practiced this unifica-
tion. Consequently, written language based on the spoken language (called
spoken-written unified style (genbun icchi-tai)) was well-developed and ex-
panded. Without doubt, the spoken mode includes various styles that are not
exactly copied in the written mode; however, in comparison to earlier periods,
from this point on, the two modes of Japanese came to be assimilated.
In the new epoch, the modern novels as well as the new-style poems and
traditional-style poems (tanka and haiku) grew all more or less under the in-
fluence of Western culture. A Meiji novelist Futabatei succeeded in writing a
novel Ukigumo (‘The Drifting Cloud’) (1887) in the spoken-written unified
style and made a great contribution to the foundation of this style. Hakai (‘The
Broken Commandment’) (1906) written by Shimazaki is another typical Meiji
novel. In the Taishoo era, novels of sensual romanticism such as Udekurabe
(1917) by Nagai appeared. Yuujoo (1920) by Mushanokooji describes the life
and manners of a growing class, the intelligentsia. In the Shoowa period, much
influenced by American and English writers, Tanizaki described human plea-
sure in novels such as Tade kuu mushi (‘Some Prefer Nettles’) (1929). A neo-
sensualist Kawabata also published Yukiguni (‘Snow Country’) (1938) in this
age. All these modern works were already written in the spoken-written uni-
fied style; I extracted only the conversational segments out of these novels for
use in the analysis.
This section will explain the approach taken for this study. In order to reveal
the functional change of each item, two types of analyses, discourse/pragmatic
analysis and diachronic analysis, are required. Figure 1.2 illustrates that the two
analyses form two axes in my whole data analysis, the x and y = axes.
To begin with, for each item, I will conduct a discourse/pragmatic anal-
ysis which is to reveal the uses and functions of the item in Time 4 (Present
Day Japanese). The discourse/pragmatic analysis is the synchronic analysis.
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Chapter 1
Time 1
Time 2
Time 3
Time 4
This section shows sample analyses of the two discourse markers – a con-
junction dakedo and an interjection ne. Sample analyses will be provided
to epitomize the problem I address. Throughout this book, in my analysis,
propositional function defined in Traugott’s (1982) functional-semantic model
of language is called “ideational” function, to avoid terminological confu-
sion. “Ideational”, textual and expressive functions comprise the three funda-
mental functions of language in Traugott’s (1982) model (see 1.2.1.3 for the
functional-semantic model of language).
Introduction
Chapter 1
b. morau sa.
receive FP
<‘You can ask your brother to take you.’>
Taeko: c. Ee, sono tsumori.
Yes, that intention
d. Dakedo, itsu na no?
But, when COP FP
e. Gakkoo ga oyasumi de
School SB off COP
f. nai to dame na no yo.
NEG impossible COP FP FP
<‘Yes, I’m planning to do that. But, when will it be? It’s
impossible unless I have no school.’>
When (2) took place, Kensaku was meeting his two younger sisters. The sis-
ters were asking about the brother’s wedding. Prior to (2) the youngest sister
Taeko mentioned her desire to attend the wedding. Dakedo in (d) seems to
mark the speaker’s contrastive action of changing the sub-topic. In (c) Taeko
agrees with Kensaku’s suggestion (a–b): the same sub-topic is maintained from
(a) to (c). However, in (d) Taeko brings up a question about the time of the
wedding: This is regarded as the speaker’s shift of the sub-topic. Dakedo marks
this speaker’s action, which is realized by an expressive function. Dakedo also
marks a referential contrast, since sub-topics (topics) are referentially differ-
ent discourse chunks. In addition, dakedo links two utterances (c and d): this
linking function is intersentential which is counted as a textual function. While
the contrastive action is served by dakedo’s expressive function, the referential
contrast is served by ideational function. Therefore dakedo in (2) contributes
to the ideational, textual and expressive components of language.
As shown in Figure 1.3, an overview of analyses of (1) and (2) reveals
the direction of functional change in dakedo, which roughly accords with the
direction once suggested to be general in meaning change (Traugott 1982),
ideational > (textual > expressive).19
.. Analysis of ne
Figure 1.4 exhibits the direction of pragmaticalization of ne. In the pilot study,
each example of the first appearances of final ne and initial ne in my data
was examined. I have approached ne, applying the same functional-semantic
model of language which will be used for the analysis of the conjunctions. Un-
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Introduction
like the conjunctions, the pilot study has revealed that the pragmatic change
which ne underwent deviates from the general direction of pragmaticaliza-
tion, (ideational > textual > expressive) (Traugott 1982). This deviation seems
to arise simply because ne starts with an expressive function, not with an
ideational function. This result will be discussed more substantially in my
full analysis.
Figure 1.4 shows that while ne in the final position carries only the expres-
sive function, in the initial position it has both expressive and textual functions
as a marker.
(3) illustrates the case of the final ne in 1768. It is extracted from Yuushi
Hoogen, a gay-quarter novelette (share-bon).
(3) Yuushi Hoogen (1768)
Anatasama wa donatasama degozarimashita ne.
You TP who COP FP
<‘(I wonder) who you are.’>
Chapter 1
Preceding (4), Segawa asked the hearer to tell the landlady to make his din-
ner. The information in (a–c) ‘I’ll send the janitor to fetch it’ is then a support
for his request. Ne operates the expressive function in conveying the speaker’s
confirmation of the hearer’s reception of his request. (Ne might also seek agree-
ment from or transfer responsibility to the hearer.) Here we also recognize ne’s
textual function. Ne in fact looks backward and points at the preceding in-
formation (a–c). In pointing to the preceding utterance ne indeed contributes
to creating discourse coherence. Ne in (4) serves both expressive and textual
functions.
As Figure 1.4 presents, the functional change of ne is from expressive to
expressive and textual. In the diachronic process of ne, the expressive function
remains throughout the process.
Synchronic analysis of the items in Chapters 3 and 5 and diachronic analy-
sis of the same items in Chapters 4 and 6 will bring the more detailed findings in
the functions of each discourse marker. Besides, in later chapters, the question
of the motivation of each pragmaticalization will be addressed as well.
Introduction
Chapter 2
Perspectives on Japanese
Discourse Markers
Synchronic and diachronic discourse analysis
Four diverse linguistic areas supply the theoretical perspectives of this study.
This chapter will review the related literature of the four areas.
First is a discourse/pragmatic perspective: The related areas of discourse
analysis and pragmatics provide a fundamental method for my discourse/prag-
matic analysis.
Second is an historical perspective: Among prior scholarship, Traugott’s
hypothesized orders of meaning change define the direction of my study as a
historical one. I will attempt to reveal the functional shifts in the evolution of
some Japanese unit-final elements into markers, relating to Traugott’s findings.
The third perspective is derived from typological studies: Whereas the po-
sition where connectives appear holds when they start serving as markers in
English, there is a positional shift in the case of Japanese: some of the items
do shift from final to initial positions. This specific linguistic phenomenon
seems related to typological differences in languages. Two typological charac-
teristics of Japanese that seem involved in the evolution of discourse markers
will be reviewed.
The fourth and final perspective concerns syntactic and semantic aspects of
conjunctions and interjections: Some of the previous literature on syntax and
semantics of the items to be investigated will be reviewed as basic linguistic
information for this study.
Conjunctions and interjections, the subject of this study, have been long dis-
cussed from a traditional semantic viewpoint (this is especially true for con-
junctions). However, I start the review with Lakoff (1971) because hers is one
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Chapter 2
In (1) the meaning of contrast lies overtly in the lexical items in the two con-
juncts, which form a pair of antonyms. In the case of (2), ‘but’ is used without
any notion of semantic opposition. However, there is an inconsistency implied
between the two conjuncts. In such a case, to interpret the implied meaning of
contrast the hearer must supply a presupposition. What is presupposed here
is: “If someone is tall, then one would expect him to be good at basketball”
(Ibid.: 133). The presupposition involves a general expectation. This is the use
of denial of expectation ‘but’. Blakemore (1987) also discusses the two uses of
‘but’; however, she gives them different labels. The uses of ‘but’ in (1) and (2)
are called ‘contrast’ ‘but’ and ‘denial’ ‘but’ respectively. In my study, the refer-
ential contrast (Schiffrin 1987) marked by Japanese adversative conjunctions is
considered similar to the ‘semantic opposition ‘but” (or ‘contrast ‘but”).
Van Dijk (1979) clearly distinguishes between semantic and pragmatic
connectives: while semantic connectives express relations between denoted
facts/propositions, pragmatic connectives express relations between speech
acts. The use of what van Dijk regards as a pragmatic connective ‘but’ can
be tentatively grouped into two types. The two types are exemplified in
(3) and (4).
(3) Harry was ill, but he came to the meeting anyway.
(4) A: Let’s go!
B: But, I am not ready yet!
The use of ‘but’ in (3) is identical with Lakoff ’s (1971) denial of expectation
‘but’. A case such as (4), in van Dijk (1979), presents another pragmatic use
of ‘but’. In (4) ‘but’ links the relation between the speech acts, which is the
pragmatic interpretation in van Dijk’s sense; request and its non-acceptance
(here, protest). ‘but’ in this case indicates that the speaker does not accept a
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previous speech act; it signals that a prerequisite condition, i.e. the hearer is able
to perform the action expressed in the directive, is not fulfilled. The meaning
of contrast in (4) pertains to actions not to propositions.
Van Dijk (1979: 452) also mentions that a weaker form of ‘but’ is used as
a conversational starter, e.g. “when a speaker interrupts another speaker” even
in cases without semantic contrast. Cases similar to this use will be observed in
my examples of demo/dakedo.
A condition for the occurrence of pragmatic connectives is noted in van
Dijk (1979). This condition involves the accompaniment of different phono-
logical and syntactic constraints on such connectives. More specifically, prag-
matic connectives are (usually) “sentence-initial, followed by a pause, and
uttered with a specific intonation contour” (Ibid.: 449). These constraints
are also suggested as the conditions for the occurrence of discourse markers
(Schiffrin 1987).
What van Dijk (Ibid.) poses as the “main problem” in the field is having no
unambiguous meta-language to characterize the meanings of use of pragmatic
connectives. As a means of solving this problem, I will employ the functional-
semantic model of language to characterize the meanings in question.
Consistent with Lakoff (1971), Lakoff (1972) claims that we must consider
assumptions about the social context of an utterance in order to make correct
predictions about the applicability of linguistic rules. In Japanese, for example,
honorifics and final particles are linguistic phenomena linked with the social
context. With respect to the final particle ne, Lakoff suggests that the felicity
condition, which concerns the relative status of the speaker and the addressee,
must be operating in order for the acceptable use of ne. This condition can be
specified as in (a) and (b): (a) The status of the addressee should be higher
(but not very much higher) than that of the speaker (H > S, but *H >> S).
(b) The status of the addressee cannot be lower than that of the speaker (*H <
S). However, this condition which led from the observation of invented data is
questionable. In my analysis of actual conversation, uses of ne in conversations
where H >> S or H < S will be seen.
In the 1980s, the increase of interest in the structural organization of
conversation and the speaker-hearer dynamics of interactional negotiation in
conversation resulted in systematically-organized research on common En-
glish expressions that serve a variety of discourse functions (Schourup 1982;
Warner 1985; Schiffrin 1987; Östman 1981; Schleppegrell 1989). Schourup
(1982) and Östman (1981) seem to have been inspired by the conviction that
discourse particles/pragmatic expressions should not be simply regarded as
“fillers” (Schourup 1982: 2) or “pause-fillers” (Östman 1981: 9). These labels
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Chapter 2
This core use of ‘you know’ in addition to its specific functions (discussed
in Chapter 5 in Schourup 1982) such as “initiating a topic”, “tracking topic”,
“repair marker” and “sympathetic circularity sequence” truly indicates the par-
allelism between ‘you know’ and ne. The main function of the interjection ne
seems closely related to displaying the ‘harmony’ among conversants which is
essential in Japanese conversation. Schourup’s descriptions of ‘you know’, “the
speaker’s anticipation, upon its use, of a positive response indicating that the
private and other worlds are in harmony” (1982: 103) and “intimacy ploy” (79)
all predict a similar role for ‘you know’ and ne in discourse.
Östman’s (1981) study of ‘you know’ is also suggestive for the investigation
of Japanese particles. The general meaning, which every occurrence of ‘you
know’ has, is formulated as follows:
The speaker strives towards getting the addressee to cooperate and/or to accept
the propositional content of his utterance as mutual background knowledge.
(Ibid.: 17)
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
described in detail, which gives us the impression that a scene is set up in front
of us. In the portion where ‘th’ serves the same grammatical function, the event
(in this case, ‘conny-catching’) is illustrated from a more general/generic view-
point (Ibid.). This variable is further claimed to have a textual function since it
is “functionalized as a broad denominator for a broad range of heterogeneous
functions” (Ibid.: 294).
More importantly, Stein (1985: 300) suggests, based on Brown and Yule’s
(1983) idea, that one of the constraints on the degree of functionalization of
these variables as discourse markers is “how long such a variable state persists
in a particular compartment of the grammar”. His conclusion is that historical
studies in the past “without the benefit of modern variation studies and dis-
course analysis” (Ibid.: 301) were likely to overlook pragmatic patterns lying in
textual history.
Returning to the tendencies (1) and (2), they have been well evidenced
both within English and in other languages (e.g. Myhill 1988 in Spanish;
Genetti 1986 in Bodic languages). Traugott also clarifies the optionality (non-
obligation) of the tendencies in meaning change: they “represent mere ten-
dencies, not a strictly unidirectional path” (1982: 258). From the beginning,
Traugott’s suggested tendencies underlying many semantic changes guided the
line of this study.
Traugott (1989) mentions that, for the future of historical linguistics, a
sociolinguistic study (Guy et al. 1986) which has examined present-day vari-
ation is suggestive since it evidences change in progress. Indeed in the field of
sociolinguistic/discourse studies, not only markers to check for listener com-
prehension (Guy et al. 1986), but many other pragmatic markers have been
found. More importantly, some works have provided a framework for dis-
course/pragmatic studies (cf. Schiffrin 1987). To take another step forward in
the theoretical studies of semantic-pragmatic change, it seemed necessary to
take a more sound discourse/pragmatic position such as the one suggested in
Schiffrin (1987).
The contribution of Traugott’s research into pragmatic changes lies not
only in descriptions of individual changes, but more significantly, in pre-
dictions about changes. Meaning changes which have often been considered
random are actually subject to systematic analysis, and furthermore, they are
predictable. These meaning changes are thought to be products of convention-
alization of conversational implicatures (Traugott 1989, 1988b).
The optimal theory which Traugott (1986b) supposes is the one which will
account for the greater number of facts. What motivates form-function (or
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Chapter 2
Chapter 2
tem, that is, in the semantics of the lexicon, constructions, and in grammatical
markers”. IITSC “combines cognitive linguistics with communication-based
historical discourse analysis/historical pragmatics (Schwenter & Traugott 1995,
etc.)” (Ibid.). It is explained that IITSC emerged during consideration of cross-
linguistic regularities in grammaticalization, however, it “currently ranges over
domain in which semantic change occurs” (Ibid.).
Chapter 2
NP NP NP
NP to NP to NP to
English NP
NP NP NP
Dick Harry
X ... X to
English
X
‘and’ X ... X
The postpositional nature of Japanese connective elements has thus been illus-
trated in the generative syntactic structure.
Kuno (1978a) classifies Japanese postpositions according to their func-
tions. In Japanese, adpositions are all postpositional. Among those, two post-
positions are reviewed here since they represent the original elements of demo,
dakedo and ne that evolved into markers. One is sentence-final particle (SFP)
expressing the speaker’s attitude to his/her statement: From one such sentence-
final particle, ne, an interjection ne is derived. The other is a clause-final particle
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Chapter 2
All the sentences in (9) are grammatical. In Japanese, except for the constraint
that verbs must appear in the sentence-final position, the word order is not so
restricted due to the function of particles.
Above, two typological features of Japanese, i.e. the postpositionality and
agglutinating nature, have been reviewed. The fact that the phrase order in
Japanese is relatively free, which is at least partly ascribable to the distinct
case-relation of phrases marked by particles, has also been discussed. The rela-
tionship between such typological features and pragmaticalization in Japanese
is an interesting issue. It will be discussed in (7.3).
The category (word class) ‘conjunction’ was not originally used by Japanese
scholars. The term, conjunction, per se was loaned from Western (such as
Dutch) grammar and first used in the nineteenth century (Ide 1973). Most con-
junctions, now recognized, are derived from other elements such as adverbs,
demonstrative pronouns, auxiliaries and connective particles – sometimes a
combination of two such elements. They then become conventionalized as
conjunctions (Ide 1965a).
Thus, ‘conjunction’ is a new grammatical category. Nagayama (1970: 25)
suggests a way to judge whether a form is included in this category. That is, a
form is judged a conjunction, if it shows only the connecting function rather
than other functions (meanings) of its original elements (such as pronouns
and adverbs mentioned above).
While Japanese conjunctions are typed according to their connecting func-
tion, as (i) word-connecting and (ii) clause-, sentence- or discourse-connecting
conjunctions, the following classification is based on their specific functions
(Ide 1965a: 303). First, Ide’s (Ibid.: 294–295, 303) classification divides con-
junctions into (1) those which express temporally/spatially/psychologically
paratactic/additional relationship and (2) those which express logical relation-
ship. This dichotomy is further specified as (1) <a> additional, <b> paratactic,
<c> disjunctive, <d> topic change and (2) <a> causal, <b> adversative, <c>
explanatory, <d> supplementary. Demo and dakedo are classified as (2) <b>
adversative (Ide 1965a).
That demo and dakedo seem to be derived from a clause-final sequence of
a copula de/da and a conjunctive particle mo/kedo is widely-accepted in the
field. In Morita (1967), the functions of conjunctions are well described by
distinguishing them from the functions of corresponding conjunctive particles.
Morita points out a clear dissimilarity between conjunctions and conjunctive
particles in the function of ‘unfolding’ discourse.
Two specific categories in Japanese traditional studies, ‘statement’ (chin-
jutsu) (Watanabe 1971) and ‘unfolding’ (tenkai) should be explained. Although
there is a variety of views (some conflicting) concerning ‘chinjutsu’, ‘chin-
jutsu’ is paraphrased as an expression of a speaker’s subjectivity, as opposed
to ‘jojutsu’ (predication) which is an expression of ideational content. ‘Chin-
jutsu’ and ‘jojutsu’ seem to be close to expressive and ideational functions
respectively.
A predominant view in regard to ‘chinjutsu’ always claims that ‘chinjutsu’
operates in a sentence-final position, hence a sentence is completed as the
embodiment of both ideational and expressive materials.
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Chapter 2
Chapter 2
The following examples illustrate the cases of ‘ellipsis’ with da strategy. Desu in
(B) is the polite form of da.
(10) A. Kimi wa kinoo Hanako to doko ni itta ka.
You TP yesterday with where to went Q
<‘Where did you go with Hanako yesterday?’>
B. Kanda desu.
is
<‘It’s Kanda.’> (Ibid.: 9)
(11) A. Dare ga kyoo gakkoo o yasun de imasu ka.
Who SB today school DO absent COP Q
<‘Who is absent from school today?’>
B. Yamada-kun desu.
Mr. Yamada is
<‘Mr. Yamada is.’> (Ibid.)
The meaning depends upon the context in which the utterance takes place. For
(12) to have the sense in (15), the speaker and hearer must share a context such
as (a) in (16).
(16) a. Konban kimi wa tomodachi to Futaba de nanika taberu sooda
Tonight you TP friend with at something eat
ga,
but
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Chapter 2
In this case, a predicate in (a) futta or extendedly the meaning of the whole
utterance (a) is replaced by da in (b). (17) shows that da does not take a
complement when used as part of a conjunction such as dakara.
Okutsu proposes that da also replaces adjectival predicates. Not only the
verbal predicate described earlier ((12), (13), (14) and (15)) but the adjectival
part as predicate is replaced by da. The example is as follows:
(18) (Dare ga chiisai ka.) <‘Who is small?’> (presupposition)
a. Taroo ga chiisai. <‘Taroo is small.’>
b. Taroo da. <‘Taroo is.’> (Okutsu Ibid.: 36)
Chapter 2
. Summary
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Prior scholarship has revealed the semantic and syntactic aspects of adversative
conjunctions1 in Japanese quite clearly. However, till recently, researchers have
long neglected the pragmatic aspects of Japanese adversative conjunctions.
I will examine demo and dakedo, adversative conjunctions (reviewed in
(2.4.1)), that appear to be semantically and syntactically most equivalent to
the English ‘but’. My approach is to examine them from a synthesized dis-
course/pragmatic perspective.
In English, ‘but’ has been found by Schiffrin (1987: 152–177) to be a dis-
course marker which encodes three types of contrast, i.e. referential contrast,
functional contrast and contrastive actions. I will show that Japanese demo and
dakedo also mark these three contrasts, and in addition, pragmatically inferable
contrast. Some specific functions that ‘but’ does not have in English conversa-
tion will be also demonstrated. In this chapter, first, I discuss whether or not
there are any differences in use and distribution between demo and dakedo in
(3.1). Second, I demonstrate the four kinds of contrastive relationships marked
by demo and dakedo: referential contrast and pragmatically inferable contrast
in (3.2); functional contrast in (3.3); and contrastive actions in (3.4), by first
defining each contrast and next exemplifying it.
Before starting the analysis in which I treat demo and dakedo as markers with
the same functions, I first clarify a question – are there any differences in the
use and distribution between demo and dakedo? In response to this question,
in this section, I show that (1) the only difference in the use of these two words
is associated with “language style” (speech level), and that (2) there is no sig-
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Chapter 3
demo 35 : 34
dakedo 0 : 11
nificant difference in the distribution of demo and dakedo with each of the four
contrasting functions.
As already discussed in (2.4.1), demo and dakedo are widely accepted and
classified as logical conjunctions, more specifically as “adversative” ones in
previous studies (e.g. Ide 1965a; Saji 1970; Tanaka 1984). According to such
traditional classifications of conjunctions, it is suggested that demo and dakedo
have the same functions. Then, what is the difference, if any, in the use of these
two words?
I propose that a difference is recognized in the language style (speech level)
in which the words are used. In his paper discussing speech levels in Japanese,
Martin (1964: 408) claims that the Japanese are forced to make a choice of
speech level before starting to talk. Jorden (1987: 32 and elsewhere) also asserts
the importance of choice of style in Japanese conversation. Although Jorden
(Ibid.) admits the extreme complexity of the concept of style in Japanese, I
will provide a basic idea of this concept here. In Japanese, the style in a given
conversational situation is determined mostly by the speaker’s relation to the
addressee. Thus, style reflects how the speaker addresses a partner in a con-
versation. When one talks with superiors or those in relations of non-intimacy
(cf. Brown & Levinson 1987: 45; Brown & Gilman 1960), one must use “care-
ful style”. In contrast, when one talks with social equals or those in relations of
intimacy, one is allowed to use “casual style”.
Table 3.1 illustrates the use of demo and dakedo in careful and casual styles
of Japanese. The appearance of demo and dakedo in a conversation spoken in
careful style and two conversations spoken in casual style are counted. Conver-
sations are taken out of the discourse corpus (Ide et al. 1984), used as data in
the current study. The length of the conversation in careful style and that of the
two conversations in casual style are approximately the same.
The results indicate that demo is used in both careful and casual styles with
same frequency. On the other hand, dakedo appears in casual style, but not in
careful style, at least in my data. I suggest that in Japanese conversation there
is a tendency in which dakedo is more likely to be used in casual style than in
careful style, while demo is used equally in both styles. Thus, a difference in the
use of demo and dakedo is seen in the language style in which each is used.
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demo dakedo
Chapter 3
Referential contrast is the contrast between contraries that are overtly stated in
the discourse (e.g. John is tall, but Bill is short). ‘Referential’ here has a rather
narrow semantic sense: the contrast lies between propositions with semantic
content. In this type of contrast, the contrastive meaning resides in the lexical
items being contrasted.
Pragmatically inferable contrast is the contrast between contraries that are
inferred. For the analysis of demo and dakedo, this type of contrast needs
to be added to the three contrasts marked by English ‘but’, referential and
functional contrasts and contrastive actions (Schiffrin 1987: 177). In Japanese
conversation we rarely see purely referential contrast, but instead we see many
pragmatically inferable contrasts. A possible reason for the frequency of the lat-
ter contrast is given. Generally, Japanese speakers do not say exactly what they
mean, but they often use indirect or metaphorical phrases and even ambiguous
expressions in order to avoid being assertive. Accordingly, in Japanese conver-
sation, very often inference is required to understand what is meant more than
what is actually ‘said’. In the case of pragmatically inferred contrasts marked by
demo/dakedo, a hearer must make an inference to understand the contrastive
meaning lying between the parts of the utterance, following demo/dakedo and
prior to them.
The pragmatically inferred meanings discussed here are, in other words,
derived “conversational implicatures” (“implicatures” for short) in Grice’s
(1975) sense. Owing to implicatures, “it is possible to mean. . . more than what
is literally expressed by the conventional sense of the linguistic expressions
uttered” (Levinson 1983: 97).
Now that referential contrast and pragmatically inferable contrast have
been defined, the fact that these two contrasts add to the “ideational” com-
ponent of language will be discussed. “Ideational” component, as I employ
the term, along with the “textual” and “expressive” components constitute
the three fundamental functional-semantic components of language (sug-
gested in Traugott 1982, based on Halliday & Hasan’s 1976 linguistic sys-
tem). “Ideational” component is called “propositional” component in Traugott
(1982). This term is somewhat misleading because Traugott (1982: 248) claims
that this component is not only the locus of truth-conditional relations (gen-
erally, termed “propositional”) but that it also includes categories which need
pragmatic interpretation.3 For example, deictics are given as such a category:
It is pointed out that the features of deictics are directly connected with face-
to-face communication, because deictics are fully referential only if speakers’
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and hearers’ (spatial) positions are known (Traugott Ibid.). Therefore, instead
of Traugott’s “propositional” component, I will use the term, ideational com-
ponent, to represent the component of language which is not strictly truth-
conditional, but more like what Levinson (1983: 132) calls “the total signifi-
cation or communicative content of an utterance”.4 Referential contrast and
pragmatically inferable contrast both add to the ideational component of lan-
guage.
Incidentally, among demo and dakedo’s four kinds of contrasting functions,
referential contrast and pragmatically inferable contrast seem to be the most
basic functions. They are basic because functional contrast and contrastive ac-
tions are identified only after the identification of referential or pragmatically
inferable contrast. (I will return to the basicness of referential and pragmat-
ically inferable contrasts later.) Below, I provide examples (1) and (2) which
respectively illustrate referential contrast and pragmatically inferable contrast.
(1) illustrates a case in which demo marks referential contrast. In fact, it
has not been easy to find clear cases of referential contrast such as “John is
tall, but Bill is short” in Japanese conversation. In addition to the preference
for metaphorical and overall indirect expressions in Japanese, discussed above,
subject and/or object deletion, which is a common phenomenon in Japanese,
seems to promote the infrequency of referential contrast.
(1) is an excerpt from a conversation which took place when my in-laws
visited my house in Tokyo. In this segment, we were discussing the activeness
of Sendai-city’s current tourism (Sendai is the city where my husband, Ren,
had lived and where his parents now live) since a popular TV historical drama
had recently been set in Sendai. In (1), Ren raises the issue that the popularity
of the city will fade away when the TV drama is over. Then his mother, Yasuko,
gives her opinion, which is the opposite of his.
(1)
Chapter 3
After self-repairing his false start in (a), Ren points out in (b–c) the possible
decline in the popularity of Sendai upon the completion of the TV drama next
March. However, Yasuko, who lives in the city, predicts in (d) that its popu-
larity will remain as it is. In (c) and (d), the predicates of Ren’s and Yasuko’s
utterances (auto ni nacchau (fade away) vs. nokoru (remain)) are clearly stated,
and they are in semantic contrast. The portion (e), ‘Sendai’s popularity has
been there for a long time’, is support for Yasuko’s position in (d). Therefore,
Demo in (d) marks the referential contrast between Ren’s and Yasuko’s ideas
(in (c) and (d)): “the popularity will fade away” vs. “the popularity will re-
main.” (Demo in (d) does not mark a speaker’s contrastive action such as a
topic (/sub-topic) change (see 3.4.4): rather the topic in (a–c) (the activeness
of Sendai’s tourism) is maintained in (d–e).)
(2) illustrates a case of pragmatically inferable contrast. In an interview I
had with a college student, Miki, at my request, she told how she made ham-
burgers. In (2), Miki talks about how to deal with the chopped onion to be put
into the ground meat.
(2) Miki: a. Dee, anoo, watashi wa nama demo
And well I TP fresh even
b. ii keredomo, hontowa anoo, sukoshi
OK though actually well a.little
c. abura de itameta hoo ga ii kamo
oil in sauté had better may
d. shirenai.
e. Demo, shinnari shitara, anmari
But soft become much
f. itamesuginakutte ii kara,
overcook NEG OK
g. de, sore irete, . . .
and it put.in
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In (a–d), Miki suggests that ‘it might be better to sauté (the onion).’ Following
that, she says demo in (e) and adds another piece of information ‘don’t over-
cook it’ in (f). From what is uttered in (a–d) and (e–f), the following contrast
is pragmatically inferred: “advantage of cooking” vs. “potential disadvantage
of cooking”. This is the kind of contrast that I call pragmatically inferable con-
trast. In (2), Demo (e) marks this contrast. (Many examples of pragmatically
inferable contrast also appear in Chapter 4 (diachronic analysis of demo and
dakedo).)
Another contrast which demo and dakedo mark is a functional contrast. This is
the contrast between functionally differentiated portions of discourse. Demo
and dakedo contrast the functional relation of discourse portions, e.g. in a
question-answer sequence, the relation of the request for information, the
requested information, and any extra information, etc.
In discourse such as question-answer sequences or arguments, it is rela-
tively easy to see how each utterance in the discourse is related by its functional
role. I will examine question-answer sequences to show the functional con-
trasts.
Question-answer is well-known as an adjancency pair (Schegloff & Sacks
1973), i.e. two adjacent utterances, the first part of which requires the second
part, and the two parts are produced by different speakers. Adjacency pairs
such as question-answer seem a fundamental unit in conversational organi-
zation (Goffman 1976). Schiffrin (1987: 159–163) also suggests that a certain
kind of complementary social expectation may also sometimes govern the use
of adjacency pairs.
Schiffrin has found that her interviewees often provide more informa-
tion than what is propositionally needed to fulfill a question-answer sequence.
When they cannot answer “yes” to the interviewer’s yes-no question, they
sometimes make efforts to find some connection to its affirmative option to
avoid a direct denial and thus to save the interviewer’s face (Brown & Levinson
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Chapter 3
1987: 2; Goffman 1967). When they cannot comply with the interviewer’s re-
quest, they often give their reason for this. Thus interviewees tend to add
information which is not requested in order to be informationally and socially
cooperative. All these efforts to give more information than is requested work
together with what Schegloff and Sacks (1973) call “a basic rule of adjacency
pair operation”. Such a rule requires that:
given the recognizable production of a first pair part, on its first possible com-
pletion its speaker should stop and a next speaker should start and produce a
second pair part from the pair type of which the first is recognizably a member.
(Schegloff & Sacks 1973: 74. Also cf. Levinson 1983: 304)
Chapter 3
u. Hanashitai kedo.
Speak want but
<‘Yes. I can’t speak it. Although I want to speak it.’>
In question-answer pair (4), I will first look at dakedo. In (g), I ask Jun ‘Have
you studied any (language) at school?’ Jun then requests clarification of my
question in (i), and I comply with his request in (j). Then Jun provides part
of the information requested in my original question (g) in (k–m), ‘the sec-
ond foreign language in college days’. After my backchanneling in (n), he gives
the requested information fully, ‘French’ in (o). However, Jun continues with
another piece of information in (q–r), ‘But (Dakedo), I’ve already forgotten
French.’ Thus the functional contrast marked in (4) is as follows:
Noriko: Request for Information X (g–h)
Jun: Compliance with request (k–o)
partial provision of Information X (k–m)
complete provision of Information X (o)
Dakedo Provision of additional Information Y (q–r)
Chapter 3
Thus the formal difference between (4) and (3) is that in (4) an explicit con-
junction dakedo contrasts the functions in discourse; in (3) a conjunctive par-
ticle kedo marks the functional contrast (Information X vs. Information Y).
Kedo simultaneously marks the referential contrast; ‘I can’t speak other foreign
languages (b–c)’ vs. ‘I’d like to learn to speak other foreign languages (d–e).’
Another example of a question-answer pair is (5). It is repeated below for
convenience.
(5) Noriko: s. Soo desu ka?=
So COP Q
<‘Have you?’>
Jun: t. =Hai. Hanasenai desu ne.
Yes. Speak can NEG FP
u. Hanashitai kedo.
Speak want but
<‘Yes. I can’t speak it. Although I want to speak it.’>
In (5), the connecting device V + kedo is used, which is the same formal struc-
ture as (3). Following up Jun’s statement (q–r) in (4) ‘I’ve already forgotten
French’, I, as the interviewer, request clarification of his statement in (s) ‘Have
you (really forgotten it)?’ Jun clarifies in (t) ‘Yes. I can’t speak it’, then adds
his wish about French in (u). Here the referential contrast kedo (u) marks is ‘I
can’t speak it (t)’ vs. ‘I want to speak it (u).’ The formal structure of (5) is like
that of (3):
prototypical structure Jun’s utterance
[[S1 kedo] S2 ] [S2 [S1 kedo]]
(sub.) (main) (main) (sub.)
Jun’s utterance (t, u) is, in fact, the reversed version of its prototypical structure
(u, t).
The functional contrast in (5) is also like that in (3):
(J: Dakedo Information X (4)(q–r))
(5) N: Request for clarification of Information X (s)
J: Clarified Information X (t)
Information Y kedo (u)
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In both (3) and (5), we have observed that the order of the main and the sub-
ordinate clauses is reversed. Although the prototypical sentence structure is
the order (sub.-main), it is also true that the reversed sentence pattern is in
common use. I suggest that the reversed pattern is used customarily as a strat-
egy in Japanese conversation: The speaker provides the main sentence first in
order to give the requested information right after the interviewer’s question;
then s/he goes to the postposed subordinate clause in order to add some ex-
tra information. The postposing is thus used as a convenient (and cooperative)
strategy which gives the information immediately demanded, then adds some-
thing extra. Postposing seems to happen in part because of the relatively free
word order in Japanese (cf. Kuno 1973: 3). In a kedo connection, a conjunc-
tive particle kedo is attached to a verb which is at the final position of a clause.
This connecting element (V + kedo) at a clause-final position, then, connects
the main and subordinate clauses of a sentence. Therefore, even if the order of
these two clauses is reversed, the relationship between them is clearly shown.
Thus far, we have seen that the functional contrast marked in a question-
answer sequence can be realized by two connecting expressions – one is a con-
junction dakedo, and the other is a conjunctive particle kedo. While dakedo is a
free morpheme, kedo is a bound morpheme which must be attached to a verb.
Thus far, in (3), (4) and (5), we have seen relatively simple functional contrasts
marked in each question-answer sequence (Information X vs. Information Y).
I will now look at an example where a more complex functional contrast is
marked by dakedo.
In the somewhat lengthy example (6), I ask another question (a–c) in
my on-going interview with Jun. The overall structure of the question-answer
sequence in (6) will be given later.
(6) Noriko: a. Nanka teineisa toka kangaeru to ne,
Well politeness like think FP
b. Igirisujin no hoo ga Amerikajin yori
the.British SB the.Americans
c. zutto Nihonjin ni chikai yoo na.
than the.Japanese close seem
d. Chikai,=
close
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Chapter 3
In (a–c), I ask a question ‘As to politeness, (do you think) that the British are
closer to the Japanese than the Americans?’ Before this question is completed,
Jun starts to acknowledge the request of Information (X); ‘Yeh, yeh’ (e) may
also show agreement with the content of my question (a–c).
Then, instead of providing his answer right away, in (f–g) Jun shows his
inability to comply with my request: By saying ‘I can’t say much from my lim-
ited human relations’, he conveys what sounds like non-compliance. But the
reason for this non-compliance follows in (h–i) ‘Because it could be rather a
stereotypical opinion.’ Providing reasons performs remedial work, as Schiffrin
(1987: 159 and elsewhere) found in English discourse. (H–i) is a reason, but
also Jun’s negative evaluation of the notion of stereotypes, which I label as
Information (Y). (Y) contrasts with the following information which is (Z):
another opinion Jun wanted to provide about stereotypes, that goes from (j–n)
‘But (Dakedo), before I became familiar with foreign countries, I couldn’t help
having the image that people from this country are like this.’ Thus dakedo in
(j) marks the functional contrast, by linking Information (Y) and Information
(Z). At the same time, dakedo in (j) marks the pragmatically inferable contrast
“stereotypes are no good (h–i)” vs. “stereotypes still exist (j–n).”
After showing his reluctance (f–n) to answer my question, since he first
needed to clarify his opinion about stereotypes, Jun finally starts providing the
requested Information (X) in (o). Thus Information (X) is his opinion about
the Europeans’ way of thinking, implying their closeness to the Japanese in
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Chapter 3
(o–y) which has been gained from his own experience: ‘I think the Europeans
are conservative and have sound points of view.’ This statement (o–y) is more
relevant to my question (a–c). Dakedo in (o) marks both the pragmatically
inferable contrast “opinion based on stereotypes” vs. “opinion not based on
stereotypes” and the functional contrast between two pieces of information
(i.e. what is not requested (j–n) vs. what is requested (o–y)).
Figure 3.1 illustrates the functional structure of example (6). It is clearly
shown that dakedo in (o) divides the structure of (6) into superordinate and
subordinate parts. Whereas my question (a–c) and Information (X) in (o–y)
form the superordinate part, the intervening discourse (a tangent before arriv-
ing at the main point, (e–n)) forms the subordinate part.6 I have mentioned
a social expectation which adds to the basic rule of adjacency pair operation
(see 3.3.1). I suggest that the subordinate part of the discourse in Figure 3.1 is
due to social expectation. Right after my request for information X (question,
a–c), Jun’s answer in fact starts in (e). However, in the digressive section (sub-
ordinate part), the speaker first presents a few socially-motivated deeds before
actually providing information more directly relevant to my question in (o–y).
Such socially-motivated deeds are acknowledging the question, showing inabil-
ity to comply, and providing the reason for non-compliance, all to be polite in
conversation.
Levinson (1983: 303–304) summarizes the characterization of adjacency
pairs along the following lines. Adjacency pairs are:
(i) adjacent, (ii) produced by different speakers, (iii) ordered as a first part and
a second part, (iv) typed, so that a particular first part requires a particular
second (part). . .
Focusing on (i) and (iv), Levinson (1983: 304) points out that “strict adja-
cency is actually too strong a requirement” and shows the frequent occurrence
of “insertion sequences” (Schegloff 1972) in which a question-answer pair is
embedded within another. One such nested adjacency pair structure is well ex-
hibited in Merritt’s (1976) example of “questions following questions in service
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The fourth contrast demo and dakedo mark is contrastive action. I define con-
trastive actions as contrast between actions, which highlights some contrasting
aspect of the speaker-hearer interactional dynamics in the on-going discourse.
Four types of contrastive actions marked by demo and dakedo are found in my
Japanese data: (1) point-making, (2) claiming the floor, (3) opening the con-
versation, and (4) changing the topic. The contrasts marked in each function
are summarized as follows. In each case, the contrast lies between:
1. point-making: action of talking about material which is tangential in dis-
course (e.g. self-repairs, digression, interruption) vs. action of returning to
material essential in discourse
2. claiming the floor: Speaker A’s action of holding the floor vs. Speaker B’s
action of holding the floor
3. opening the conversation: action of opening a conversation vs. preceding
lack of action (no speech activity)
4. changing the topic: action of talking about Topic A vs. action of talking
about Topic B
Chapter 3
In this excerpt, Mrs. K’s general position that the principal is an admirable per-
son is suggested in (a–d); this seems to differ from Saki’s opinion in (g) ‘That’s
all!’ which shows Saki’s disagreement with her mother’s position. This general
position of Mrs. K will be sustained throughout discourse (7) and the follow-
ing discourse (8). Mrs. K’s purpose is not to start a story about the principal
in (a–d); rather, she mentions the story and checks on Saki’s shared knowledge
of it. In (e) Saki manifests her knowledge of the story. Mrs. K now can use
the story shared by the hearer as support for her position. After checking her
daughter’s knowledge of the story, Mrs. K needs to re-establish her general po-
sition that the principal is an admirable person. She thus returns to her general
position with demo in (f), and gives another comment (f, h–j) based on her
position. Demo in (f) thus marks the speaker’s return to her position. There
is no referential/pragmatically inferable contrast which demo in (f) marks. (7)
shows a contrastive action marked by demo, the speaker’s return to her position
provided earlier.
Following (7), Mrs. K’s position (The principal is an admirable person)
is interrupted by Saki’s question concerning whether the principal had been
teaching at her school since those days. After answering that she doesn’t know,
Mrs. K again says demo and makes another point, shown in (8).
(8) Mrs.K: a. Demo: kokoro ga tsuyoi kata de nai to.
But mind SB strong person COP NEG if
<‘But, if not a strong-minded person . . . (she couldn’t pursue
her path).’>
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Chapter 3
After digressing to Saki’s subtopic (whether the principal had been teaching
at her school since then), Mrs. K still continues her main position. Demo
in (a) displays Mrs. K’s effort to return to her position. Based on this posi-
tion, she makes another point implying that if the principal were not strong-
minded, she couldn’t pursue her path. In the sense of getting back to the main
point, it is possible to say that demo in both (7) and (8) functions as a ‘POP’
marker (Polanyi 1978). (7) and (8) show where demo indexes/pops back to the
speaker’s position and functions as a point-making device. (9) is a similar ex-
ample in which the speaker uses a point-making device after she is challenged.
(9) is from another conversation between Mrs. K and Saki.
(9) Mrs. K: a. Dakara seiseki wa moo yudan shicha ikenai
So grades TP take your eyes off
b. shi, sore igai ni yappari kisoku o ano
shouldn’t besides anyway regulations DO
c. kichitto mamotte tte osshatta koto
properly obey-GER QT said
d. yoku oboeteru deshoo keredo.
well remember TAG but
<‘So you remember well that (your teacher) told us that we
shouldn’t take our eyes off your grades, and in addition that
you should obey the regulations properly, don’t you?’>
Saki: e. Mamotteru janai. Jaa watashi mamotte
Obey TAG Well I obey-GER
f. nai koto nante nai wa yo.
NEG things no FP
<‘I do obey (regulations)! Well there’s nothing I don’t obey!’>
Mrs. K: g. Dakedo anata wa /?/ wariaini sa soo iu
But you TP rather FP like that
h. koto ittemo sono toki dake wa moo a tto
say-if that time only TP ah QT
i. omotte ki o tsukeru kedo chotto koo,=
think attention DO pay but soon
<‘But you rather become careful, being startled only when
the teacher says such a thing, but soon, ..’>
Saki: j. =Sonna no omowareta tte . . .
Like that NOM think PASS QT
<‘Even if I was thought to be like that. . . ’>
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Mrs. K is arguing with her somewhat rebellious daughter regarding the points
about which Saki should be careful and about which she had been warned by
her high school teacher. In (a–d), Mrs. K repeats the warnings from the teacher,
‘Saki shouldn’t take her eyes off her grades and should obey regulations.’ By
doing so, Mrs. K in fact establishes her position in this conversation that Saki
should be careful. In (e), Saki challenges by making her point ‘I DO obey reg-
ulations!’ Then Mrs. K begins her turn with dakedo and defends her position
in (g–i) until her utterance is interrupted by Saki in (j). Thus (9) shows a case
where dakedo is used to mark the speaker’s return to her position after being
challenged.
The second type of contrastive action marked by dakedo and demo is to claim
the floor. Demo and dakedo mark this action especially in the situation where
the speaker makes an effort in order to claim the floor. In other words, it is the
situation where the speaker attempts such an action, going through difficulty
in getting a floor in the on-going conversation. In my data, many examples are
seen in multi-party conversations or in heated discussions. (10) illustrates an
example. In this conversation, three Japanese female graduate students, Midori,
Mari and I, were discussing computers. Showing a special interest in getting a
computer, I attempt to point out the shortcomings of my word processor in
(a–e).
(10) Noriko: a. De atashi wa seven o okutte
And I TP seven DO send-GER
b. ima tsukatteru no ne. Dakedo
now using NOM FP But
c. are wa motomoto nihongo waapuro de,
it TP originally Japanese word.processor COP
d. eigo no vaajon wa, nanteiukana
English LK version TP say
Chapter 3
Noriko: <‘And I’m now using ‘Seven’ which I sent. But it’s originally
a Japanese word processor, and its English version is, say, not
really. . . ’>
Midori: <‘But can’t you do it? Doesn’t it carry the English version, if
it’s called the English version?’>
When people get together, it seems that very often somebody in the group tries
to start a conversation by introducing a particular topic. After a discussion
about our group project, for example, Mari, Midori and I went to the student
hall to have a break. (The three graduate students know each other fairly well
as classmates.) First, we talked about plans for the summer for a while. Ear-
lier in the same day Mari had brought up plans for the upcoming summer: we
knew already that Midori and I were going to visit Japan. Prior to (11), while
walking to the student hall, I remember that we were not talking, or not paying
attention to a single topic. When we found seats and sat down, I turned on a
recorder and Mari started talking:
(11) Mari: a.Demo, nihon ni kaettara tanoshimi desu ne.
But Japan to go.back fun COP FP
b. Minasan. Oishii mono ippai tabete kite
Guys. Delicious food much eat come
c. kudasai.
give
<‘But, it will be fun, won’t it, when you go back to Japan,
guys? Eat a lot of delicious food.’>
Noriko: d. Nee. E, kaeranai no?
Yeh. Well go.back NEG
<‘Yeh. Well, won’t you go back?’>
Notice that (a) is the first utterance of the entire conversation. By saying demo,
Mari tries to enter into a conversation and furnishes the first topic “it will be
good when you go back to Japan (for vacation).” Notice also that there is no ref-
erential contrast. Because (a) is the first utterance in discourse, there is nothing
to refer to before (a) is made. Even without marking referential contrast, demo
in (a) was clearly heard as a marker to start a conversation by the other two par-
ticipants. Demo in this case marks a contrastive action by connecting no speech
activity (silence prior to (a)) and a lively conversation. Demo thus contrasts
acts, i.e. no speech activity vs. speech activity (i.e. opening a conversation).
Another example of a speaker’s effort to open a conversation is seen in (12).
(12) Mrs. K: a. Moo kore kyoo de moo owari ni shimasu
Soon this today soon end make
b. kara moo hitoban kyooryoku shite kudasai
because one-night cooperate
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Chapter 3
c. ne.
FP
<‘Please cooperate in this one more night since we will finish
this (recording) today.’>
Mr. K: d. N?
Hmm?
<‘Hmm?’>
Mrs. K: e. Demo daibu hieta de sho, a hieteru
But quite cooled TAG well cool
f. de sho?
TAG
g. Moo shooshoo no are datte hienai n desu
Well a.little LK that cool NEG NOM
h. mon kyoo.
today
<‘But (the room) got quite cooled, well it’s quite cool, isn’t
it? Well (the air conditioner) doesn’t cool (the room) easily
today.’>
Mr. K: i. Un, zuibun hieteru ne.
Yeh, quite cool FP
<‘Yeh, it’s quite cool.’>
Mrs. K: j. Atsui desu ne, hontoo. Denwa sureba
Hot COP FP really Call make-if
k. mukae ni itte ageru noni.
meet go-GER give though
<‘Isn’t it hot! If you gave me a call, I’d drive to meet you,
though.’>
(12) is a conversation between Mr. and Mrs. K when Mr. K returned home from
work. Mrs. K first asks her husband for cooperation in recording conversation
for the last day in (a–c). I regard (a–c) as meta-linguistic activity of talking
about the conversation that will follow. In (e) Mrs. K then attempts to enter
into conversation: this kind of exchange (the segment after (e)) is imagined
to take place as a daily routine upon her husband’s return. Mrs. K starts the
conversation with demo and utterances implying that it was hot that day (e–
h), then says that she could drive (to the station, perhaps) to meet him (j–k).
Following (12), she mentions that the bath is ready, all to show her appreciation
for her husband’s labor for the day.
I suggest that demo in (e) marks the speaker’s contrastive action of starting
the conversation:9 here she is opening the conversation, instead of engaging
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The fourth contrastive action marked by dakedo and demo is change of topic.
This strategy is commonly used in Japanese conversation. There is a more spe-
cialized conjunction in Japanese, tokorode,10 which prior scholarship (e.g. Ide
1973; Tanaka 1984; Shoogaku Tosho (Ed.) 1981 (Shoogakkan Japanese Dictio-
nary)) identifies as a conjunction for changing topics. However, tokorode does
not occur often when changing topics in my corpus of naturally-occurring con-
versation: In “A Housewife’s Discourse Corpus” (Ide et al. 1984) tokorode is
used only twice.11 Instead, throughout my entire corpus, people use demo and
dakedo when they shift topics. I suggest that this is an established strategy in
Japanese conversation.12
In the following examples (13) and (14), when a sub-topic of the conversa-
tion changes, demo seems to mark this change. In Schiffrin (1988: 3), the most
general notion of “topic” is “what something is about”. Schiffrin suggests that
there are differences among scholars as to the size of a topic: (1) entities such
as people, objects and ideas, (2) propositions encoded at the clause or sentence
level, and (3) general frameworks or macro-propositions underlying an entire
text, something like the “title” of a story. In this analysis, I tentatively take the
third definition of topic, i.e. the largest size.
When the talk in (13) took place, the three women were comparing the
convenience of word processors with computers. The topic of this conversa-
tion is comparison between word processors and computers. Under this topic,
smaller units of topic (“what is talked about”, i.e. sub-topics) change in this
conversation. In (a–b) Mari tries to provide a sub-topic “people in the MBA
program buy their own computers.” However, in (c–h), latching onto (b),
Midori also tries to furnish another sub-topic.
(13) Mari: a. MBA no hito nanka wa jibun de katteru
MBA LK people like TP themselves buy
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Chapter 3
b. mitai ne.=
seem FP
Midori: c. =Demo ne, gakkoo de kau to sa, . . .
But FP school at buy FP
d. daigaku n naka de aaiu Educational program
university inside that Educational program
e. mitai n de,
like NOM
f. IBM toka Apple wa nan paasento biki?
IBM or Apple TP what percent discount
g. Yonju (p)paasento biki gurai de kaeru n da
40 percent discount about buy NOM COP
In (a), Mari confessed her having a hard time in writing. Therefore, I informed
her that many others (such as those in Dr. X’s class) were also suffering a hard
time with writing, implied in (b–c). Demo in (b) marks a pragmatically infer-
able contrast “Just Mari is suffering a hard time with writing” (a) vs. “Many
others are suffering a hard time with writing” (b–c). After my utterance in
(b–c), the three participants talked about Dr. X’s class for a while. Again, in
(14) the first utterance in (b–c) beginning with demo seems the point where
the new sub-topic develops. Thus, demo in (b) marks a sub-topic change. My
act of changing the sub-topic here can be seen as a face saving strategy for Mari
who originally mentioned the hardship.
In this chapter, we have seen that the so-called adversative conjunctions demo
and dakedo mark four kinds of contrast: referential contrast, pragmatically in-
ferable contrast, functional contrast and contrastive actions. I suggested that
among these contrasts, the referential and pragmatically inferable contrasts are
the most basic. Perhaps as a consequence of this basicness, we have seen that
referential and pragmatically inferable contrasts often co-occur with the other
two contrasts.
We have seen that demo and dakedo mark a contrast between functionally
related portions of discourse. It has been revealed that another connecting ele-
ment other than conjunctions fulfills the same function of marking functional
contrast. That is, the clause-final connecting device, V + a conjunctive particle
kedo.
Although the fact that so-called adversative conjunctions, demo and
dakedo, mark referential and functional contrasts could have been predicted
by relying on previous studies, the additional function of marking contrastive
actions was not predicted by prior scholarship. This newly-discovered function
is discourse/pragmatic function, indeed. We have found that demo and dakedo
mark four types of contrastive actions in Japanese: (1) they are point-making
devices in question/answer sequences, and relatedly, they help index back to
the speaker’s position, (2) they claim the floor; (3) open the conversation; and
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Chapter 3
(4) change the topic/sub-topic. (1) and (2) are also found in the use of ‘but’ in
English (Schiffrin 1987: 164–176); however (3) and (4) have been found only
in Japanese data.
As mentioned in (1.1.2.1), my early interest was in the relation between the
most frequently-used conjunctions in Japanese conversation and their prag-
matic functions. As seen, demo and dakedo mark pragmatically inferable con-
trasts and contrastive actions that show pragmatic functions. Therefore, in the
case of demo and dakedo, the idea that the most frequently-used conjunctions
in Japanese conversation have pragmatic functions is supported.
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Chapter 4
Let us now look at the historical aspect of demo and dakedo. While I have dis-
cussed the use of the two conjunctions in Present Day Japanese (PDJ) together
(Chapter 3), I will examine them separately in the diachronic analysis. This
is because while the two conjunctions have parallel functions in Present Day
Japanese, the histories of the two words diverge, simply because of their mor-
phological difference. The morphemes that constitute each of the two words
first appeared at different stages in history and each pursued its own develop-
mental path. In this section, I trace the evolution of the two conjunctions and
attempt to reveal how they have developed into discourse markers, relating this
process to Traugott’s (1982) suggested functional-semantic model of language1
(see also 1.2.1.3).
Before starting the diachronic analysis of demo and dakedo, I will suggest
the basic relationship between the four types of contrast marked by demo and
dakedo, referential, pragmatically inferable and functional contrasts, and con-
trastive actions, and the three domains identified in functional-semantic mod-
els of language. When marking referential or pragmatically inferable contrast,
demo is assumed to have an ideational function. When demo marks functional
contrast it is considered to have a textual function. When it marks contrastive
actions it is suggested to have an expressive function. However, it must be also
noted that the relation between the contrastive functions of adversative con-
junctions and the suggested three functions of language can not be a clear-cut
one-to-one correspondence. This is because there can be functions running
between the three functions of language or because there are other kinds of
functions of language which do not fall into Traugott’s (1982) or Halliday and
Hasan’s (1976) trichotomy (cf. Jakobson 1960; Lyons 1977).
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Chapter 4
In this section, I examine the historical process by which the unit-final element
V-te + mo seems to have developed into the initial demo. There are indeed a
few different views on the formation of the sentence-initial conjunction demo
in the prior studies of the field. It is the most difficult part of this kind of di-
achronic examination to judge which path (or what path) the item has actually
traced. Such a path is invisible. It has not been audio-recorded, nor can be
evidenced. I rather see that demo comes from de (a gerundive form of the so-
called copula da) + mo (an adversative clause-final particle) mainly from the
viewpoint of analysis of discourse/spoken language.
First I should review the two assumptions about word-formation of demo
type connectives (Onodera 2000) shown in previous studies. One is that
the correspondent clause-final connecting expressions develop to shift into
the sentence-initial position and work as independent demo type connec-
tives/conjunctions. The other is that demo type conjunctions are formed based
on the construction [so type demonstrative + copula d]. I support the for-
mer assumption from the standpoint of analysis of discourse/spoken language.
However, both views will be briefly reviewed.
The former view assumes that the clause-final connecting expressions V-te
+ mo and V + kedo developed to be lexicalized as sentence-initial independent
and conjunctive elements, demo and dakedo. This standpoint is implied in Mio
(1995: 207–212), Nagayama (1970: 26–27) and Kyogoku and Matsui (1973: 115,
118–119). As for word-formation, Kyogoku and Matsui (Ibid.: 115) states that
“Daga, temo and naredomo were detached from the preceding sentence and be-
came independent [sentence-initial conjunctions].” Another page of Kyogoku
and Matsui (Ibid.: 118–119) writes that “[as for] daga, dakara, datte, dewa and
demo, elements formed as <a verb or a proverb + a conjunctive particle [ga,
kara, wa, mo etc.]> shift into conjunctions.”
Mio’s classic which analyzed spoken Japanese (Grammar of Spoken Japanese,
first published in 1942, reprinted in 1995) offers an interesting description
implying word-formation of demo type conjunctions.
(1) Boku wa kimi o sonkee site iru.
I TP you DO respect
Sonkee site iru kara sukui ni kita.
Respect because save come-PST
<‘I have a lot of respect for you. Because I have a lot of respect for you, I
came to save you.’>
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Offering examples (1) and (2) (and five similar cases in his book), Mio
(Ibid.: 207–208) explains that in these examples the beginning part of the sec-
ond sentence is repetition of the last part (predicate) of the preceding sentence.
The language style (either da-style, desu-style or degozaimasu-style2 ), which
indicates the politeness level in Japanese is also repeated because in a Japanese
sentence, style always appears sentence-finally. Here, instead of repeating the
predicate of the first sentence, the proverbs da or desu (degozaimasu) is used
(Mio Ibid.: 208) to replace such a predicate. Use of da/desu at the beginning of
the second sentence can avoid redundancy, which sometimes arises because of
the repetition. Da/desu functions as a pro-predicate. Da or desu plus the follow-
ing conjunctive particle, e.g., kara (example 1) or keredomo (example 2) then
function as conjunctions sentence-initially, which, as a result, is an economical
and effective discourse device (see also 4.4.1 on da’s pro-predicate function).
In my tape-recorded conversations of Present Day Japanese, too, the dis-
course pattern shown in (1) and (2) appears frequently. It seems that in our
natural production of spoken Japanese, repetition of the predicate of the pre-
ceding sentence is in frequent use, then the replacement of such repetition by
da or desu (degozaimasu) is a useful strategy in conversational management.
This usefulness in language use (or in our communication) may have pro-
moted the expanding use of initial demo and dakedo. It is assumed that useful
demo and dakedo have gradually come to be used by more and more speakers
and eventually recognized as sentence-initiating markers and conjunctions. I
support this view on word-formation of demo type conjunctions: i.e. based
on the clause-final connecting device [copula da, de or desu + connecting
particle (e.g. mo, kedo, keredo and kara)], the initial demo type conjunctions
developed.3
The latter assumption about the word-formation of demo type conjunc-
tions suggests that these conjunctions come from the construction [so type
demonstrative + copula da]. The following list exemplifies:
soredakara → dakara
soredemo → demo
sorede → de
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Chapter 4
sorenara → nara
soodakedo → dakedo
This view is implied in Tanaka (1984: 113) among others. In this view, it is as-
sumed that soredemo was originally sorenitemo, composed of [a demonstrative
pronoun, sore] + ni, which is an inflected form of an archaic copula nari + a
particle te + a particle mo. In Tanaka’s perspective, the initial conjunction demo
came from the expression, sorenitemo. Although I declared my support to the
former view, Tanaka’s opinion is also plausible. As mentioned above, since it
is indeed difficult to judge the very way the item has come along, for a safer
conclusion, in the next section I will analyze an example of ‘-nitemo’, too.
Once the former view of formation of demo and dakedo is taken, there is
still diversity in treatment of structure of V-te + mo, the source element of
demo. While the treatment of the structure of the source element of dakedo
as da + kedo seems substantially consistent among scholars, there are differ-
ent treatments about how to look at the structure of V-te + mo. I briefly
review the main points in this controversy which are relevant to my study.
First, many previous works in Kokugogaku (National Language Studies)4 re-
gard te as a conjunctive particle. Kokugogaku considers the sequence te + mo
as a conjunctive particle + another particle, and it suggests that this sequence
later developed into one conjunctive particle, temo (e.g. Shoogakkan Japanese
Dictionary (Shoogaku Tosho (Ed.) 1981); Uchio 1973). Tokieda (1950) and
Yuzawa (1954) explain that temo is one conjunctive particle. Another group
of researchers (those on whom my perspective is based e.g. Hinds 1986: 84;
Jorden 1962 Part 1: 46; Jorden 1987 Part 1: 94; Kuno 1973: 28 and elsewhere;
Martin 1975: 330) look upon te as part of a verbal, i.e. gerundive.
Researchers from both positions consider that mo (an adversative conjunc-
tive particle) is appended to te, and there seems general agreement on the func-
tion of te + mo. Konoshima (1960: 148) in Kokugogaku states that “te is a particle
which expresses continuation without considering whether the connection is
adversative or affirmative”. Yuzawa (1970a: 278–280) also in Kokugogaku lists
the functions of the particle te as “to link two matters, prior and upcoming” and
“to express cause-result relationship”. What the two scholars describe conforms
exactly to what we think of as the functions of -te gerundive.
In addition, as pointed out in Uchio (1973: 94), the particle mo seems to
have first appeared earlier than temo. Uchio writes that:
the sentence-final particle mo evolved into an adversative conjunctive particle
during the end of the Heian period [the end of the 12th century] and the
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Kamakura period [from the end of the 12th century through the mid 14th
century]. [Bracketed information is my contribution]
Chapter 4
tion, another importance in data choice was that the origin of today’s Tokyo
or Standard Japanese seems the beginning of Edo Japanese or at the earliest
the late Muromachi Japanese. That is, I should see the Japanese language after
Muromachi period to observe the development of demo/dakedo. It is common
practice in historical Japanese linguistics to consider language development
from the Muromachi period (14th century – 16th century) through today as
the path that Tokyo or Standard Japanese has taken.7
One more thing must be noted before proceeding the diachronic analy-
sis. (This note is effective in the two chapters on diachronic analysis, Chapters
4 and 6.) In this study, when the first appearance of an item is discussed, this
means the first time that I have found a particular expression with a given func-
tion in my data. In the diachronic chapters, I will provide the tables that show
the time lines of expressions (to indicate when each expression starts and is
used). However, these time lines should be understood as descriptive devices
only. That is, I treat the appearance of a form/function correlation in my data
as a description of when something occurred in my data – not a description of
when something occurred in the language.
It will be helpful to show where and when the different forms are found,
before showing my specific analysis. Table 4.1 presents a summarized chrono-
logical view of clause-final V-te + mo, demo, clause-final V + kedo and
dakedo. In the table, the point at which each item starts in my data and then
continues is shown.
The earliest examples of the clause-final connecting device V-te + mo are seen
in Muromachi Noo play scripts. (3) illustrates an example of V-te + mo taken
out of Jinenkoji (before 1384). It is an utterance by the main character.
(3) Jinenkoji (before 1384)
a. Mi o kokkani kudakite mo,
body DO now break-GER but
b. kano mono o tasuken tame nari,. . .
that person DO save purpose COP
<‘Although my body would fall apart, it (my body falling apart) is to
save that person. . . ’>
Table 4.1 Chronological view of final V-te + mo, demo, final V + kedo and dakedo
* ‘b’ stands for before’. The years prefaced by ‘b’ are those of the death of the playwrights,
because of the unavailability of the exact dates of publication.
** (W) indicates that the text is written in Kamigata Japanese (Japanese used in West Japan).
As for the Japanese data from the Edo era, basically the texts for analysis are written in Edo
and Tokyo Japanese, to be consistent. However, as mentioned in 4.1 and 1.1.4, a few Kamigata
texts were exceptionally analyzed for reference.
† Japanese language from Muromachi period onward is regarded as a course, i.e. the course
(for saving that person)” (b). This marking of the adversative sense mostly con-
tributes to the ideational function of language. V-te + mo has an ideational and
a clause-connecting function.
V-te + mo in (a) seems to have a function linking a and b.
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Chapter 4
The expression ‘nenesan demo’ was shifted from ‘nenesan nitemo’. ‘-Nitemo’ is
constructed as: [an inflected form of an archaic copula nari, ni] + a particle te
+ a particle mo. Some assume that the part, demo, as in b. becomes an indepen-
dent and initial conjunction demo. In (4) -demo in (b) expresses the adversative
sense, i.e. ‘although I (the speaker) cannot understand the young women who
caused such a tumult, they shouldn’t be just absurd.’ This function contributes
to the ideational function. -Demo in (4b) seems not to carry an explicit clause-
nor sentence- linking function.
Through the analysis of (3) and (4), it is seen that the clause-final V-te +
mo has the ideational function and a clause-connecting function, and -demo
which is a development of -nitemo, carries the ideational function.
latter case in (5). (5) demonstrates that demo in Edo kobanashi-bon text shows
the contrastive action, to mark ‘refutation’.
(5) Kake-suzuri (1775)
A: a. Shikashi, aitsu o
But that DO
b. motte itte mo, nan
bring-GER go-GER but, any
c. no yaku ni tatsu mai.
be of use NEG
<‘But, if (the thief) robs it (kake-suzuri), it will be of no use.’>
B: d. Demo omee, kane ga
But you, money SB
e. haitte iru jaa nee kai.
is TAG
<‘But, there’s money in it, isn’t there? Man.’>
In this story, the main character, A, was robbed of his inkstone case (kake-
suzuri). Kake-suzuri is a case in which to keep money or an account book, as
well as an inkstone and brushes. Right before (5), A said, ‘Oh, no, my inkstone
case is stolen!’ Then he continues (a–c), putting on a show of not caring. B
then refutes A’s idea in (d–e) with demo, because he knows that there is money
in the case, a fact that would lead B to infer that A should care. Following
(d–e), in fact, A provides the reason for his indifference to the theft, which
gives the punch line at the end of the story: ‘I don’t mind. Because although
there’s money in it, the key to the inkstone case is on my waist.’
In (5), demo in (d) marks the pragmatically inferable contrast: “The ink-
stone case will be of no use (a–c)” vs. “It will be of use (d–e).” By marking such
a contrast, demo serves ideational function. Simultaneously, the positions of
A and B (“I don’t care” vs. “I care”) are in functional contrast; which is also
marked by demo in (d). Here, it is seen that demo in (d) connects A’s utterance
(a–c) and B’s utterance (d–e). This connecting function serves intersententially.
It is regarded as textual function of language. Thus, demo in (d), at the begin-
ning of a sentence (utterance), seems to work as a conjunction. Finally, demo
marks B’s contrastive action of showing his refutation to A’s idea. Marking
the speaker’s contrastive action contributes to the expressive function. Demo
here is regarded not only as a conjunction but also as a discourse marker with
explicit textual and expressive functions.
As to the functional-semantic components of language, the sentence-initial
demo, which we first encountered in the Edo Japanese texts (the 18th cen-
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Chapter 4
tury), is suggested to bear all three functions, ideational, textual and expressive
functions.
Another example of the initial demo is seen in another genre of Edo liter-
ature, share-bon. (6), an excerpt from Futsukayoi oosakazuki, shows a case of
demo, which functions similarly to (5).
(6) Futsukayoi oosakazuki (1784)
((Stage directions write) . . . The woman (Nyooboo) offers a comforter to
Chuubei)
Chuubei a. Futon wa irumei.
Comforter TP necessary not
<‘Comforter won’t be needed.’>
Nyooboo b. Demo konya wa samuu gozariyasu kara,
But tonight TP cold COP because
<‘But, it’s cold tonight, so . . . ’>
((Directions) Nyooboo, the woman, puts the futon on Chuubei’s shoulder,
and lighting a lantern, leads him to a boat . . . )
In kyoogen, a story is typically simple and the same storyline appears in differ-
ent stories with slight modifications, e.g. with diverse stage props. (7) shows
one of such patterned stories in which the lord needs something (in (7), a fan)
and requests the retainer to go to the capital (Kyoto) and get it. The retainer
went all the way to Kyoto and thought that he got a fan (suehirogari). (Be-
cause of its shape which widens toward the end, a folding fan is metaphorically
called suehirogari (‘increasing prosperity as time goes by’).) However, what he
got was, in fact, an umbrella though it was also made of ribs and paper.
In (7), the lord says ‘It is an umbrella. You shouldn’t have brought it back.’
in (a–d). Then the retainer utters demo in (e) and tries to refute his lord’s idea
by giving his reason for getting that article, ‘Because the people told me it was
a fan, I got it.’ in (e–g). Here we see a more or less transparent referential con-
trast marked by demo, i.e. “it is an umbrella (a–d)” vs. “it is a fan (e–g).” The
two nouns, ‘umbrella (kasa)’ and ‘fan (suehirogari)’, are clearly stated, so the
ideational contrast is lexically explicitly recognized. Note, also, that demo in
(e) marks the functional contrast between the two positions taken by the lord
(a–d) and the retainer (e–g). In addition, a contrastive action is marked here:
the retainer’s refutation of his lord’s idea.
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Chapter 4
g. de gozaru ka.
COP
<‘But, you shouldn’t forget what you have eaten!’>
Prior to (8), the husband told his wife that he had been entertained very well
with delicacies by her father. The husband especially liked one of them, but
could not remember its name. The wife suggested several foods by asking “Did
you eat X?” She used the verb mairu four times in her questions. Mairu is an
‘honorific’ word (to eat or wear) for regular kurau (to eat). However, getting
impatient at her husband’s poor memory, right before (8), the wife finally asked
“Did you eat Y?” using kurau which is non-honorific. (8) took place when
the husband then objected. The husband’s objection (a–c) sounds considerably
strong. Now in (d), the wife shows her opinion ‘It is you that should not forget
what you ate!’ following demo.
The contrast which demo marks here lies in our inferred notions: “what
wife does is wrong” from (a–c) vs. “what husband does is wrong” from (d–g).
If (a–c) and (d–g) are thought to be functionally differentiated as the husband
and the wife’s respective points, demo also marks a functional contrast. At the
same time demo is used when the wife begins to refute her husband. Two simi-
lar uses of demo in very much the same expressions, with a slight modification,
are seen in the same story-group.
The analysis of the sentence-initial demo in the18th century Edo literature
(kobanashi-bon, share-bon and kyoogen) has revealed the following: First, demo
in this time period, when it seems to have first emerged, marks all the con-
trasts it can mark, i.e. referential contrast, pragmatically inferable contrast,
functional contrast and contrastive actions. Second, demo is used to realize
ideational, textual and expressive functions. Since it bears textual and expres-
sive functions, demo is considered to be a discourse marker. Third, the only
contrastive action marked by demo in the Edo period texts is the speaker’s
refutation.
I will go on to the analysis of Japanese of the Meiji period which follows
the Edo. In the novels written in the Meiji era (1868–1912), I found a fairly
widespread use of demo. Hakai (1906) and Sanshiro (1908) contain each seven
cases of demo in the conversational portion and none in the descriptive por-
tion. However, I have found that demo of Meiji is still used to mark the speaker’s
refutation in most of the examples. (9) is one such example drawn from Hakai
(1906). In this scene, the main character Segawa had brought a ‘notebook’ to
school, especially to please a boy, Shoogo. Segawa offered Shogo the notebook,
but Shogo refused this unexpected favor. Segawa objected.
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Chapter 4
When I analyzed demo in the 18th century Edo literature and in the Meiji
(1868–1912) texts, I found that demo continued to be used mostly for a par-
ticular function, speaker’s refutation. In the Meiji novels, demo may also have
other functions, i.e. claiming the floor and sub-topic change. However, they are
seen only as secondary contrastive actions of demo.
In what precedes, I have traced the process in which the final element V-te
+ mo seems to have developed into the initial element demo. The key find-
ing in this analysis is the following. While the item was in unit-final positions,
it had only an ideational function with a connecting function within a single
sentence. When the item appeared as an utterance-initial word, it had more ex-
panded functions as a discourse marker – not only a textual function but also
an expressive function (while still keeping its ideational function). Therefore,
the initial marker demo has all three functions noted by Traugott and said to be
the basis for a diachronic path, which, in the case of demo, involves the period
from its first appearance in the 18th century until today.
Another finding is that demo seems to continue to be used for a particular
pragmatic effect of marking the speaker’s refutation. However, it is true that
in the early 20th century demo may also have had other contrastive actions
(claiming the floor and sub-topic change) that were not clearly observable in
my data. Considering that in Present Day Japanese demo has a greater variety of
contrastive actions – occurring independently of the ‘refutation’ action – (see
Chapter 3), the expressive function of demo must have expanded in the course
of its historical path.
I assumed that the use of the unit-final element V + kedo is related to the
use of the sentence-initial dakedo, mainly from the viewpoint of discourse
analysis/analysis of spoken language.
Kedo is a conjunctive particle which is strictly required to be attached
to a verb (or an adjective) at clause-final positions; thus it is a bound mor-
pheme. At clause-final positions, kedo can in fact be appended to any verb other
than a copula.
The sentence-initial dakedo is now used in Tokyo Japanese or the stan-
dard Present Day Japanese. However, while trying to find the cases of V +
kedo in literature, I unexpectedly found examples of V + kedo in Kamigata
Japanese (Language spoken in Osaka-Kyoto area in the West part of Japan) texts
rather than in Tokyo Japanese. More interestingly, an Edo kokkei-bon text Ukiy-
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Chapter 4
As far as I know, the oldest example of the final connecting device V + kedo is
in a jooruri (ballad drama) book, Chuushin kana tanzaku (1732) (cf. Table 4.1),
which is written in Kamigata-Japanese (Japanese used in Osaka-Kyoto area, the
West part of Japan). This occurrence of V + kedo is also reported in Yuzawa
(1970b) and Uchio and Okamura (1973).
(10) illustrates one of earliest examples of V + kedo.
(10) Chuushin kana tanzaku (1732)
A: a. Inakamono ja to iwa nsu kedo,
Countrywoman COP QT say HON but,
b. kyoo hazukashii umai sakari,
capital fine delicious at (its) best
c. hitokuchi kuwazu ni okarenu me nsu.
a.mouthful eat NEG cannot help
<‘Although (you) call (me) a countrywoman, since it is at its best,
I can’t help eating a mouthful of it.’>
In the sources only the utterance in (10) is cited, and the preceding and fol-
lowing discourse is not available. In (10), A says, ‘Although (you) call a person
who eats such a thing a countrywoman, I can’t help trying a mouthful of it.’
In this example V + kedo (iwa-nsu + kedo) marks a pragmatically inferable
contrast, i.e. “You think a countrywoman is shameful (a)” vs. “I don’t think a
countrywoman is shameful (b–c).” V + kedo in (a) could mark a contrastive
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In (11), irimasu + mai (a polite form of iru (to enter) + a modal auxiliary
expressing the impossibility or unlikelihood of an affair in the near future)
constitute a VP in a subordinate clause (a). Irimasu-mai + kedo is the clause-
final connecting element in (11). Its function is, like (10), to link a subordinate
clause (a) and a main clause (b–d): this clause-connecting device operates only
within a sentence. V + kedo expresses the adversative relationship between the
two clauses and is involved in the transmission of propositional information.
There seems weak expressive meaning in irimasu-mai + kedo, however this
meaning is less explicit than that indicated by initial discourse markers. Thus,
V + kedo maintains an ideational function and the grammatical function of
clause-linking.
The conjunctive particle kedo apparently belongs to a group of which kere-
domo, keredo and kedomo are members (Uchio & Okamura 1973: 256; Yuzawa
1954: 573, 1970b: 505). They are all adversative conjunctive particles and are
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Chapter 4
This Shoogaku Tosho (Ibid.) explanation accords with our knowledge that
language change generally occurs earlier in spoken language than in written
language. This transitional process seems to involve a phonological reduction.
Hence, the order of the change is assumed to be the following: keredomo >
keredo > kedo.
The most full-fledged form keredomo (among keredomo, keredo and kedo)
seems to have appeared first sometime after the Kamakura period (1180–1333)
(Hayashi & Ikegami (Eds.) 1979). The phonologically reduced forms keredo
and kedo have been found above to have appeared later than keredomo. Since
its first appearance, keredomo seems to have continued to be used in coexistence
with other variants (keredo and kedo). Kedo first emerged in the 18th century.
Even after the 18th century, kedo has been found to be in co-use with other
variants. This means that more phonologically reduced form (kedo) did not
totally replace the fuller forms (keredo and keredomo) which still continue to
be used today.
In a collection of the Edo humorous short stories (kobanashi-bon shuu,
written between 1764–1766), the adversative conjunctive particles other than
the keredomo group, ga, domo and do which had all first emerged earlier than
keredomo, still predominate. In this collection, keredomo appears but keredo is
not found. Ukiyoburo, a kokkei bon (a humorous novel of Edo days), was written
by 1808 and published in 1809. It is an interesting and valuable source in which
to explore the Edo language since its text mostly consists of townspeople’s vivid
conversation in a public bath. Ukiyoburo is often considered a good reflection
of the Edo spoken language. However, my observation shows the frequency
of keredomo variants in Ukiyoburo as follows: kedomo occurred 1 time, keredo
17 times, and kedo 1 time. Despite the fact that the first appearance of kedo
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is around the mid 18th century (see (10)), in Ukiyoburo (1809) we still see a
widespread use of keredo.
In Ukiyoburo, however, although it is written in Edo Japanese, a scene in
which a Kamigata customer and an Edo merchant converse demonstrates a very
interesting and separate language use: i.e. the Kamigata (West) speaker uses the
Kamigata copula ja + kedo, while the Edo (East) speaker uses the copula da +
keredo. (12) illustrates it.
(12) Ukiyoburo (1809)
Merchant a. Cho omee ni wa ura nee.
(Edo) Hem you to EMP sell NEG
b. Hito o tyooseeboo ni suru yoo da.
Others DO live long make seem COP
...............
<‘Hem I won’t sell this to you. You make me wait long.’
...............>
Customer c. . . . . . . omee ni hikararete chito hamari ja kedo.
(Kamigata) you scold-PASS a.little tricked although
........................
<‘You scolded me, and I was tricked.’
........................>
Merchant d. Kore minee. Koira ga ochi da keredo. . . . . . .
(Edo) This look This SB working-out COP although
e. Anmari urusee kara maketa kedo.
So noisy because reduce although
<‘Look at this. This is the working-out, here. Since you
make such a fuss, I reduced the price, but..’>
In the conversation of this scene (the excerpt is partly omitted), the Edo
merchant’s use of da discourse style is seen. As mentioned above, Tanaka
(2001: 753) states that this style was established in Edo Japanese in the late Edo
era, when Ukiyoburo was written. He also says that
Da style was formed, needless to say, based on the East Japan’s copula -da
which corresponds to West Japan’s copula, -ya/-ja. . . . Before [the establish-
ment of da style in the late Edo era], West Japan’s ja style was conducted. Da
style was originally formed out of Edo common people’s spoken conversa-
tional style. Therefore there is some impression of vulgarity in it. . . . History
[,however,] has chosen and developed da style because of its efficiency of
space, then made this into a dignified style, wiping off its original impression
of vulgar dialect. (Tanaka Ibid.: 753–754)
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Chapter 4
As stated, when the conjunctive particle kedo began to be used more commonly
in the Taishoo period, we encounter the first emergence of the initial marker
dakedo. Today dakedo is widely recognized as a conjunction. Hence, it is now
a content word, consisting of two morphemes da and kedo, while the final ele-
ment V + kedo contains two separate words. In this section, I will analyze the
use of dakedo in the Taishoo era (1912–1926) when this item seems to have
appeared first (cf. Aoki 1973).10
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As for dakedo in the Taishoo era, it is recognized that some have ideational
and textual functions and others have ideational, textual and expressive func-
tions: Expressive function is optional for dakedo of this time stage. I first il-
lustrate dakedo with ideational and textual functions (4.2.2.1), then dakedo
with all three functions (4.2.2.2). This division is, however, only for analytical
convenience.
In (13), dakedo in (e) marks a referential contrast, “Don’t hire another nurse
for me (a–d)” vs. “Do it for yourselves (e–g).” Dakedo also marks a functional
contrast. In (13) H sounds like she is considering the pros and cons of hiring
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Chapter 4
another nurse. The pros (Hire another nurse for yourselves) in (e–g) and the
cons (Don’t hire for me) in (a–d) are contrasting alternating opinions in an
argument, and they are marked as one kind of functional contrast.
As suggested before, when dakedo marks a referential contrast, it serves
an ideational function. Dakedo also has a textual function: It seems that the
function of the element d in dakedo in (e) contributes to the textual function.
As will be discussed fully in (4.4.1), d replaces a predicate in the preceding
utterance (Okutsu 1978). In (13), d in dakedo in (e) replaces the predicate in
the sentence (a–d), itadakimasu (to receive). Itadaku is one of the Japanese
donatory (giving and receiving) verbs, literally meaning ‘to receive’. The main
sentence (b–d) is translated into ‘Do me the favor of not hiring another nurse.’
D in dakedo in (e) indeed replaces the meaning of ‘do me the favor of not hiring
. . . ’. As a consequence of d’s replacement function, dakedo suggests that (e–g)
is coherent with the preceding utterance (a–d), and in fact links the prior and
the upcoming utterances.
Let us compare the connecting system of the final V + kedo to that of the
initial dakedo. The primary difference is that while the utterance-initial dakedo
has a textual function (Halliday & Hasan 1976: 27–28 and elsewhere; Traugott
1982: 248), the unit-final V + kedo does not. This difference comes from the
difference in the scope of connecting system. The initial dakedo links the pre-
ceding sentence and the sentence it prefaces. This is an intersentential linkage.
By contrast, the final element kedo links a subordinate clause (terminated with
kedo) and a main clause. Notice this linkage is only within a sentence, i.e. in-
trasentential. Hence, along the diachronic development from a unit-final into
initial element, there is also a change in the scope of the connecting function,
i.e. sentence → discourse.
We have already seen an important indicator of the difference in the scope
of connecting devices in (13): in a single sentence (e–g), both dakedo (e) and V
+ kedo (g) are used. There are two adversative connecting devices used in one
sentence. This happens because the scope of the two devices is different: V +
kedo (desu + kedo) in (g) only adds the meaning ‘. . . , though’ being used like
a sentence-final particle in this case; this device operates within the sentence.
On the other hand, dakedo in (e) links the preceding sentence (a–d) and the
following (e–g). Its scope is here beyond the sentence level, and it operates at a
higher level, i.e. discourse level. The use of dakedo and V + kedo together in a
single sentence is possible because of the difference in scope of the two items,
i.e. the level of discourse organization at which they work.
In addition to scope, another difference between V + kedo and dakedo is
their contribution to discourse coherence. As a consequence of gaining the
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Chapter 4
Naoko’s general position in this exchange is that she will try to be carefree about
the baby’s sickness. Right before (14), Naoko provided the reason for her worry,
i.e. she knew about a more serious case involving another baby. After giving
this reason, she says dakedo in (d), and tries to return to her position and says
‘I will try to forget the baby’s sickness’ in (d–f). Dakedo in (d), thus, marks the
speaker’s contrastive action, point-making and return to her position. We also
recognize the pragmatically inferable contrast between ‘I can’t help worrying’
stated in (a–c) vs. ‘I will try not to worry’ inferred from (d–f).
In contrast to dakedo (4.2.2.1) in (13), dakedo in (14d) marks the speaker’s
action of ‘point-making’. Since dakedo here marks the speaker’s contrastive
action, this dakedo has an expressive function in addition to ideational and
textual functions.
As noted, there is no way other than looking at written text to explore
the language of the past. As a consequence, it is somewhat limited to ob-
serve speaker’s and hearer’s actions in written conversational texts, since the
actual dynamics of the speaker/hearer interactive negotiation are more opaque
in written data than in spoken data. Accordingly, in the next example (15), I
suggest a possible contrastive action.
(15) is another example in which dakedo first appeared as a marker with
expressive function. This use of dakedo shows another type of contrastive ac-
tion ‘claiming the floor’. This is an excerpt from a conversational segment in
Yuujoo (1920), a novel. Prior to (15), another participant N had said to H that
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Considering the preceding discourse and the immediate excerpt, the argument
between H and N seems heated. Dakedo in (c) is used at the beginning of H’s
turn. A possible function of dakedo here could be to take the floor. In a con-
flicting interactive situation like this argument, who will take the next turn is
less predictable to the participants than in other types of discourse. In an argu-
ment, participants seem required to make more effort to take a turn. Dakedo in
(c) may well mark such effort to get the floor. If so, dakedo here is considered
to denote a contrastive action, ‘claiming the floor’.
We can also see that dakedo in (c) marks referential and functional con-
trasts. The referential contrast is seen between the statements of K’s and H’s
positions, “H shouldn’t say something like that” (a–b) vs. “I(H) can’t keep
silent” (c–e). The functional contrast is between K’s and H’s positions about
H’s deeds in the conversation. Dakedo in (c) seems used for claiming the floor:
it expresses the speaker’s intention to perform an action in the conversation,
that action being, taking the next floor. Since dakedo conveys the speaker’s in-
tention to the other participants, it has an expressive function, and since dakedo
in (c) connects two utterances ((a–b) and (c–e)), it has textual function. (15)
is thus another example of dakedo as a discourse marker carrying all three,
ideational, textual and expressive, functions.
I will examine one more example in which dakedo serves an expressive
function. (16) shows a clearer case of contrastive action than (15) does. In
(16), dakedo marks the speaker’s contrastive action of ‘changing the sub-topic’.
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Chapter 4
This example is an excerpt from the novel Anya kooro (1922). When (16) took
place, Kensaku was meeting his two younger sisters after a long time. The sis-
ters asked about Kensaku’s wedding which would be held soon. Preceding (16),
the youngest sister Taeko said, ‘I would like to go to Kyoto, then (to attend
Kensaku’s wedding).’
(16) Anya kooro (1922)
Kensaku: a. Oniisan ni tsurete kite
Brother take-GER come-GER
b. morau sa.
receive FP
<‘You can ask your brother to take you.’>
Taeko: c. Ee, sono tsumori.
Yes, that intention
d. Dakedo, itsu na no?
But, when COP FP
e. Gakkoo ga oyasumi de
School SB off COP
f. nai to dame na no yo.
NEG impossible COP FP FP
<‘Yes, I’m planning to do that. But, when will it be? It’s
impossible unless I have a holiday from school.’>
Kensaku suggests in (a–b) that Taeko ask the elder brother to take her to the
wedding. In (c), Taeko shows her agreement with this suggestion, which is
maintaining the same sub-topic in (a–b). However, after this, Taeko says dakedo
and provides a request for information concerning the time when the wed-
ding will be. Dakedo here marks Taeko’s action of changing the sub-topic.
Since sub-topics (and topics) are referentially different information chunks,
dakedo also marks a referential contrast. Therefore, in (16), dakedo is involved
in the expressive and ideational components of language as well as in the textual
component.
In this section, I have illustrated dakedo with all three functions of lan-
guage. We have seen that expressive function is realized by contrastive actions,
‘point-making’ (14), ‘claiming the floor’ (15) and ‘changing the sub-topic’ (16).
These speaker’s actions denote important points in the on-going discourse
in terms of conversational management. This denoting function (addressed to
the other participants) seems essential as “markers”.
Above, I have shown that the clause-final V + kedo seems to have come
to be used as the utterance-initial dakedo. The primary finding in this di-
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In this section, I review the results of the diachronic analyses of demo (4.1) and
dakedo (4.2), and inspect the direction of their functional change, focusing on
Traugott’s proposal.
Adopting Traugott’s proposed functional-semantic model of language, the
pragmaticalization which demo underwent is schematized as (A). In (A), + su-
perscribed on “expressive” in PDJ (Present Day Japanese) designates that the
expressive function has expanded, when compared to the previous time stages.
V-te + mo here is a possibility of the earlier form of demo, or it has influenced
the appearance of demo.
(A) Pragmaticalization of demo
V-te + mo (14th–19th C) Demo (18th–early 20th C) Demo (PDJ)12
ideational ideational
ideational > textual > textual
expressive expressive+
The ideational function seems maintained throughout the course of demo’s
history. The item keeps this function both in the unit-final and initial positions.
The textual function arises when the item first emerges in the initial po-
sitions in the 18th century. Although V-te + mo had a connecting function, it
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Chapter 4
worked only within a sentence. The connecting function of demo, on the other
hand, works beyond the level of the sentence, and hence it creates cohesion.
This is how I judged that the textual function arises at the first appearance of
demo. (See the definition of textual function in 1.2.1.3.)
The expressive function also emerges clearly at the first appearance of
demo. The examples of demo from its first appearance in the 18th century
through the early 20th century show its expressive function, i.e. mostly express-
ing the speaker’s action of refuting the other’s idea. The expressive function,
however, expands at some point, because demo in Present Day Japanese was
observed to have at least four other expressive functions (Chapter 3).
I suggest that the functional change of demo follows two general ten-
dencies in meaning/functional changes that have been attested in several
languages (Traugott 1982, 1986a, 1988a, 1988b, 1989 and elsewhere). One
is what was first proposed in Traugott (1982: 253): a meaning shift from
“less personal to more personal”.13 The other is a more comprehensive ten-
dency: a semantic-pragmatic direction of functional change, “propositional
(ideational)14 > ((textual) > expressive)” (Traugott 1989: 31).15 To understand
the first tendency, the following must be noted as Traugott (1982: 253) herself
mentions:
It should be understood that “more personal” means ‘more anchored in the
context of the speech act, particularly the speaker’s orientation to situation,
text, and interpersonal relations’; it does not mean “more individualized”.
In the possible process in which the item developed from V-te + mo into
demo, we see a meaning shift from ideational (expression of ‘content’) to more
“speaker-based” and “discourse-oriented”. This is because when an item starts
to function as a discourse marker, thus functioning in the speaker’s use of dis-
course strategy, the speaker’s evaluation of the immediate discourse is more
obvious. The item thus injects the speaker’s point of view into the proposition.
Speaker-based (and therefore discourse-based) meanings shift from “referenc-
ing the situation outside the discourse to referencing the situation inside the
discourse” (cf. Traugott 1986a: 542).
I propose the direction of pragmaticalization of demo as (A), and further
suggest that it pursues the second tendency in functional change: ideational >
((textual) > expressive). As shown in (A), the change in demo does not occur
in an abrupt linear fashion, but is rather gradual, i.e. the change in demo is
multi-functional. Traugott (1982: 256) also seems to agree that this is a gradual
process. I suggest that in general the multi-functional change in demo follows
the direction, ideational > ((textual) > expressive).
It is noted, however, that there are a few factors which could also influ-
ence the interpretation of functional change in the data, i.e. different modes
(spoken/written), characteristically patterned expressions in a set of sources
(kyoogen), and similar to this, the varying individual styles of the authors who
wrote in the literature investigated. These factors could also affect the frequency
of some particular use of a lexical item. Therefore, after due consideration
of the possible effects caused by these factors, I determined the direction of
pragmaticalization to be stated as in (A).
The functional change which dakedo seems to have undergone is schema-
tized as (B).
(B) Pragmaticalization of dakedo
V + kedo (18th–early 20th C) Dakedo (early 20th C–PDJ)
ideational > ideational
textual (> expressive)
The ideational function is sustained in the whole process of functional change
of dakedo. When the possible original element V + kedo evolved to emerge as
dakedo in initial positions, we saw that dakedo had ideational and textual func-
tions, and optionally expressive function. Since dakedo’s expressive function is
optional, I tentatively suggest the direction ‘textual (> expressive)’ in the course
of pragmatic change in dakedo, as in (B). In PDJ (Present Day Japanese), dakedo
shows at least one more speaker’s contrastive action different from three kinds
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Chapter 4
Before closing this section, I will mention briefly the motive for the possi-
ble positional shift, the process in which the final V-te + mo / V + kedo seem to
have moved into sentence-initial position. That is, first, the subordinate clauses
such as V-te + mo and V + kedo are detached from the rest of the sentence by
‘postposing’ which occurs often in Japanese conversation. Then, those subordi-
nate clauses that have become movable shift into sentence-initial position.16 (In
7.3.1 (Relevance to typological characteristics), I will discuss fully this motive
for the positional shift from the perspective of typology in languages.)
In this section, I address the question of what brings about the pragmatical-
ization of demo and dakedo. This kind of question, addressing what provokes
the semantic/pragmatic change of a lexical item, appears to be the most essen-
tial moot point in the exploration of meaning change; it also remains unsolved
in many cases (cf. Traugott 1980: 29). I hope that my attempt will contribute
to the answering of a more specific question: “Why were these forms or these
structures adopted rather than others?” (Ibid.: 30). An attempt to solve this sort
of question will allow us to look not only at “the onomasiological question –
what forms move into one given domain, and why?” but also at “the semasio-
logical question – what paths does any one form move along in the course of
semantic change?” (Traugott 1985: 298).
Why the structures de + mo and da + kedo, rather than others, were adopted
as independent words and came to be used as markers in initial position, I
think, is greatly due to the fact that the structures contain a morpheme da
(more strictly its stem d). Below, I will claim that da, which has been mostly
recognized as a copula, does not always function as a copula but has another
important role in discourse.
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There are two processes that I can think of as the reasons for adoption
of demo and dakedo as markers: one process is grammatical and the other is
discourse-based. The function of da has to do mainly with a grammatical pro-
cess. I will start with an inspection of this function which seems to rely upon
grammar for the emergence of demo and dakedo as initial grammatical mark-
ers (4.4.1). Next, I will turn to discuss a discourse process which, along with
the grammatical process, seems to have accelerated the use of these items as
markers (4.4.2).
.. The grammatical process leading to the adoption of demo and dakedo
as initial markers
Two grammatical analyses of the function of da (Kuno 1978b and Okutsu 1978)
were reviewed in (2.4.1). They argue for similar functions of da, based on ‘el-
lipsis’ (Kuno) and ‘replacement’ (Okutsu). Here, I will explain da according to
Okutsu (1978).
Okutsu’s point was: Da, widely analyzed as a copula, does not always func-
tion as a copula (linking two nouns A and B as in “A is B”); rather its fundamen-
tal function is to replace a predicate in a prior discourse. Hence, this function
of da can be called a pro-predicate. If da replaces a predicate of a prior utter-
ance, the predicate need not be repeated. Therefore, the predicate replaced by
da is an economical and rational strategy in Japanese conversation. (For details
of Okutsu 1978, see (2.4.1).)
There are conditions for manipulating the da pro- predicate (replacement)
strategy: (I) “a certain verbal or non-verbal context is necessary” (Okutsu
1978: 28), and more specifically, (II) “the predicate which da is going to re-
place must be presupposed” (Ibid.: 32). Consider, for instance, the interchange
(1) between two male speakers, A and B, who play baseball.
(1) A: a. Kinoo ame ga futta.
Yesterday rain SB fell
<‘Yesterday it rained.’>
B: b. Dakedo boku wa renshuu ni itta.
But I TP training went
<‘But I went to the (baseball) training.’> (cf. Okutsu 1978: 33–34)
Once A makes the utterance (a), ‘Yesterday it rained’, the fact that ‘yesterday
it rained’ becomes part of textual context. This satisfies condition (I) for the
use of da in (1b). Further, the information ‘yesterday it rained’ becomes part of
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Chapter 4
In this case, futta + kedo (x) forms a (adversative) subordinate clause to the
main clause (y). This utterance (sentence x–y) is fully grammatical, just as (1b)
was fully grammatical. However, if we compare (2) to (1b) in which dakedo is
used, we see the effect of the da strategy.
(1) B: b. Dakedo, boku wa renshuu ni itta.
But I TP training went
<‘(Although it rained yesterday,) I went to the training.’>
(2) and (1b) convey exactly the same information. The difference is: In (1b),
because da in dakedo replaces the predicate futta just given prior to (1b) by
another speaker, it avoids the repetition of the same predicate. Therefore, (1b)
is not redundant. Here I suggest that not only the meaning of the predicate
‘fall-past’ (futta) is conveyed but the meaning of the whole A’s original utter-
ance ‘Yesterday rain SB fell’ (kinoo ame ga futta) is calculable and conveyed
by dakedo in (1b). This is because another part of the sentence, other than
the predicate, is also recovered from the textual context. As a consequence, in
addition to the replacement of a predicate by da, the whole meaning of a pre-
ceding utterance can be recovered by the hearer owing to context. Thus da’s
replacement function is used as an economical and effective speaker strategy
for cohesion in Japanese conversation.
Okutsu (1978) provides examples where da replaces predicates (not only
verbs but adjectives and even adverbs. See (2.4.1)). Below, it is shown that da
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in (3) can replace the underlined predicate in (4), (5) and (6) if the condition
is observed.
(3) Boku wa unagi da.
I TP eel
(4) Boku wa unagi o tsuru. <‘I will catch an eel.’>
I TP an eel DO (will) catch
(5) Boku wa unagi o chuumon suru. <‘I will order eel.’>
I TP eel DO (will) order
(6) Boku wa unagi o taberu. <‘I will eat eel.’>
I TP eel DO (will) eat
When the predicate is presupposed by the speaker and hearer, i.e. the predicate
is calculable from their background knowledge, (3) would mean (4), (5), (6)
or something else depending upon the presupposition.
We are now ready to discuss the emergence of dakedo and demo18 in ini-
tial positions as conjunctions. Morioka (1973: 41) points out that a function
of a certain group of conjunctions including demo and dakedo (which I call as
demo type connectives) is to “bring in the content of a preceding sentence as a
subordinate clause to the following sentence”. He (Ibid.: 20) further states that
“these conjunctions are, in fact, the abridged forms of the subordinate clauses,
or the replacement of the subordinate clauses”. Morioka’s finding points to vir-
tually the same behavior of da or de as discussed in Okutsu (1978). Morioka’s
point is that conjunctions such as demo and dakedo play the role of the sub-
ordinate clause to the following sentence. And this allows us to discover why
the particular group of conjunctions prefaced by ‘d’ tend to become initial
textual markers.
Demo and dakedo work as subordinate clauses in discourse because of the
replacement function of d. While the original elements (V-te + mo and V +
kedo) are in the final position they cannot have the replacement function. Demo
and dakedo needed to move into the initial positions to serve the replacement
function. The following observation accounts for this. (7) and (8) exemplify
the typical use of the original elements, V-te + mo and V + kedo, respectively.
(7) John wa gakusei de mo, mainichi hataraki ni iku.
TP student COP everyday work go
<‘Although John is a student, he goes to work everyday.’>
(8) John wa gakusei da kedo, mainichi hataraki ni iku.
TP student COP everyday work go
<‘Although John is a student, he goes to work everyday.’>
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Chapter 4
(9), (10), (11) and (12) exemplify that d in the initial positions replaces a pred-
icate in prior discourse. The preceding utterance in the brackets in each case
provides the necessary verbal context which supplies the background knowl-
edge to the participants (meeting the condition (I)). The predicate to be re-
placed by d is presupposed in the background knowledge in each case (meeting
the condition (II)). The four examples are all grammatical and natural utter-
ances. They show that it is only in sentence-initial position that d does not
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need to take a complement and can thus replace a predicate in prior discourse.
Okutsu (1978: 33–34) explains this as follows:
D(a) [in (9), (10), (11) and (12)] does not require a complement. However,
it cannot be used without a precedent sentence. Replacing a predicate in a
precedent sentence, d is then followed by kara, kedo and so forth, and forms a
subordinate clause.
As shown, the only location where d can serve the replacement function is the
sentence (utterance) initial position. In such a position without accompanying
the immediately preceding complement, d freely replaces a predicate in prior
discourse. Due to this replacement function, the elements dakedo and demo
come to have the strong textual function of linking the previous and the current
utterances.
In fact, there is an entire group of items which seems to have undergone the
same kind of pragmatic change and positional shift from the final to initial po-
sition. At least daga, dakara, datte and denakereba, all prefaced by d, belong to
this group “demo type connectives” (Onodera 2000), and they are recognized
as conjunctions (Aoki 1973).19 It is possible that the possession of d made it
easier for this particular group (demo type connectives) rather than others to
move into initial position and work as textual markers.
Traugott (1985), in her discussion of conditional markers, has found that
expressions associated with the protasis (such as the use of interrogative in En-
glish (294–295) and Swahili imperfect (295–296)) are effective at establishing
the presupposed condition for the main clause since such strategies supply “the
frame”, “the given” or “topic” of the apodosis (cf. 295). Although demo and
dakedo are not conditional markers, sentences prefaced by demo/dakedo may
be considered to have a structure which is parallel to that of conditionals in
that demo/dakedo behave like a subordinate clause and are followed by a main
clause. Like a conditional protasis, demo or dakedo also supplies the frame for
the following main clause (apodosis), owing to the replacement function of d.
In this section, the question of why demo and dakedo in particular were
adopted as conjunctions (i.e. initial textual markers) has been examined, and
a grammatical process which seems to have led to this adoption has been
discussed. The grammatical process is as follows. The possible original final
elements de + mo and da + kedo contain d which has the potential of replac-
ing a predicate. They shifted into the initial position and began to serve the
replacement function. In the initial position, demo and dakedo indeed work as
strong textual markers due to the replacement function of d.
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Chapter 4
ical process (4.4.1) in which demo and dakedo became initial textual markers
because of their equipment of the element d. The second is the discourse pro-
cess (4.4.2) in which demo and dakedo came to be used as pragmatic markers,
rather than mere conjunctions, because their emergence in the utterance-initial
position accelerated their serving the expressive function. To conclude the mo-
tivating factors for the pragmatic change of demo and dakedo, I propose that,
on the whole, the fact that they contain the element d is the vital impellent of
their pragmaticalization.
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Chapter 5
We saw in Chapter 3 that two conjunctions demo and dakedo function as mark-
ers in Japanese conversational discourse. In this chapter, I now address two
interjections ne and na, and examine what discourse functions they have in
present day Japanese conversation.
Exploring English conjunctions (‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘or’) and interjections (‘oh’
and ‘well’) as discourse markers, Schiffrin (1987) mentions that among other
word classes whose members are recognized as markers, conjunctions and in-
terjections are two extremes with respect to referential meaning: Conjunctions
inherently have semantic meaning but interjections carry no semantic mean-
ing within themselves (Schiffrin 1987: 319 and elsewhere). Schiffrin (1987: 128)
also refers to the difference in the grammatical role of these word classes, i.e.
while conjunctions “have a role in the grammatical systems of English”, the
“linguistic contribution [of interjections] to their discourse function as mark-
ers is minimal”.
Since interjections are elements which have no referential meaning and
make no contribution to a grammatical system, I will not take the discourse
synthetic (syntactic – semantic – pragmatic) approach that I applied to the
analysis of conjunctions (Chapter 3). Interjections, rather, contribute to hu-
man interactional communication by their abundant expressive meanings.
Therefore, in this chapter, I examine the expressive meanings of ne and na
and attempt to show mainly how they work pragmatically in each different
speaker strategy.
There seems to be general agreement in previous studies of Japanese that
interjections are classified into two types: one type expresses the speaker’s
exclamation (admiration, surprise, fear etc.) and the other type expresses
the speaker’s communicative intention of drawing somebody’s attention or
responding to somebody. This classification reflects the general features
of Japanese interjections. The first type of interjection simply conveys the
speaker’s inner emotions without the intention of communicating those emo-
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Chapter 5
There are three reasons for introducing the concept, harmony, before provid-
ing the analysis of ne and na. First, ‘to reach harmony’ is the ultimate goal for
participants in Japanese conversation (cf. Barnlund 1974; Haga 1979; Hayashi
1988). Ne and na are the elements that reflect the achievement of harmony in
Japanese conversation. Second, harmony may be a language/culture-specific
feature; in other words, it may be a characteristic inherent in the Japanese
language, patterns of interactional behavior, and even the social organizations
in general. This feature may not reside in Western languages such as English.
Third, the concept of harmony also provides the base from which to compre-
hend that ne and na are markers of involvement (5.9).
‘Harmony’, as I shall employ the term, is the “feeling of ‘one-ness’/unity”
(Nakane 1970) among conversants in non-conflicting or non-argumentative
conversational communication.1 In such a situation not only is the meta-
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knowledge2 status maintained (i.e. both the speaker and hearer know that they
share the same information), but also the interpretation/evaluation of the in-
formation is shared by the speaker and hearer. In my analysis of ne and na in
Present Day Japanese, it is recognized that they display ‘harmony’ in some way
in conversation: They reflect a harmonious atmosphere, display harmonious
personal relations, or even help to develop harmony.
I suggest that to reach harmony is the underlying ultimate goal for partic-
ipants in Japanese conversation. Motivated by this goal, there is a continuous
process in Japanese conversation management, in which participants strive for
conformity, not only through the sharing of information but also through
the evaluation of information. Thus harmony means not mere conformity
of the external informative frame (possessing the same piece of information)
but of each participant’s inner world. A conclusion of Hayashi’s (1988: 286)
contrastive study of English and Japanese floor management also implies that
“to attain a communicative goal such as enjoying conversation in harmonious
atmosphere” is the highest goal in Japanese conversation.
Previous works in sociology, psychology and communication have also
noted that harmony is a fundamental factor in understanding communica-
tive patterns in Japanese society. In his conclusion of Japanese and American
communicative styles, Barnlund (1974: 94–95) writes:
The Japanese appear to place the highest value on preserving the harmony
of the social group . . . [while Americans place it] on the preservation of
individual integrity.
Haga (1979: 104–105) also mentions that while Japan is a world where har-
mony (wa) is sovereign, Western countries comprise a world where logic
(ri) assumes sovereignty. Haga (Ibid.: 107) further suggests that in such
a harmony-oriented society, Ego is continuously sensitive to Alters’ eval-
uation of him/her in the group he/she belongs to. I think this group-
belongingness/orientedness is another characteristic feature in Japanese society
which actually promotes harmony.
Nakane (1970) accounts for Japanese group-orientation (in her term,
group-consciousness) by her two criteria of group formation: frame and at-
tribute. She assumes these contrasting concepts “to be most effective in the
analysis of Japanese society in comparison with other societies” (Ibid.: 1).
Nakane (1970: 1–2) defines the two concepts as follows:
Frame may be a locality, an institution or a particular relationship which binds
a set of individuals into one group. . .
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Chapter 5
Attribute may mean, for instance, being a member of a definite descent group
or caste.
Nakane (Ibid.: 2) then stresses the ready tendency of the Japanese to lay empha-
sis on the frame rather than the attribute. An example showing such tendency
in a social context of self-introduction is given:
Rather than saying, ‘I am a type-setter’ or ‘I am a filing clerk’, he [a Japanese]
is likely to say, ‘I am from B Publishing Group’ or ‘I belong to S Company’.
(Ibid.: 3)
.. Agreement
In (a), Student A describes a rice cake which grows bigger as it fries so that
it looks like a tennis ball. The description in (a) expresses A’s surprise at the
growing cake. Then in (b) Mrs. K, the instructor, shows her agreement with A’s
description, with ne::e and an adverb, really. As well as the use of an intensive,
really, the lengthened vowel in ne::e indicates the high degree of Mrs. K’s agree-
ment. Mrs. K’s ne::e also seems to be an exclamation. The fact that ne is related
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Chapter 5
In (2), listening to Prof. W’s talk about the admirable student, Mrs. K makes
two exclamatory remarks with interjections hoo and nee. The use of two inter-
jections indicates that Mrs. K is very impressed by the tenacity of the student.
By uttering nee: in (g), Mrs. K expresses her agreement with Prof. W’s de-
scription of the student. There seems also Mrs. K’s feelings of being impressed
and surprised. This emotional response is conveyed by the lengthened vowel of
nee:.4
Note that hoo (as in (2)) is an interjection which belongs to the first group
of interjections (expressing the speaker’s exclamation): This is a word which is
uttered when one is impressed by something. Nee in (2) is also involved with
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feelings of exclamation, more specifically admiration. Hoo and nee both con-
vey the speaker’s exclamation. However, the difference in them is that while hoo
expresses the speaker’s emotion directly, nee conveys the speaker’s exclamation
by showing agreement with the interlocutor’s inner evaluation. In other words,
nee, in fact, reflects not only the speaker’s, but also the interlocutor’s emotional
reaction. This is one way to account for the fact that nee expresses exclamation
in spite of being part of the second group of interjections (communication-
based). However, it does not seem the whole story: There also seems a close
relationship between a communication-based interjection nee and exclama-
tion. This relationship will be considered further in the diachronic analysis of
ne and na (Chapter 6).
In (1) and (2), I proposed that phonetic variation, lengthened vowels, des-
ignate the emphatic use of ne, and hence they are contextualization cues. In (3),
another phonetic variation marking emphatic ne, a glottal stop, [‘] is found. (3)
is an exchange from a conversation which took place when my in-laws visited
our home in Tokyo.
(3)
Ne ‘
In (a–b), I evaluate that the cake my in-laws brought would appeal to the
young generation. Agreeing with my evaluation, my mother-in-law says Ne ‘
in (c), latched onto (b). This phonetic variation, glottal stop, added to ne, also
designates a more emphatic use than the one-mora ne.
Chapter 5
I will show that ne and na are used as back channels whose basic function
is agreement (4), with accompanying functions (2) and (5). Maynard’s con-
trastive study of Japanese and American English conversations has also revealed
the higher frequency of back channels in Japanese conversation (Ibid.: 207). Ac-
cording to Maynard, the number of back channels in three-minute segments of
conversation among twenty Japanese and twenty American pairs are: Japanese
871, American 428. Back channels occur more than twice as frequently in
Japanese casual conversation. This result accords with my own impression
from participating in conversations in both languages.
What causes the difference in frequency of back channels in the two lan-
guages? Maynard (1989b: 177) states that a continuous flow of back chan-
nels in casual conversation is the norm within the Japanese speech com-
munity. She also writes that back channels offer integral information for
self-contextualization (Ibid.). The difference in frequency of back channels
in Japanese and English is, in fact, accountable in her framework of self-
contextualization: it is caused by the difference in degree of sensitivity to
self-contextualization (Ibid.: 218). Recall that, when contextualizing self, the
ultimate goal in Japanese conversation, to seek harmony, supplies the criterion
for appropriate contextualization (5.1): That is, to maintain harmony is the
appropriate way to contextualize self in Japanese society. Therefore, my study
suggests that the high frequency of back channels in Japanese conversation
is controlled by its culturally specific goal, ‘to seek harmony’. Back channels
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in Japanese also show that harmony has been achieved or at least that the
participants are working toward it.
Ne and na as back channel expressions occur at transition relevance places
(TRP), and they indicate the listener’s agreement. (A TRP consists of the end
of a turn-unit where the transition of speakers may occur, Sacks, Schegloff, &
Jefferson 1978.)
(4) shows a case of ne as a back channel. (4) is taken from a conversation
among Mr. and Mrs. K and Prof. W. When (4) arose, Mr. K was talking about
his hobby of fishing. Mr. and Mrs. K had already explained that whenever Mr.
K set off for fishing, he left home about 3:30 am. In response, Prof. W says:
(4) Prof. W: a. Soide omodori ni naru
Then return
b. no wa yuugata nan deshoo?
NOM TP evening NOM TAG
<‘Then when you come back home, it’s in the evening, isn’t
it?’>
Mr. K: c. Ee, soo desu ne, hai,
Yeh, well, yes,
d. nanji goro ka naa,
what-time about Q FP
e. kuji goro ni narimasu
nine-o’clock around is
f. ka nee.
FP
<‘Yeh, well, yes, (I wonder) what time it would be, It would
be around nine o’clock.’>
Prof. W: g. Nee.
TAG
<‘Would it?’>
Mrs. K: h. Sorekara moo ichi jikan
Then well one hour
i. ni jikan kakatte,
two hours take-GER
<‘Then he spends one or two hours. . . ’>
Prof. W mentions ‘evening’ in (a–b). Mr. K then tries to recall the time of his re-
turn in (c–d) and builds on ‘evening’ mentioned by Prof. W by specifying ‘9:00’
in (e–f). This shows that Prof. W and Mr. K are indeed jointly building infor-
mation in a way to exhibit they “share information” and have harmony. In (g),
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Chapter 5
Prof. W says nee. It does not express her agreement with or show that she is im-
pressed by the proposition in (e–f), “Mr. K returns home around nine o’clock.”
Nee in this case, rather signifies Prof. W’s contribution to keep the harmonious
relationship with Mr. K in the conversation, by contributing a listener reaction.
Nee (g) shows the listener’s involvement in this talk, too. Following this back
channel, in (h) Mrs. K develops the story by describing what Mr. K does after
his return (He spends one or two hours cooking the fish, . . . etc.).
Another important role of ne(e) and na(a) in discourse is to call the atten-
tion of the hearer. The ‘calling attention’ function can be divided into three
types according to the direction of discourse to which ne(e) and na(a) point. I
demonstrate the cases in which they point forward (5.3), backward (5.4) and
lastly both directions (5.5).
us now in this way) because ne marks the coming report of a relatively notable
piece of information in the immediate flow of discourse. As a discourse marker,
ne suggests contextual coordinates (Schiffrin 1987: 326): it focuses on the up-
coming information (textual coordinates) and it indexes the utterance to the
hearer (participation coordinates).5
Let us turn to see in what situation this strategy is used. The first exam-
ple is (5). It is an excerpt from a conversation which came about during Mrs.
K’s cooking class. Prior to (5), even though it was in the middle of the class,
Mrs. K needed to explain the reason for leaving the tape-recorder on (record-
ing conversation) since the students were curious. To answer her students’
questions, Mrs. K told them the purpose of an earlier study for which some
conversations were recorded. Mrs. K then needed to return to the task at hand
and give a cooking instruction. In (c), she makes an effort to give new infor-
mation on cooking even though the students are still showing interest in the
linguistic study.
(5) Student B: a. Sensei no kotoba ga
Teacher GN words SB
b. omo ne.
main TAG
<‘Your (Mrs. K’s) words are mainly (recorded), aren’t
they?’>
Mrs. K: c. Nee, chotto tsumeta:ku wa
Well umm cold EMP
d. narimasen wa. Gomennasai.
get NEG FP sorry
<‘Well, it doesn’t get really cold. Sorry.’>
In (c), nee is used to call the attention of the hearers (students) before the
new information in (c–d). In this case, in addition to nee, an adverb chotto
which also plays the role of calling somebody’s attention is used. Thus the ap-
pearance of both nee and chotto conveys that Mrs. K is drawing the hearers’
attention to something other than the ongoing subtopic. Nee in (c) focuses
on the upcoming information. Following (d), the conversation on today’s dish
continues. Mrs. K succeeded in going back to her cooking instruction from a
digressive topic.
A similar case of Mrs. K’s use of nee was also found: In this case, the stu-
dents’ attention had been scattered in many directions; thus before giving the
next instruction, she called their attention using nee. By contrast, when the stu-
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Chapter 5
dents are paying enough attention, she uses another interjection saa. (6) shows
Mrs. K’s use of saa instead of nee.
(6) Student B: a. Dakara ‘Edo Zushi’ no tokoro
So LK place
b. kara shika ike nai n desu.
from only go NEG NOM COP
<‘So (the cars) can go in only at Edo Zushi restaurant.’>
Mrs. K: c. Fu:n.
Hmmm
<‘Hmmm.’>
Student C: d. Fu:n.
Hmmm
<‘Hmmm.’>
Mrs. K: e. Saa, jaa zelii dashi-
Now then jello get out
f. mashoo ka?
Q
<‘Now, then let’s get out ‘jello’.’>
In (a–b), Student B has just ended her story about the one-way traffic in the
neighborhood. Mrs. K and Student C back channel ‘Hmmm’ in (c) and (d):
this seems a transition relevance place (Sacks et al. 1978). Everybody is at the
table and appears to be silent for a moment following (d). Mrs. K then says saa
and gives her next instruction ‘let’s get out jello’ in (e–f). In this situation, it is
not necessary for Mrs. K to direct the students’ attention to her suggestion.
Saa is an interjection which expresses the speaker’s ‘invitation’ (to listen to
what he/she will say) (cf. Yamaguchi 1984). In a situation like (6) where it was
not necessary to get the hearer’s attention before new information, the speaker
can use an interjection other than nee.
Another example of calling attention ‘before new information’ is (7). It is
an excerpt from a telephone conversation between Mrs. K and Mrs. M, the
mother of Saki’s friend in piano class. When this excerpt took place, the two
mothers were discussing giving a present to the piano instructor at the pupils’
recital. Following Mrs. M’s information, in (7), Mrs. K makes an effort to give
another piece of information which might explain why some mothers objected
to giving a present.
(7) Mrs. K: a. Ee sore to,
Yeh it and
<‘Yeh and,’>
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Mrs. M: b. Ee.
Yeh
<‘Yeh.’>
Mrs. K: c. ne, maa sore wa yodan kamo
well, um it TP digression
d. shiremasen keredomo,
might.be though
<‘well, um this may be off the subject, but,’>
Mrs. M: e. Ee,
Yeh
<‘Yeh,’>
Mrs. K: f. ano, ginkoo no kata ga
um bank clerk SB
g. osshatterashita ni wa, . . .
told (HON) EMP
<‘um, the bank clerk told me that. . . ’>
In (7), Mrs. K’s effort to give new information is marked not only by ne in
(c) but also by other linguistic features: a formulaic expression to begin a new
subtopic, sore to in (a) (and then) and a meta-linguistic clause which is an exter-
nal evaluation6 ‘this may be off the subject’ in (c–d). Ne and all these linguistic
devices indicate that there will be new information upcoming. Following (g),
Mrs. K supplies new information, which she heard from a bank clerk, about
the financial hardships the people in her town are suffering, caused by the
home loan.
In this section, I have examined the use of ne(e) to call attention ‘before
new information’. Ne(e) focuses on upcoming information, hence it is cat-
aphoric. At the beginning of this section, I mentioned the communicative effect
of this function: (1) For the speaker, this function allows him/her to prepare
the hearer for the forthcoming information. (2) The hearer can know that a
piece of important information is to come. The use of ne contributes to the
interactional level of discourse; in other words, involvement.
Let us now turn to examples in which ne(e) works anaphorically to call the
hearer’s attention. One specific use of ne(e) is to reinforce information (5.4.1).
The sequence here is the reverse of the cataphoric use of ne(e). Once the speaker
supplies the information, he/she can well assume that it has become shared by
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Chapter 5
the hearer. Following this shared information, ne(e) functions in a specific way
in discourse: it asks about and suggests the validity of the given information to
the hearer (5.4.1).
.. Reinforcement
A speaker can use ne(e) to suggest the validity of information just presented.
The effect of this function is that the speaker reinforces his/her information to
try to get the hearer to receive it. This shows the speaker’s effort to reach the
goal of sharing the information with the hearer. The goal is, in other words, to
attain harmony in conversation. Hence this function also reflects the feature of
ne(e) as a marker of involvement.
(8) illustrates. It took place when one of Mrs. K’s cooking classes was over
and the students were getting ready to leave. Student S asked Student T if she
wanted a ride. But T did not want to inconvenience S, and rejected the offer
three times. Mrs. K then reinforces S’s offer in (a–b).
(8) Mrs. K: a. Jaa eki made nosete
Then station to ride
b. itadakeba? Nee.
receive-if How’s.that?
<‘Then how about getting a ride to the station? How’s
that?’>
Student S: c. Soo yo.
Right
<‘Right.’>
Student T: d. Itsumo suimasen.
Always thank.you
e. Nanka itsumo nanka,
Anyhow always anyhow
<‘It’s always. Thank you. Anyhow always . . . ’
a ride to the station?’ in (a–b) was Mrs. K’s own suggestion. But the added nee
sounds as if the suggestion were everybody’s idea. This is the effect of nee as a
marker of involvement which ‘involves’ participants in what is said. With nee,
Mrs. K’s suggestion is openly attested as having been shared by all the hearers
present. In sum, with nee the speaker reinforces his/her preceding information.
(9) is similar. This is an exchange from a conversation between Mr.
and Mrs. K after Mr. K returned home from work. They talk of today’s
muggy weather.
(9) Mr. K: a. Mushiburo tte kanji ni
Steam-bath QT feel
b. naru yo. Nettaiya
become EMP sultry-night
c. mitai da ne. Ne.
seem COP FP
<‘It’s like taking a steam bath. It will be a sultry night.7 Won’t
it?’>
Mrs. K: d. Kyoo wa nettaiya
Today TP sultry-night
e. desu tte.
COP QT
<‘Today it’ll be a sultry night, (they say.)’>
Mr. K: f. Soo da ro?
So TAG
<‘I told you.’>
In (b–c), Mr. K suggests ‘It will be a sultry night’ and says ne. He could make
the same prediction without ne, however, he adds it to reinforce his idea. With
ne the speaker affirms the validity of his information. This act seems directed
to the underlying goal of conversation, to reach harmony, because affirming
the validity of the speaker’s information and reinforcing it all show his efforts
to attain conformity with the hearer. After ne, the hearer (Mrs. K) makes the
same prediction as the speaker in (d–e): This shows that the speaker succeeded
in sharing his information with the hearer and that they reached harmony,
which fulfills an eventual goal of Japanese conversation. Thus, (9) also shows
that ne is an involvement marker, involving the other participant in what is
being said.
In cases where the hearer shows agreement with the speaker’s opinion
after the speaker’s ne, I have suggested that the speaker was successful in ful-
filling his/her goal. In the data examined, the hearer’s consent often follows
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Chapter 5
the speaker’s ne. This is not surprising because upon the provision of ne, in
many cases, speaker-hearer alignment (harmony) is somehow or other already
achieved. After this point, there is a tendency for the hearer to show his/her
acknowledgement of the accomplished harmonious situation. To express dis-
tinctly this kind of listener agreement seems important in Japanese conversa-
tion and it in fact recurs. However, it is noted that all the functions of ne are
in effect regardless of what follows ne, i.e. with/without listener’s acknowledge-
ment. (For instance, in our prior example (2), nee: said by Mrs. K is followed
by Prof. W’s utterance which just continues the story, ‘Her (the student’s) hus-
band is a professor of mathematics.’ Nothing shows Prof. W’s agreement with
the speaker of nee:; nevertheless, nee: functions fully.)
In sum, (8) and (9) illustrate that ne(e) reinforces information just pro-
duced by a speaker.
In addition to the cataphoric (5.3) and anaphoric (5.4) uses, ne/na can be
used both cataphorically and anaphorically (5.5). Here, ne/na points to both
directions, backward and forward, simultaneously.
.. Summons
When one calls somebody in English conversation, first names and kinship
terms (Dad, Grandma etc.) are frequently used. In Japanese conversation,
the interjection nee is used to replace such address terms. Following Sche-
gloff (1972, 1979), I call this function ‘summons’. Schegloff (1972: 357–358)
identifies as summonses (attention-getting devices) of summons-answer se-
quences the following devices: (1) terms of address; (2) courtesy phrases such
as “Pardon me”; (3) physical devices such as a tap on the shoulder; and (4) me-
chanical devices like telephone rings. Within the class of terms of address, he
includes ““John?,” “Dr.,” “Mr. Jones?,” “waiter,” etc.” (357). Ne(e) can at times
replace such address terms. A summons calls attention to something coming
up. Therefore, the use of ne(e) as a summons is basically cataphoric.
Although a summons is cataphoric, (10) shows that nee can also be used
anaphorically, i.e. in this example, nee is both cataphoric and anaphoric. (10)
is an exchange from a conversation between Mrs. K and her younger daughter,
Saki, which takes place before Saki leaves home for high school.
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(10) takes place while Saki is at breakfast. Before the two daughters leave for
school Mrs. K seems busy preparing their meal and their lunch. In (d), Saki
asks her mother a question, but Mrs. K does not respond immediately, so Saki
says nee following her question to get her mother’s attention. In (e), Mrs. K
says ‘What?’, which shows that she did not hear Saki’s request for information.
Then in (f), by repeating the same question, Saki at last supplies the request for
information in this exchange. Nee directs the hearer’s attention to this question.
However, since the question (f) is in fact a repetition of the question in (d), nee
(d) also looks at the original question. Thus, (10) indeed shows a case in which
nee looks both forward and backward.
Instead of using nee to address her mother, there are other address terms
available for Saki, e.g. Okaasan (Mother). It is less polite to address somebody
by nee than by proper kinship terms or names. However, (10) illustrates a case
where nee can replace an address term in a conversation where the speaker-
hearer relationship is intimate/solidary (cf. Brown & Gilman 1960).
In (10), as a summons, nee looks forward, i.e. it is used cataphorically.
However, in this example, nee also looks backward and points at the original
information.
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Chapter 5
In this function, nee/naa is used between the prior information and upcom-
ing information provided by the speaker, and nee/naa looks at both chunks of
information.
This function is realized by na as well as ne. Although the use of na is less
frequent than that of ne in my data of Present Day Japanese, I include it within
the scope of analysis because it is closely related to ne historically and both
interjections will be examined in the diachronic study (Chapter 6).
In this function, the speaker first supplies Information A, says nee/(naa),
and gives Information B. Nee/(naa) confirms the hearer’s reception of Informa-
tion A. This confirmation indicates that Information A becomes part of shared
knowledge (Schiffrin 1987: 268, mutual knowledge in Levinson 1983: 16), i.e.
S knows that H knows that S knows that H knows (Levinson Ibid.). Based on
this shared Information A, the speaker continues with Information B. There
is no particular relationship required between the two pieces of information
(i.e. A and B can be anything) as long as they are somehow coherent within
the discourse. As a consequence of this function, we will see that the prior and
upcoming information are linked.
I first examine an example of nee in (11). It is from a telephone conversa-
tion between Mrs. K and another mother (H) whose daughter goes to the same
high school as Mrs. K’s daughter. As a PTA official, Mrs. K has purchased the
tickets for a Kabuki play for the pupils and their parents. In (11), she explains
the reserved seating arrangement to H.
(11) Mrs. K: a. Ano ne, renzoku bangoo
Well um successive numbers
b. to iu yori mo, anoo
QT say rather well
c. tashikani ano bangoo wa
actually um numbers TP
d. tsuzuite wa orimasu n
succeed EMP NOM
e. desu ne.
COP FP
f. De ano, ikkai no hatsuka wa
And um orchestra LK the.20th TP
g. ee, hidarigawa no hoo no
well left-side LK direction LK
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From (a) through (j), Mrs. K describes the location of the seats for their high
school so that Mother H will know how their seats are distributed. In (k), Mrs.
K says nee and confirms Mrs. H’s reception of Information A (a–j) (concerning
their seats for the 20th). In this case, Mrs. K seems to assume Mrs. H’s reception
of Information A. Based on the shared Information A, Mrs. K then develops In-
formation B (k) concerning the number of seats (‘300 seats’). Nee (k) indicates
that Information A and B are closely related (i.e. they concern the same general
topic). Consequently, ‘Three hundred seats’ (Information B (k)) is understood
accurately as pertaining to ‘our seats for the twentieth’ (Information A (a–j)).
Overall nee informs the hearer that the forthcoming information is linked
with the prior in the unfolding discourse.
Let us see the same function in naa. (12) is from a conversation between
Mr. and Mrs. K after Mr. K’s return home. Before coming back home, he visited
an amusement quarter, Roppongi.
(12) Mr. K: a. Hachi ji sugi dakedo maa
Eight o’clock after but well
b. yoosuruni koo hantai kara mo
briefly like opposite.direction from also
c. kuru wake da yo.
come case COP EMP
<‘Although it’s after eight o’clock, (a crowd) comes along
from the opposite direction.’>
Mrs. K: d. Ee.
Yes
<‘Yes.’>
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Chapter 5
Mr. K gives Information A ‘even though it was after 8p.m., a lot of people came
from the opposite direction (where a subway station is)’ in (a–c). In this exam-
ple, the hearer (Mrs. K) says ‘yes’ (d) showing her reception of Information A.
Mr. K then utters naa (e) to acknowledge Mrs. K’s reception. At this moment,
that Information A is shared by the speaker and hearer is openly attested. Now,
Mr. K can use the shared Information A as a base to develop Information B.
Because Information A is shared by the speaker and hearer, Information B is
understood clearly (e.g. the deserted area = the area where the station is, the
area of amusement = the area where Mr. K had been).
Naa in this function designates the close link between prior and upcoming
information in the unfolding discourse as did nee in (11).
On the whole, nee and naa in this function link the prior and upcoming
information.
In sum, the examination of the above examples (1)–(12) has revealed sev-
eral different roles of ne(e)/na(a): agreement, back channel, before new informa-
tion, reinforcement, summons and linking prior and upcoming information. Con-
sidering the last four functions together, it can be noted that ne and na some-
times work cataphorically (5.3), sometimes anaphorically (5.4) and sometimes
in both directions (5.5). Thus they act to index the relationship (connection)
between two portions of discourse. By means of this indexing function, ne and
na mark the coherent relationship between prior and upcoming discourse, and
have a textual function (text-building function). In the building of text, ne
and na in fact provide contextual coordinates (Schiffrin 1987: 326) of specific
information (utterance): they index an utterance to the context including par-
ticipants and text. Ne and na suggest where the utterance is located on the two
axes – participation and textual coordinates. That is, the markers index the con-
taining utterance to either speaker or hearer (participants) and to either prior
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Before looking into the secondary functions of ne(e) and na(a), I show that
ne(e) and na(a) are markers of rapport. ‘Rapport’ refers to a congenial situation
in which the speaker and hearer achieve the acknowledged meta-knowledge
status in which they both know that they share the same information. In this
study, ‘rapport’ differs from harmony because it concerns only cases associated
with a particular exchange structure. Out of ninety-four examples of ne and
na, twenty-eight have the particular ‘rapport marker’ structure in my data. Al-
though it is not the majority, it still occupies 30% of all the examples of ne
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Chapter 5
and na. I suggest that they are more or less the typical cases demonstrating the
characteristics of involvement markers.
The exchange structure of discourse in which ne(e)/na(a) is a rapport
marker is:
a. the speaker: Information X
b. the hearer: Consent to Information X (realized by soo, hai, ee, or repetition
of Information X, etc.)
c. the speaker: Acknowledgement of Consent (Ne(e)/Na(a))
From (a) through (c), Mrs. K makes her claim (“there is common sense” =
Information X). In (d), Mrs. M agrees with Mrs. K’s claim by repeating its pred-
icate (‘exist’ (arimasu)). At this point of M’s agreement, the meta-knowledge
situation (the speaker and hearer know that both of them know Information
X) is openly attested. Then this process led Mrs. K to use the marker acknowl-
edging Mrs. M’s agreement. It is at the point when the speaker is convinced
that her information is truly shared by her interlocutor that the speaker uses
nee, which in fact marks the achieved rapport.
(14) shows the same strategy realized by na. (14) is an exchange between
Mr. K and his elder daughter, Rika, in a conversation which occurred at the K’s
on Sunday morning. Mr. K and Rika were trying to figure out where the tennis
court was. In (14), Mr. K suggests the location of a river as a clue.
(14) Mr. K: a. De koo zutto hirake
And like.this far open
b. hirakeru n da yo ne.
open NOM COP FP FP
c. De sono saki ni kawa ga
And that beyond river SB
d. aru n da yo na?
exist NOM COP FP FP
<‘And (the land) opens out at that point. And beyond it (the
open space), there’s a river.’>
Rika: e. Soo.
Yes
<‘Yes.’>
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Chapter 5
Mr. K: f. Na.
Right?
<‘Right?’>
From (a) through (d), the speaker provides Information X ‘And the land
opens out at that point. Beyond it, there’s a river.’ Rika’s agreement marker
soo (Yes) follows in (e). Then Mr. K says na which shows his acknowledge-
ment of Rika’s agreement and thus marks the situation where he and Rika share
Information X.
In (14), the specific function of na in (f) is only a back channel response
which does not do much in the meaning-construction of discourse. Despite
this fact, Mr. K’s na in (f) still makes an important contribution on the in-
teractional level of discourse, creating harmony in a family conversation. The
importance of uttering na here is not what the word propositionally transmits
but rather the act of saying itself. The act of saying or acknowledging his daugh-
ter’s agreement shows Mr. K’s active participation in conversation and makes
public the achieved harmonious situation between him and his daughter.
(15) and (16) show that nee marks ‘rapport’, functioning specifically ‘to
link prior and upcoming information’. (15) is an excerpt from a telephone con-
versation between Mrs. K and Mrs. H. This is from the same segment out of
which (11) is extracted. Mrs. K is explaining the distribution of their seats for
the Kabuki play to Mrs. H.
(15) Mrs. K: a. Desukara goku ichibu
So quite a-part
b. na n desu.
COP NOM COP
<‘So (our) seats are only part of it.’>
Mrs. H: c. Haa.
Hmmm
<‘Hmmm.’>
Mrs. K: d. Nee zentai no.
Okay whole LK
<‘Okay, of the entire theater.’>
In (a–b), Mrs. K clarifies that the reserved seats for their high school group
would only be part of the theater (against Mrs. H’s anticipation that the whole
theater would be reserved for them). Mrs. H shows her acknowledgement of
the above information by a back channel response Haa in (c). Following, Mrs.
K says Nee to confirm Mrs. H’s understanding of the information in (a–b), then
develops another bit of information, “of the entire theater” in (d). The proposi-
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tion “of the entire theater” only makes sense dependent upon the information
provided in (a–b). Recall that nee used in ‘linking prior and upcoming infor-
mation’ points both anaphorically and cataphorically. Nee in (d) focuses on
earlier information (a–b) “Our seats are only part of it.” Then Nee shows that
later information in (d) “of the entire theater” coheres with earlier information.
In (15), in the second piece of information, the speaker in fact expands the first
chunk of information. To expand it, the speaker’s use of nee suggests its co-
herent relationship with the upcoming information; then the whole discourse
makes sense.
(16) demonstrates an interesting variation of a rapport marker structure:
i.e. the structure involves three participants. (16) is taken out of a conversation
between Mrs. K and her students after a cooking class. Prior to (16), they have
talked about who can drink alcohol.
(16) Mrs. K: a.Hirota san otabako wa?
Mrs. Hirota cigarettes TP?
<‘Mrs. Hirota, how about cigarettes?’>
Student H: b. Dame desu.
Impossible COP
<‘No (I don’t smoke cigarettes).’>
Mrs. K: c. A so:o.
Oh TAG
<‘Oh, don’t you?’>
Student T: d. Nee otabako mo ike
Right cigarettes also can
e. soo ne.
seem FP
<‘Right. She does look able to smoke.’>
(16) has an exchange structure modified from the basic ‘rapport marker’ struc-
ture I demonstrated at the beginning of (5.6). In (16), at first Mrs. K asks H
about smoking (since H has been revealed to be the only one in the class who
can drink). H offers the requested information by a negative answer in (b).
Mrs. K then sends a back channel response to this information in (c). Now
it is interesting that the third participant T says nee to acknowledge Mrs. K’s
back channel.
The exchange structure of (16) is as follows:
(16’) a. S Request for Information X
b. H Information X
c. S Consent to Information X
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Chapter 5
In this structure, the question/answer pair ((a) and (b)) corresponds to the
speaker’s Information X in the original rapport marker structure, discussed
above. S’s back channel ‘Oh, don’t you?’ (c) shows her consent. At the point of
(c), S and H come to share Information X (H doesn’t smoke). Now in (d), it is
not H, but the third person P who utters nee. Nee shows P’s acknowledgement
of S’s consent to Information X (H does not smoke). Nee expresses the estab-
lished meta-knowledge situation, i.e. P and S share Information X, which was
affirmed to be shared by S and H in (c). Hence (16) is an example in which a
rapport-marker involves three participants.
Through the examination of (13)–(16), we have seen two uses of nee (na).
In (15) and (16) the speaker continues a sentence following nee. By contrast
in (13) and (14), the speaker only says nee/na, and following it, another par-
ticipant takes a turn. In the latter case, we see that nee/na is being treated
like a whole utterance, because after nee/na there seems a turn transition rel-
evance place where another participant in fact takes a turn. This shows the
independent nature of interjections that do not rely on other elements to form
a sentence. This is a linguistic feature of interjections which differ in this re-
spect from dependent words such as sentence-final particles and conjunctive
particles.
. Fillers
Finally, I address two functions of ne(e) and na(a), which I define as their sec-
ondary functions. The two functions ‘filler’ (5.7) and ‘atmosphere sustainer’
(5.8) derive from the basic functions discussed in each section above. What
leads to this use, I think, is speaker subjectivity. (Subjectivity will be a more
relevant issue in the diachronic analysis of ne and na (Chapter 6). In Chap-
ter 6, subjectification accompanying the historical change in ne and na will be
explored.)
First I examine the function of filler. Filler may be a category which con-
tains words least loaded with semantic meaning. However, fillers might carry
discourse/pragmatic meaning which makes an important contribution to the
social/interactional aspect of discourse.
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Mrs. K explains her efforts to make up for the difference in cooking in the
birthplaces of Mr. K and herself. After mentioning “for boiled dishes or any-
thing” in (f), she says ano: ne (we:ll um). By doing so, she is in fact seeking the
right words to express what she did for these dishes. Following “we:ll um”, she
continues “added color to them”.
Because the expression “adding color” is not in regular use for cooking,
Mrs. K’s use of such an expression, as well as the two fillers (ano: ne), demon-
strate her effort to search for the right words.
Ne in (g) fills a potential ideational gap: Not necessarily, but potentially,
there would be a pause in (g), which informs the hearer of some conversa-
tional awkwardness. According to Maynard (1989b: 30), ne in (g) belongs to
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Chapter 5
the “socially motivated fillers” that “fill a potential silence”. The effect of their
employment is:
to create the impression that verbal interaction is carried on without cessation,
thereby avoiding potential embarrassment. (Ibid.)
Maynard’s statement (30–31) that with the employment of fillers “the speaker
shows some hesitancy and less certainty about” what he/she says also explains
ne in (g): Mrs. K hesitates to use the expression “added color”. In sum, ne fills
in the potential silence.
From the referential viewpoint ne conveys nothing; however, from the in-
teractional viewpoint the fundamental function of ne in (17) is to fill in the
awkwardness of potential silence. The use of fillers also displays the speaker’s
attempt to do repair work (look for the right words and continue the conver-
sation). Thus, the filler ne (g) in (17) fills not only the ideational gap but the
potential social/communicative gap.
When this segment took place, the students had already started getting ready
to leave. Some might have stood up and started putting on their coats. Reading
the transcript of the segment containing (18) leads to an impression that in
this situation the participants in conversation are not paying careful attention
to topic management.
In (a–b), S continues to finish her statement about her sweater. In (c), Mrs.
K comments on S’s small bag (pochette). Nonetheless, S’s interest appears to
remain focused on the previous topic when she says ‘anybody’ in (d). At this
point, what ‘anybody’ means would not be clear to any participant. However,
Mrs. K utters nee in (e) as if she were agreeing with what S says. In (f), in-
stead of completing a sentence started with ‘anybody’, S begins another clause
‘if doing so,’. Mrs. K’s nee in (e) cannot mark agreement. It could be called a
filler. However, compared to (17) in which ne filled the potential gap created
by the speaker’s own search for words, nee in (18) seems even more socially
motivated. In (18), nee fills a potential interactional gap in a gathering where
the speaker holds more or less social responsibility.
I suggest that nee in (e) is provided only because of Mrs. K’s intention to
help keep and promote the settled cozy atmosphere at the end of this day’s
lesson. Thus (18) is a case where nee functions as an ‘atmosphere sustainer’.
In Mrs. K’s utterances in the cooking class conversations there are more
cases of ne(e) as the same speaker’s strategy. This can be understood as follows:
The cooking class situation is a social context in which Mrs. K as the instructor
holds the communicative leadership and is in the position of controlling class-
room management, including the class atmosphere. Mrs. K’s frequent use of
ne(e) to sustain the class atmosphere indicates her attempt to be responsible as
the communicative leader in her cooking classes.
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Chapter 5
.. Involvement
In the sections above, I have described specific functions of ne(e) and na(a).
In this section, I propose that ne(e) and na(a) in all the examples above are
markers of involvement. It was suggested in (5.1) that participants in Japanese
conversation have an ultimate goal, of reaching harmony. It has been observed
above that the participants make efforts to reach harmony by trying somehow
or other to share information and its associated evaluation: Thus their efforts
are all attempts to approach ‘alter’ (as opposed to ‘ego’) and involve him/her in
what is being said in the conversation.
Involvement has been discussed by many researchers as a result of increased
interest in the interactive nature of conversations (Bateson 1972; Chafe 1982;
Goffman 1967; Gumperz 1982; Tannen 1987, 1989; also cf. Brown & Levinson
1978[1987]). According to Tannen (1987), Goffman’s classification of presenta-
tional rituals and avoidance rituals, based on Durkheim’s (1915) dichotomy of
positive and negative rites, provides the basic notion of ‘involvement’. Tannen
(1987: 584) identifies involvement with presentational rituals.
According to Goffman (1967: 73), “through (presentational rituals), the ac-
tor concretely depicts his appreciation of the recipient.” Another framework
dependent on Goffman and on Durkheim’s negative and positive rites is that
of Brown and Levinson (1987) who distinguish between negative and posi-
tive politeness (43). Involvement in the sense I am using it is closest to Brown
and Levinson’s positive politeness, which shares its conceptual base (Durkheim
1915) with Goffman’s (1967) presentational rituals.
Negative politeness is clearly redressive action addressed to the hearer’s
specific negative face in each interactional context, his/her want to have free-
dom of action unhindered (Brown & Levinson 1987: 129). On the other hand,
positive politeness is not only limited to redressive means, but it functions as a
general strategy in communication. Brown and Levinson (1987: 101) state:
in positive politeness the sphere of redress is widened to the appreciation of
alter’s wants in general or to the expression of similarity between ego’s and alter’s
wants. (Italicizing is my addition)
The italicized part in this quote in fact provides the core of the notion of
‘involvement’ in my study. In short, positive politeness (involvement) can be
paraphrased as a communicative strategy ‘to approach others’, while negative
politeness is a strategy with the reverse direction ‘to keep distance from others’.
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In the next section, adopting Brown and Levinson’s notion, positive po-
liteness, which I identify with involvement, I will show that the interjections ne
and na are markers of involvement.
Brown and Levinson (1987: 102) suggest fifteen specific strategies, derived from
a few assumed situations of speaker/hearer wants, that all fulfill positive polite-
ness. In this section, I attempt to classify the basic functions of ne(e) and na(a)
according to Brown and Levinson’s classification of positive politeness strate-
gies to show why ne(e) and na(a) are identified as markers of involvement (=
positive politeness).8
Based on the strategy in which the speaker “claims ‘common ground’ with
the hearer (H)”, a means of making such a claim is to “claim in-group member-
ship with H” (Ibid.: 102). Brown and Levinson suggest that the output strategy
which realizes this claim is “use in-group identity markers”. In this strategy, they
include affectionate or diminutive terms of address such as ‘Mom, mate, dear,
luv’ and so on (107–108). In my analysis, I have shown that nee can be used as
a summons which replaces address terms such as ‘Mom, Grandma, etc.’ within
an intimate relationship (5.5.1). I suggest that nee as a summons belongs to this
positive politeness strategy, hence involvement strategy.
Another mechanism which is the base for sub-strategies is “convey that S
(the speaker) and H are cooperators” (102). Two sub-strategies derived from
this are “claim reflexivity, if S wants <S has X> then H wants <S has X>” and
“indicate S knows H’s wants and is taking them into account” (Ibid.). From
the former sub-strategy, an output strategy, “be optimistic” is obtained. In this
output-strategy, making a request to H by adding a tag question such as (a)
is included.
(a) You’ll lend me your lawnmower for the weekend, won’t you.
(Brown & Levinson 1987: 126)
Chapter 5
mation’ and ‘linking prior and upcoming information’. Brown and Levinson’s
strategy, “assert or presuppose S’s knowledge of and concerns for H’s wants” re-
lates to S/H meta-knowledge situation. In my analysis of ne(e) and na(a), I
have shown that many examples involve marking a meta-knowledge situation.
Therefore, it may be that this strategy concerning S and H knowledge/meta-
knowledge situation covers four of the ne(e)/na(a) functions.
First, in the ‘agreement’ and ‘back channel’ functions, S asserts that he/she
knows what H wanted to convey by responding affirmatively. This would satisfy
H’s positive face. Second, in the ‘before new information’ function, S presup-
poses S’s knowledge that the upcoming information would be new to H. The
use of ne(e)/na(a) in this function also shows S’s presupposition of his/her
knowledge that uttering ne(e)/na(a), which marks the upcoming information,
would aid H’s basic wants of comprehend the discourse. Third, the function,
‘linking prior and upcoming information’ arises from S’s presupposition of
S’s knowledge that the use of ne(e)/na(a) to show the coherent relationship
between two pieces of information would help H’s wants to understand the
second piece of information. In fact, in the functions ‘before new information’
and ‘linking prior and upcoming information’, S expresses his/her concern for
H’s basic wants in Japanese conversation, i.e. to reach harmony (by trying to
share the same information).
As shown above, all the basic functions of ne(e) and na(a) can be viewed
as realizations of the output strategies of Brown and Levinson’s positive polite-
ness. Therefore, ne(e) and na(a) are markers of positive politeness, i.e. markers
of involvement.
Generally speaking, in Japanese conversation the operation of negative
politeness dominates over that of positive politeness, e.g. a large number of
linguistic strategies in Japanese such as honorifics express negative politeness.
In this sense, it is interesting to find ne(e) and na(a) serving functions that ful-
fill positive politeness (involvement), which also seems to play an important
role in Japanese conversation.
liteness) markers ne(e) and na(a) work at this level of interaction. The clearest
case in which ne(e) and na(a) send metamessages is when they function as
‘rapport markers’ (5.6). As rapport markers, ne(e) and na(a) send messages
about the amicable speaker-hearer relationship based on the concordant meta-
knowledge status.
As shown above, all the basic functions of ne(e) and na(a) fulfill positive
politeness, hence involvement. To conclude this chapter, I propose that inter-
jections ne(e) and na(a) in Japanese conversational discourse are ‘markers of
involvement’.
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Chapter 6
Pragmaticalization of ne and na
(diachronic analysis)
In this chapter, I examine the historical process which the interjections ne and
na (and their variants) seem to have undergone. By looking at the historical
process of ne and na, I will explore their pragmaticalization as well as demon-
strate their positional shifts over time: ne and na first emerged in sentence-final
and sentence-internal positions, then later began to occur in initial positions
as interjections and discourse markers. Concerning the shift of na group of
interjections, a prior study, Morita (1973: 197) states that
As for this group of interjections (such as na, naa, noo, noo noo and nayo),
the equivalent sentence-final particles were detached [from the rest of the
sentence] and occurred sentence-initially as independent elements.
Chapter 6
than the Edo period. From the survey of the previous studies, the interrela-
tionship among the na elements and the similarity in their functions is indeed
recognized.
This study originally set off as a discourse analysis in which I had been
engaged. In this area, analyzing dynamic social interactions in the ongoing hu-
man discourse (e.g. conversation) is the main theme. Such analysis at times
cannot be reported within the traditional categories such as word classes. For
this chapter, to see the functions of the interrelated na elements altogether
and to try to grasp the development of such elements, I will take the ap-
proach, not focusing on only one element (ne), but looking at na varieties as
a group. Konoshima (1960: 419) has reported that “while ne appears only in
Edo Japanese, no is used both in Kansai and Edo Japanese”. Considering this
kind of behavior, too, it would be worth analyzing na elements endowed with
similar functions together as a group. Such an approach would capture the en-
tire figure of development and change in na elements more dynamically. This
approach might differ from that of the traditional national linguistics.
I should note two points about treatment of data (see also 1.1.4 Prob-
lems in Diachronic Analysis). First, it is generally approved that the flow of
Japanese since the Muromachi period (1136–1573) has developed into the
modern (kindai) Japanese which leads to today’s Japanese.1 Therefore, the
continuity between today’s na elements and those used before Muromachi is
uncertain. I should mention that Japanese data before Muromachi in this chap-
ter was looked at as helpful information. So, in the tables (Tables 6.1, 6.2, 6.3),
a dotted line is drawn to mark the separation between Muromachi and the
precedent periods.
The second point refers to the diverse developments of Edo and Kamigata
(Osaka-Kyoto) Japanese,2 which is often taken as an issue in historical Japanese
linguistics (see also1.1.4 and 4.1). That is the claim that the two Japanese va-
rieties have traveled the completely different evolutional paths and these two
should be treated separatedly.
Formation of Edo Japanese is summarized here, since it at times becomes a
point of controversy in this kind of diachronic study. In his Japanese Language
of the Edo Era: Edo Japanese, Komatsu (1985: 3–6) states: Edo became a castle
town when Oota Dookan (1432–1486) built the Edo Castle in 1457. However,
at that time, Edo was only one of the villages in Kanto area with some hundreds
of houses. Kanto dialect seems to have been spoken. Since Tokugawa Ieyasu (the
shogun) entered Edo in 1590, the town Edo grew rapidly. Edo Japanese, then,
gradually came into shape along with the town’s development. Many people
from various parts of Japan were assembled to run this castle town. Various
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regional dialects seem to have been spoken by those people. In 1603, the Toku-
gawa government was opened. Then towards its end [1867], Edo has always
suffered from the inflow of population. From this description of Komatsu’s
(1985), it is recognized that at the early stage of Edo period, various regional
varieties of Japanese in addition to Kanto Japanese were used in Edo, and peo-
ple seem to have communicated in such language. It cannot be said that there
is no relation between the new Edo Japanese and other varieties that continued
from the past.
Admitting that “the history of the Japanese language does not mean
the enumerated facts nor fanciful speculation apart from facts”, Yanagida
(1985: 246), the author of Japanese Language of the Muromachi Period, states
that “[he] wrote this book, groping for [such] history”. Without visual or au-
dible proofs, diachrony of language cannot be evidenced. Maybe this is the
biggest problem for all who grope for such diachrony.
I apply the functional-semantic model of language focusing on the three
functions of language (ideational, textual and expressive functions) that I also
used for the analysis of conjunctions. While the conjunctions demo and dakedo
were found to follow Traugott’s once hypothesized direction of pragmatical-
ization, ideational > textual > expressive (1982, 1989), the change of ne and na
will be shown to be a somewhat different type of pragmaticalization.
As mentioned, to investigate the diachronic evolution of ne and na, it was
necessary to enlarge the number of items to be inspected because there are a
number of historically closely related variants. The variants are nee and naa
with lengthened vowels, and no and its long vowel variant, noo.3 In what fol-
lows, when I refer to ne, na and their variants in general, regardless of their
position (i.e. final, internal or initial), I call them ‘na elements’. When specifi-
cation of their location is necessary, either their positions will be noted, or the
terms ‘sentence-final particles (SFPs)’, ‘sentence-internal particles (SIPs)’ and
‘interjections’ (this means sentence-initial elements only) will be used.
Expansion of the range of texts was also necessary for the investigation.
That is, since the na elements appear largely in songs and ballads throughout
their history, those data were also analyzed.
This chapter does the following: The first three sections demonstrate the
results of the diachronic investigation of the na elements in sentence-final po-
sition (6.1), in sentence-internal position (6.2) and in initial position (6.3). In
(6.4) I relate the pragmaticalization of the na elements to Traugott’s hypothe-
sis. Lastly in (6.5) I discuss possible motivations for the pragmaticalization of
the na elements.
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Chapter 6
In (1), the proposition the speaker intends to convey includes the interrogative
meaning, ‘Did you see that movie?’ Without ka this interrogative proposition
cannot be formed. Ka thus contributes to the ideational component of lan-
guage (Traugott 1982), simply because (1) without ka does not convey the same
referential meaning.
By contrast in (2), the proposition the speaker intends to provide contains
the affirmative meaning, ‘You saw that movie.’ What is added by ne can be
glossed either as a tag question (didn’t you?) or as the speaker’s conviction of
the statement (I believe) depending upon its context. In this case the propo-
sition ‘You saw that movie’ remains the same regardless of the addition of
ne. I assume that the na elements in final positions (6.1) as well as in inter-
nal positions (6.2) have neither ideational nor grammatical functions but only
expressive function.
Among the na elements in the sentence-final position, the earliest item to
be used seems na. Some early examples are seen in Kojiki (712), Nihonshoki
(720) and Manyooshuu (759) believed to be written in the Nara period (710–
784). Although the examples in Manyooshuu (759) are widely used to show the
early use of na in prior studies (Yoshida 1987; Uchio & Okamura 1973; Uchio
1973: 104), I found a case in the ballad section of Kojiki (712) written earlier
than Manyooshuu. (3) illustrates.
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The writer, the Emperor Oojin, had been asked by his son to give him a girl in
prison. At a banquet the Emperor created and read (3) to answer his son. The
general meaning of this stanza is that the father allows his son to get the girl.
The function of na is to emphasize the writer’s exclamatory remark ‘it will be
good.’ The proposition of (3), ‘If you invite that girl, it will be good’ persists
with or without na. Na does not add ideational or textual meaning, but it adds
expressive meaning by conveying the speaker’s exclamation.
Table 6.1 presents a chronological view of the history of the na group of
sentence-final particles. In the table, each element marks ‘exclamation’ except
where the sign ‘tag’ is added. ‘Tag’ designates the first emergence of this use in
each na group of sentence-final particles.
Clearly na appears earlier than the other na variants (see Table 6.1). One
reason for the early appearance of na seems the phonology of the sentence-
final particles.4 Many sentence-final particles are phonologically simple: Many
of them consist of only one mora; sa, zo, na, yo and so forth. (There is also
a view that interjections (and sentence-final particles) are “the most primi-
tive” (Yasuda 1928) among words since “they represent (human) expressive
sounds in the verbal context” (Sakuma 1952).) The phonological features of
the phonemes constituting na suggest that na is the most fundamental among
the na elements: The nasal [n] is let out when one is impressed or admires
something. Also the vowel [a] is recognized as the most elementary: e.g. a and
aa belong to the oldest interjections (Morita 1973: 184).
We meet the first variant of na, noo, in the Muromachi period (1336–1573).
This is the period when so-called Muromachi balladry (Noo-plays, Kyoogen
plays, Kagura (Shintoo music and dancing) etc.) developed in association with
music. Muromachi noo and kyoogen plays were succeeded by balladry of the
following Edo period. In some texts, noo is orthographically presented as nau
and in others as noo. Both nau and noo are pronounced as [no:]; therefore, they
are considered to be the same sentence-final particle. In the annotation in Sum-
idagawa (1432), a Noo script, it is stated that “noo (nau) is a lengthened particle
of na which is used for emphasis.”5 (4) shows one of the earliest uses of noo.
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Chapter 6
Table 6.1 Chronological view of appearance of SFPs (na, noo, no, ne, nee and naa)
**
* ‘b’ stands for ‘before’. The years prefaced with ‘b’ are those of the death of the playwrights,
because of the unavailability of the exact years of publication.
** The dotted line separating the Japanese language from the Muromachi period onward
and in the precedent time periods indicates the secondary treatment of the Japanese data
preceding the Muromachi in the diachronic analysis of na elements (see 1.1.4).
(4) Sumidagawa (before 1432)
a. Mashite haha totemo
Let.alone mother even
b. tazunenu yo noo.
visit-NEG EMP FP
<‘Even his mother hasn’t visited (him), has she?’>
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Prior to (4), the main character found that her kidnapped son had died and
been buried near where she was. She laments over her son’s doom by stat-
ing ‘Neither his parents nor relatives have visited, have they?’ (prior to (4)),
‘Even his mother hasn’t visited, has she?’ (in (4)). The performer adds noo
when she mentions her own non-visit. Noo in (b) thus emphasizes the per-
former’s lamentation. It expresses the performer’s inner emotional world. This
contributes to the expressive component of language. However the ideational
content in (4), ‘Even his mother hasn’t visited him’ stays the same regardless of
the use of noo.
In Kanginshuu (1518), a collection of ballads, we see the next sentence-final
particle no. In Kanginshuu the incessant use of sentence-final particles which
adds the writer’s attitude to the content of a ballad stands out. Zo, yo, ya, kana,
noo and no are such final particles. A reason for this may be that this collection
is dominated by the populace’s love songs.
Among sentence-final particles, the use of noo is extremely frequent.6 Na is
used next most frequently. The annotation of Kanginshuu (1989: 33. Iwanami)
mentions that the shortened form no is later than noo. In my analysis, the use
of no dominates that of noo after Muromachi period. No does in fact appear
later than noo (see Table 6.1). (5) illustrates that the use of noo and no is in
transition at this time of history. Noo and no co-occur in (5).
(5) Kanginshuu (1518)
a. Kesa no arashi wa
This.morning LK storm TP
b. arashi de wa nageni su yo no.
storm COP TP NEG FP FP
c. Ooigawa no kawa no se no
Ooi River LK river LK shallows LK
d. oto ja ge ni su yo noo.
sound COP indication FP FP
<‘The storm in this morning doesn’t seem to be a storm. It may be
just the sound of the shallows of the Ooi River.’>
It is said that this song was written by a man who had spent a night with a pros-
titute, repeating the words she had uttered the following morning. What no in
(b) and noo in (d) do is to add the speaker, the prostitute’s, commitment/belief
in her statement. The propositions in (a–b) and (c–d) do not change if no and
noo are eliminated.
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Chapter 6
This song is structured as a dialogue between husband and wife. In (c) and (d),
the wife is grieving over her fatigue. Noo in (c) and (d) express the speaker’s
strong commitment to her statements which are recognized as complaints by
her husband. By contrast, noo in (e) seems no longer to express the speaker’s
exclamation, but it is used with a vocative. In (6.3), we will see that early ex-
amples of the interjection noo which alternates as a ‘summons’ also appear in
the Muromachi period (when (6) was written). Accordingly, the sentence-final
particle noo in (6e) used to call somebody could well signify a transition in
its evolution into an initial marker with the function of summons (as seen in
Present Day Japanese (5.5.1)).
In the Edo era (1603–1867), the exclamation markers, na group of
sentence-final particles, develop further and start serving a tag-question-like
function, which is a new expressive function. Tag-like function no longer repre-
sents the speaker’s inner world but rather the speaker’s other-directed attitude.
Tag-like uses here such as seeking affirmation or confirmation (cf. Nakano
1996), or giving the other a choice to be polite all show the speaker’s other-
directed demeanor. In other words, such tag-like uses are all communication-
based functions. The Edo period is when the popular performing arts such
as the kabuki plays and jooruri (ballad drama) and popular literature such as
share-bon (gay-quarter novelettes) and kokkei-bon (comic novels) grow. Dur-
ing this period, we meet two more na group of sentence-final particles, ne and
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nee, that continue to be used today. It is also noticed that all the na group of
sentence-final particles that have emerged so far are in more active use than
before in Ukiyoburo (1809), a comic novel in the final stage of Edo.
(7) represents a case where a final particle no marks a tag-like function.
Yuushihoogen (1768–1769), a gay-quarter novelette (share-bon), contains one
of the earliest examples of the tag-like use of no.
(7) Yuushihoogen (1768–1769)
Hei a. . . . taisoona kami ja.
unusual hair COP
b. Iwayuru honda huu ja no.
so-called Honda’s style COP FP
<‘. . . (He has) unusual hair. It’s so-called Honda’s style,
isn’t it?’>
Nyooboo c. Ai sa, sayoo de gozarimasu.
yes FP so COP
<‘Yes, it is.’>
Looking at a customer’s attire, Hei utters (b) adrressing the woman (nyooboo).
No in (7b) expresses the speaker’s intention of confirming his idea. This inten-
tion is well evidenced by the next nyooboo’s reaction (a response to (b)). No
works like a tag-question.
Later than the Edo period, we in fact see frequent use of no as a tag marker.
At first, no only has the function of expressing exclamation which is internal
to the speaker’s world. However, the later tag-like function involves a dis-
tinct intention of communication with others. This function is external to the
speaker’s world.
Later in the Edo period, we see more examples of the tag-like function
of na. Some examples have the sequence, V (imperative form) + na. (8) from
Yuushihoogen illustrates one such case.
(8) Yuushihoogen (1768)
a. Soko o chotto akete
There DO a.little open
b. mite kure na.
See give FP
<‘Open (the window) and look outside, can you?’>
In (8), a man asks a prostitute to open the window. With na in (b), the speaker
seeks affirmation or gives the hearer a choice. The sentence (a–b) ‘Open the
window and look outside’ is grammatically imperative owing to the imperative
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Chapter 6
form of the verb (kure). Na’s function here is to soften the decisive finish of the
sentence. The interpersonal meaning of an order in (8) is therefore softened
with na. This use is again other-oriented, while na’s original function, marking
exclamation, is self-oriented.
As mentioned above, in the Edo period, we meet two new na elements, ne
and nee. They appear in this age, and throughout the following Meiji, Taishoo
and Shoowa eras and even today they are in frequent use (see Table 6.1). Ne
emerges in Yuushihoogen as in (9).
(9) Yuushihoogen (1768)
Shinzoo: a. Nushi ya daibu,
You a.lot
b. ki ga naorinshita ne.
feelings SB got.well FP
<‘You have pulled yourself together, haven’t you?’>
A prostitute comments upon the weather, addressing her customer. Nee con-
veys the speaker’s seeking of confirmation; thus it is a tag-like marker.
We see examples of the sixth na group of sentence-final particle, naa, in
kyoogen plays (Torahiro-hon). These scripts seem to have been written by 1792.
Kyoogen itself expanded in the Muromachi period, in association with the de-
velopment of Noo plays. Obviously naa is a vowel-lengthened form of na. We
have already seen that noo (nau) was derived from na by adding another vowel.
One of the earliest examples of naa is given in (11).
(11) Kyoogen: Awataguchi (18th C)
a. Sate sate tsuyoi ha o
Well strong teeth DO
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Prior to (11) a man named Awataguchi professed his ability to crush a stone
with his teeth. Naa in (b) expresses the speaker’s exclamation (a surprise here)
like all the final na elements that have already emerged.
As shown, in the Edo period, no, na, ne and nee all exhibit a tag-like func-
tion. This is an other-directed function, and it differs from the self-directed
‘exclamation’ which had been the only function of the na sentence-final parti-
cles in the preceding time periods. In my data analysis, tag-like functions of na
sentence-final particles seem to have appeared in the Edo era.
During the Edo period, the new elements ne and nee appeared. They will in
fact predominate in the subsequent time periods (cf. Table 6.1). The final stage
of Edo (around the time of Ukiyoburo 1809) seems actually a transition with
respect to the use of sentence-final particles; it precedes a completely new epoch
starting with the Meiji period when Japan was modernized and westernized.
Throughout six texts ranging over fifty years of the three modern eras,
Meiji, Taishoo and Shoowa, i.e. Ukigumo (Meiji 1887: 20); Hakai (Meiji 1906:
39); Udekurabe (Taishoo1917: 6); Yuujoo (Taishoo 1920: 9); Tade Kuu Mushi
(Shoowa 1929: 4) and Yukiguni (Shoowa 1938: 13), there is no salient differ-
ence in the use of the na group of sentence-final particles (SFPs) (See Table
6.1). Therefore, instead of regarding the three eras as different time periods
it is more reasonable to view this half century as one temporal stage. This
perspective conforms to the history of Japan, i.e. the time of its modernization.
The na group of sentence-final particles seems to fundamentally fill the
role of conveying the speaker’s subjective attitude towards his/her statement.
The main findings of the diachronic analysis of the na group of sentence-
final particles are summarized as follows. First, the na group of sentence-final
particles bear only the expressive function and no textual, ideational or gram-
matical function. With their expressive function, in most of the above exam-
ples, they express the speaker’s exclamation (e.g. conveying grief, admiration,
complaint) or just speaker’s belief/involvement in the statement. Exclamation
is a meaning internal to the speaker’s expressive world (self-focus). Although
exclamation is the predominant role of the na group of sentence-final parti-
cles throughout history, in the Edo era, ‘other-focused’ functions based on the
speaker’s attention to interactions appeared, i.e. tag-like functions. A few ex-
amples also demonstrate interesting transitional cases: For example, noo (6)
implies a transition in which the sentence-final particle noo marking exclama-
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Chapter 6
tion develops into an interjection marking summons. These changes all follow
the direction: from internal to external to the speaker’s world, i.e. to more
interactional meanings.
Second, among the na group of sentence-final particles, na appears first
followed by its variants. Na is phonologically the simplest, and it seems the
most fundamental.
Table 6.2 Chronological view of appearance of SIPs (na, no, noo, nee and ne)
**
* As discussed in the text, the validity of the first appearance of no as a SIP in the 9th–10th
century depends upon the lexical analysis. If the 9th–10th century example is invalid as the
first appearance of no, the next appearance I found is in Ukiyoburo (1809).
** The dotted line separating the Japanese language from the Muromachi period onward
and in the precedent time periods indicates the secondary treatment of the Japanese data
preceding the Muromachi in the diachronic analysis of na elements (see 1.1.4).
Chapter 6
The writer creates this song to reply to the song from her love, the emperor.
She retorts in (13) by saying ‘It’s reasonable that another month has arrived
(since you haven’t visited me for a long time).’ The uses of na in (a) add
rhythm at the beginning of this song. Simultaneously, since na’s in (a) are the
sentence-internal particles expressing the writer’s exclamation (annotation in
kojiki kayoo 1957: 55), they emphasize the writer’s feeling ‘It’s reasonable.’ Na
does not convey semantic content; therefore, the internal na, as well as the final
na, has only the expressive function.
Recall that na emerged the earliest among the na group of sentence-final
particles, too. The fact that na is the first item among the na group of both
sentence-final and internal particles reinforces my claim that na is the funda-
mental nasal sound expressing exclamation (cf. Yoshida 1987).
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Chapter 6
In (15), the main character pitying the traveler who sets off in snow, calls out to
him to halt and suggests accommodation. Noo in (b) expresses the performer’s
involvement in his statement, ‘I will provide you accommodation.’
We have already observed that a sentence-final particle noo also occurred
first in a Noo script of the Muromachi period. However the unavailability of the
precise dates of these scripts prevents us from knowing whether the sentence-
final or sentence-internal particle noo occurred first. It seems more plausible to
suggest that the final noo precedes the internal rather than the reverse.
The fourth and fifth internal elements are nee and ne. In (6.1), we found
that final ne and nee appeared first in the literature of 1768–1769 and 1770.
(16) and (17) will show that the internal ne and nee appeared slightly later
than the sentence-final particles’ first appearance. (16) shows one of the earliest
examples of internal nee in Tatsumi no sono (1770), a gay-quarter novelette. Nee
is used to maintain the rhythm of the utterance. (16) is a dialogue between a
waitress, Onaka, and a customer at a tea house. Since the final nee also turned
up in the same literature, it looks like that the final nee and internal nee have
arisen almost simultaneously.
(16) Tatsumi no sono (1770)
Customer: a. Oise-san wa dooshita nee.
Oise TP how has been FP
<‘How has Oise been?’>
Onaka: b. Ano ko wa nee,
That girl TP IP
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In both (b) and (c), nee is used to sustain the rhythm of the utterance. It adds an
accent in the phrase-final positions: each instance would be pronounced with
phonological stress. Nee in this case can well be considered to be a reduced
form of an exclamation marker. It conveys the speaker’s involvement in her
statement and sustains the rhythm. Therefore, the sentence-internal particle
nee has expressive function but no referential or textual function.
(17) illustrates one of the earliest examples in which ne occurs in internal
positions. The use of ne is similar to nee in the same position (as seen in (16)).
(17) is an utterance of a woman who talks with another female customer at a
public bath (from Ukiyoburo (1809)).
(17) Ukiyoburo (1809)
Mi: a. Izure sa, tanin no
Anyhow IP others GN
b. meshi o tabeneba ne,
meal DO eat-NEG-if IP
c. hito no omoiyari ga
others LK consideration SB
d. gozaimasen no sa.
no NOM FP
<‘Anyhow if children didn’t eat the meals made by the others, they
wouldn’t be considerate to the others.’>
Ne in (b) adds an accent and expresses the speaker’s commitment to the pre-
ceding clause ‘if (children) didn’t eat the meals made by the others’ (implying
‘if children were not sent to the others’ homes and work there’) in (a–b). In
fact, by adding an accent with ne, the speaker confirms the hearer’s reception
of the information: in this way the speaker’s involvement is conveyed. (Four
decades before this first appearance of internal ne, in Yuushihoogen (1768), we
saw the earliest examples of the final correspondent.)
Ukiyoburo also contains a case of the internal no. We saw its possible first
appearance back in the 9th to 10th century in a local ballad (fuuzoku uta).
Throughout all the texts in my analysis, the use of no in internal position
is extremely rare. Therefore, it is difficult to identify its first appearance. In
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Chapter 6
my analysis, if the 9th–10th century example is not the first appearance, this
Ukiyoburo (1809) case is virtually the first occurrence of the internal no.
The diachronic examination of the na group of sentence-internal particles
has revealed the following main findings. First, like the sentence-final parti-
cles, the sentence-internal particles carry only the expressive function. Specifi-
cally, they convey the speaker’s exclamation, however, their contribution to the
meaning construction of an utterance seems even less, when compared to the
same function of the sentence-final particles (6.1). In many cases the sentence-
internal particles’ function is to tune the rhythm of discourse simultaneously
with the expression of exclamation.9 Second, the order of the appearance of
each internal particle (na → no(?) → noo → nee → ne) is very similar to that
of the sentence-final particles (na → noo → no → ne → nee → naa). (Na is the
first sentence-internal particle in history. The late Edo period is the time when
different internal particles co-occur in active use. Then towards the Shoowa pe-
riod, ne becomes predominant (see Table 6.2).) Third, the first appearance of
each sentence-internal particle (in the case of na, noo and nee) is around the
same time as, or slightly later (in the case of ne) than that of the corresponding
final particle (see Table 6.4 in 6.4.1).
The first interjection of the na group in history is na, as was the case for
the final and internal positions. Ryoojin Hishoo (1171), a Heian collection of
ballads, contains an example. (18) illustrates. Na here is used as a summons.
While the majority of examples of the final and internal na elements convey the
speaker’s inner exclamation, the function of the initial na in (18) is ‘summons’
which seems based on the speaker’s communicative intention.
(18) Ryoojin Hishoo (1171)
......
a. Na, iza tamae hijiri koso,
Hey come on please come monk
b. ayashi no yoo nari tomo,
poorly LK state COP although
c. warawara ga.10 Shiba no
us GN Wooden
d. iori e,
cottage to
<‘Hey, sir (addressing the monk), please come to our wooden cottage
although it is only a shabby place.’>
In (a), na acts like a vocative. This is the same function we have seen as a ‘sum-
mons’ in ne and na in Present Day Japanese (5.5.1). In (18), na in (a) looks
forward and focuses on the following information ‘please come.’ Na serves the
expressive function by conveying the speaker’s action of summons. Na also
seems to have the textual function by filling the gap between the preceding
monologue and the current utterance addressed to the hearer. However, like
the na group of sentence-final and internal particles, an interjection na is un-
likely to have an ideational function. Table 6.3 shows the chronological view of
the process that na interjections underwent. In this table, the elements func-
tion to ‘summons’ unless particular functions are labeled. The functions other
than ‘summons’, ‘before new information’, ‘exclamation’, ‘linking prior and up-
coming information’ and ‘reinforcement’, are marked where they occur by the
abbreviations, ‘b.n.i.’, ‘e’, ‘l’, and ‘r’.
As for the data, it seems that language of Muromachi and the following
periods developed into modern Japanese. It can be regarded as one develop-
mental course. Language preceding the Muromachi was analyzed as helpful
information, as mentioned at the beginning of this chapter and in 1.1.4.
We meet the second and third initial na elements, noo and noonoo in the
Muromachi period (1336–1573). The examples are taken out of Noo scripts.
The prime function of noo and noonoo is ‘summons’. While the initial na was
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Chapter 6
Table 6.3 Chronological view of appearance of interjections (na, noo, noonoo, no, naa,
nee and ne)**
* ‘b’ stands for ‘before’. The years prefaced with ‘b’ are those of the death of the playwrights,
because of the unavailability of the exact years of publication.
** In this table, the na group of interjections mark ‘summons’ unless other functions (b.n.i.
= (The interjection appears) ‘before new information’; l = ‘linking prior and upcoming
information’; r = ‘reinforcement’; e = ‘exclamation’) are labeled.
† The dotted line separating the Japanese language from the Muromachi period onward
and in the precedent time periods indicates the secondary treatment of the Japanese data
preceding the Muromachi in the diachronic analysis of na elements (see 1.1.4).
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used as summons only, noo and noonoo are found to be used also for other
interaction-directed expressive functions: i.e. in noo ‘before information’ and
‘linking prior and upcoming information’, and in noonoo ‘before information’.
What is interesting about the initial noo and noonoo is that they also pre-
serve the function, ‘to mark exclamation’, which we found in the na group of
sentence-final and internal particles. Notice that while the other functions are
interaction-oriented, ‘exclamation’ conveys the speaker’s internal emotional
move. This means that noo and noonoo keep the ‘exclamation’ function as they
move from final through internal to initial positions, although this function
will disappear in later stages.
First, I will show the function of ‘summons’ for both noo and noonoo. (19)
and (20) illustrate. They are excerpts from Jinenkoji (before 1384).
(19) Jinenkoji (before 1384)
Merchant: a. Noo watarisooroo ka,
Hey stay (HON) Q
<‘Hey, are you there? (addressing other merchants)’>
.............................................
In (a), the Merchant calls the other merchants before he talks to them. Noo
watarisooroo ka is a formulaic expression when one calls somebody in Noo
scripts. The same expression with noonoo instead of noo is also used. Noo in (a)
is used as a ‘summons’.
(20) shows an earliest case of noonoo.
(20) Jinenkoji (before 1384)
Merchant: a. Noonoo Jinenkoji isoide
Hey, hurry-GER
b. fune yori on nori . . . . . .
boat from HON step off
<‘Hey, Jinenkoji, hurry up and step off the boat, [please].’>
In (20), the Merchant calls the main character Jinenkoji by saying noonoo in (a).
The function of this interjection is summons. The co-occurrence of noonoo and
Jinenkoji proves the acceptability of co-use of this interjection and an address
term. In (19) and (20), the speaker’s information (the message he wants to
convey) follows the act of addressing the hearer. Both (19) and (20) present the
cataphoric uses of interjections.
Next, I will examine another interaction-oriented function, ‘before new
information’, the same function of ne and na we saw in the analysis of Present
Day Japanese (5.3.1). (21) illustrates a case of noo.
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Chapter 6
In (21), the merchant already knows that the hearers are there (ready to listen to
the speaker). This situation differs from (19) and (20) where the interjections
worked as ‘summons’ because the speaker at first needed to draw the hearer’s
attention. Although in (21) the hearers are ready to listen to the speaker, the
speaker still says noo in (b) because this time he is going to urge the hearers
to bring the child by first getting their attention. This use is considered ‘calling
the hearer’s attention before new information’.
Another interaction/other-oriented function of noo seen in Present Day
Japanese (5.5.2) is ‘linking prior and upcoming information’. This use is dis-
covered in Hachinoki, a Muromachi Noo script. (22) is an utterance by the main
character addressed to the traveler.
(22) Hachinoki (Muromachi p.)
......
a. Yume ni mo mukashi o
Dream in EMP past DO
b. miru naraba, nagusamu
see if console.myself
c. koto mo aru beki ni,
NOM have would although
d. noo goranze yo kahodo made.
see look at EMP like this
<‘If I had happy old days, I could console myself by recalling those
days in a dream, but see look at my humble house (I can’t even dream
at night because the cold wind comes in.)’>
‘If I had happy old days, I could console myself by recalling those days in a
dream.’ The portion of the second information in (d) in parentheses has been
omitted in the Japanese version. I recovered this in the translation to make the
meaning clear. In the Japanese version the information in (d) would be incom-
prehensible without the information in (a–c) which is suggested to cohere with
the following information in (d) by noo. Now I examine the function of mark-
ing ‘exclamation’ of the initial na elements. This is a function which expresses
the speaker’s inner world, while the other functions seen thus far in this section
are all other-oriented. ‘Exclamation’ was not seen in the initial ne(e) or na(a)
in Present Day Japanese. It has been discovered above as the key function of the
final (6.1) and internal (6.2) na elements. The ‘exclamation’ function, however,
is recognized in the interjection noo in a Noo script in the 15th century, and in
noonoo in a Kyoogen script in the 18th century.
(23) demonstrates an exclamatory use of noo taken out of Sumidagawa
(before 1432), a Noo script.
(23) Sumidagawa (before 1432)
Mother: a. Noo shinrui totemo oya
Alas relatives even parents
b. totemo, tazunenu koso
even visit-NEG TP
c. kotowari nare, sono osanaki
reason COP the young
d. mono koso kono monogurui ga
person TP this lunatic SB
e. tazunuru ko nite wa
look for child COP-GER EMP
f. samurae toyo,
FP
g. noo kore wa yume kaya
alas! this TP dream FP
h. ara asamashi ya zooro.
oh deplorable FP
<‘Alas, that even neither (his) relatives nor parents visited
(the child) stands to reason, (because) the young one is
the child this lunatic is looking for! Alas! I wonder if I’m
dreaming. Oh, how deplorable it is!’>
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Chapter 6
In the story, the mother who has been looking for her kidnapped son has
been driven insane by anxieties. In (a) and (g), noo is used unit-initially as
an interjection to mark the speaker’s grief.
It is indeed interesting to find that the initial noo of the 15th century marks
exclamation, in this case, grief, considering that the other functions of the ini-
tial na elements of those days signal the speaker’s attitude and action based on
interactive interest. At the beginning of the analysis of ne and na in Present
Day Japanese, I claimed that there are two types of Japanese interjections:
(1) those which express the speaker’s exclamation (admiration, surprise etc.)
without his/her intention of communicating with others, and (2) those which
express the speaker’s belief, attitude and action based on his/her attention to
the communicative negotiation (interaction). I have further suggested that the
interjections ne and na are the second type and revealed that it was indeed the
case since all their functions in Present Day Japanese such as ‘summons’, ‘before
new information’ and ‘reinforcement’ etc. were communication/interaction-
oriented.
Therefore, I propose a developmental process in which the interjection noo
in the Muromachi age marking exclamation (seemingly the first type of inter-
jection) has evolved from the exclamation-marking correspondent sentence-
final particles. However, after the 18th century, the exclamation function no
longer shows up in the na interjections and all uses become interaction/other-
oriented functions (behaving as the second type of interjections; see Table 6.3).
The analysis of the Muromachi age has given a few crucial phenomena in
the course of the pragmatic change of the na interjections. The main find-
ings are as follows: (1) Two new elements, noo and noonoo appeared. (2)
Although the function of the elements in many cases is ‘summons’, more
interaction/other-directed functions are also found, i.e. ‘before new infor-
mation’ and ‘linking prior and upcoming information’. (3) Interestingly, the
function of marking ‘exclamation’ which is ‘self-focused’ is found in inter-
jections in the Muromachi period, a function which has never been seen in
the na interjections in Present Day Japanese (Chapter 5). It is suggested that
the exclamation-marking function seen in the na sentence-final particles has
remained in the developmental process of the final elements into the initial ele-
ments. However, this self-oriented residuary function will eventually disappear
in the entire process of the pragmaticalization of na elements.
In Torahiro-hon kyoogen scripts (written by 1792), the predominance of the
‘summons’ function continues. From the appearance of na in 1171 towards the
end of Edo period, the major function of the na group of interjections is ‘sum-
mons’. Noonoo as a ‘summons’ is widely used in this kyoogen script. Noonoo’s
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Prior to (24), an officer requested the main character A and another performer
B to report their names directly to the government. However, since A and B
consider it awkward to report their lengthy and funny names, A starts making
up excuses for not reporting in (a–c). In (d) A is going to apologize to the
officer then utters na. Following, B understands that na was a signal to start the
joint line with A, and in (e) A and B together say ‘we apologize’. This particular
use of na in a play thus marks the performer’s cue to his/her partner to utter
the joint line. The same use of na is also seen in other scripts. Although this
strategy seems too technical to be used off the stage, it unquestionably arises
out of the performer’s consideration for communicative regulation.
‘Summons’ remains the major use of the na interjections in the Edo period.
In 1809, Ukiyoburo, which contains all the na group of sentence-final particles
that have appeared in the preceding texts, unsurprisingly, supplies the earliest
examples of initial no, naa and nee. No marks ‘reinforcement’ as seen in the
analysis of Present Day Japanese (5.4.1). Naa and nee work as ‘summons’. (25),
(26) and (27) illustrate such early cases of no, naa and nee.
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Chapter 6
In (25), an old woman, Tori, talks to another old woman about what she usually
says to her son and his wife (a–e). In (f), Tori says no and confirms the validity
of her opinion (a–e) with her hearer. This is the function ‘reinforcement’. No
used in an initial position is rare throughout my examination. The appearance
here may well be influenced by this particular speaker’s recurrent use of no in
final and internal positions.
(26) shows an earliest use of nee in an initial position. (26) takes place at a
public bath for females, while a nurse washes a little girl, ojoosan.
(26) Ukiyoburo (1809)
Nurse: Nee, ojoosan.
(Hey) Miss
<‘Miss.’>
Here again, naa co-occurs with an address term bantoo. Bantoo is another word
indicating a person’s social role (clerk).
As Table 6.3 shows, among the new variants that appeared in the Edo era,
no, naa and nee, nee is the dominant interjection in the following time stages,
virtually in today’s Japanese.
In the Meiji era which followed the Edo, we encounter the last initial ele-
ment ne in Hakai, a novel. Ne here works as ‘reinforcement’.
(28) Hakai (1906)
Segawa: a. Atode gakkoo no kozukai
Later school LK janitor
b. o tori ni yokoshimasu
DO take send
c. kara tte. Ne.
because QT OK
<‘Later (I’ll) send the janitor to fetch it (the dinner). OK?’>
Prior to (28), Segawa asked Oshio to tell the landlady to make his dinner. The
information in (a–c), ‘I’ll send the janitor to fetch it’, is support for his re-
quest to Oshio. Ne in (c) then confirms the validity of Segawa’s request with
his hearer, Oshio. Ne can also seek agreement from or transfer responsibil-
ity to Oshio. Overall this interjection marks Segawa’s reinforcement of his
information.
As Table 6.3 shows, the Meiji, Taishoo and Shoowa eras together are a new
phase in terms of the usage of interjections as well as sentence-final particles
(SFPs) (see also Table 6.1). In this phase, nee predominates, and interjections
with the sound of [no] (noo and no) disappear. Also in this phase, the function
of interjections is almost solely that of summons.
The examination of the historical process of the na group of interjections
has revealed the following. First, while all the sentence-final and sentence-
internal particles carry only expressive function, all the interjections except
those marking exclamation have both expressive and textual functions. Ex-
clamation markers seem to carry only an expressive function. The expressive
(‘interpersonal’ in Halliday & Hasan 1976) functions of ‘summons’ (‘cue to
start the line’), ‘before new information’ and ‘linking prior and upcoming in-
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Chapter 6
formation’ all mark the speaker’s perspective towards or motivation for what
he/she says. The textual function is recognized in the interjections’ task of
linking utterances.
Second, as for the specific roles of the initial na elements, the most pre-
dominant one is ‘summons’ at any temporal stage in history. This is a ba-
sic other-directed function (Suzuki 1973: 170; Yamada 1908 cited in Suzuki
1973; Hoshina 1911 cited in Suzuki 1973). In addition, as Table 6.3 presents,
more other-directed functions have been found. While the above roles are
all other/interaction-bound, a non-other-directed role, ‘exclamation’, has also
been found. Exclamation is a function internal to the speaker’s world. I have
stated above that there are two types of interjections in Japanese (see Chapter
5): (1) those which express the speaker’s exclamation without attention to the
communicative negotiation, and (2) those which express the speaker’s attitude,
action etc. based on direct attention to the communication.
As for the finding of the exclamation-marking na interjections, I note
the following two points. First, the exclamation marking function which was
originally associated with the final na elements has remained along with the
development of the corresponding na interjections.
Second, the Japanese interjections expressing the ‘other-focused’ meanings
(the second type) seem to have in fact developed from the interjections ex-
pressing the ‘self-focused’ meanings (the first type).12 This was shown in the
diachronic analysis of the na elements: They originally had only the exclama-
tion (self-focused) marking function. Later, they began to mark other-directed
meanings. Then, after the co-occurrence of the interjections expressing excla-
mation and those expressing other-directed meanings, exclamation-marking
interjections disappeared and only other-directed meanings remain in Present
Day Japanese. The development of the other-focused interjections from self-
focused ones is also suggested in Morita (1973). He (1973: 183) writes that the
self-focused interjections are gradually systematized and develop into commu-
nicative (other-focused) markers. According to Morita’s (Ibid.) historical sur-
vey, many Japanese interjections first marked exclamation and later function
to call attention or mark a response.
Third, the interjections emerged in the order very similar to that found for
sentence-final and sentence-internal particles, i.e. the order of interjections (na
→ noo; noonoo → no; naa; nee → ne) is similar to that of final particles (na →
noo → no → ne → nee → naa) and of sentence-internal particles (na → no(?)
→ noo → nee → ne).
Fourth, the first instance of each interjection is later than that of the cor-
responding sentence-internal particles. As for na, the first appearance of the
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final and internal na are both in the 8th century. That of the initial na is in
the 12th century. In the case of no, the earliest appearance in internal posi-
tion is problematic since it could have been either in the 9–10th century or
in the 19th century. It is clear however that the interjection no (19th century)
occurred after the final no (16th century). The interjection naa (19th century)
has also been shown to have appeared a little later than the sentence-final par-
ticle naa (18th century). (I have found no case of internal naa.) As for nee, the
developmental process is as clear as that of na. The final and internal elements
occurred around the same time (in a 1770 text); the first initial occurrence
was found slightly later (in an 1809 text). Lastly, in this analysis ne appeared
in final position in a 1768 text, in internal position in 1809, and in initial
position in 1906.
As a consequence of this diachronic analysis, it could be said that generally
the na group of elements have traveled a historical path in which the final and
internal elements first appear at about the same time or successively; then later
they begin to occur in initial position.
Before closing, I will review the results of the diachronic analysis of the na ele-
ments and clarify the direction of their functional change relating to Traugott’s
hypothesis.
Focusing on Traugott’s proposed functional-semantic model of language,
the pragmatic changes of all the na elements are summarized in Table A.
Again, the language development before the Muromachi period (14th–16th
century) should be considered hypothetical. (See the beginning of this chap-
ter and 1.1.4.) Hence, among the na elements here, na’s development is judged
hypothetically (see Table 6.4).
In each case, the elements appear in both final and internal positions at
around the same period or the internal elements appear slightly later; then each
element appears in initial position a while later. For the development of noo,
the analysis could be more specific were the precise dates of texts (Noo scripts)
available: Without them, the finding that noo in each position occurred one
after another between the 14th and 16th century remains approximate. For
the development of no, the first emergence of an internal element either in
the 9th–10th century or 19th century was hard to determine. Thus if we ten-
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Chapter 6
tatively exclude these uncertain processes (noo and no), a clearer view of the
developmental process of the na elements in general is gained.
Figure 6.1 schematizes such a diachronic process, i.e. the pragmaticaliza-
tion of the na elements.
Tokieda (1950: 51) classified all the word classes in Japanese into two cate-
gories shi and ji. Maynard (1989b: 30) summarizes what shi and ji are:
Shi is . . . ‘an expression representing an objective and conceptualized notion
of referents [/what is said]’, which includes the grammatical categories of [pro-
nouns], nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Ji, on the other hand, is . . . ‘an
expression representing the speaker’s [attitude] toward the referent [/what
is said]’, and it includes conjunctions, [interjections],13 auxiliary verbs, and
particles.
I. Final II.
na elements > Initial na elements
Internal
(SFPs and SIPs) (Interjections)
ticles) have only the expressive function. In (II), interjections, the developed
forms, preserve this function.
The elements do not attain the text-forming function until they appear
in utterance-initial positions. Attaining this function is a token to prove their
status as markers in discourse.14 Licensed as markers, at a higher level of dis-
course organization than ever (i.e. intersententially), initial na elements serve
an utterance-linking function as well as the function of signaling the speaker’s
involvement. With the intersentential linking function, the na group of inter-
jections forward the creation of discourse coherence.
In my earlier work (Onodera 1993), I suggested that the pragmaticalization
of the na elements, i.e. from expressive to expressive and textual, falls outside
of Traugott’s (1989: 31) hypothesized direction of meaning change:
ideational > ((textual) > expressive).
Onodera (1993) concluded that the functional change of the na elements was
quite another type of change which does not support nor contradict Traugott’s
hypothesis: because the na elements did not have ideational function in the first
place; thus the change did not start with ideational function. This was analyzed
in contrast of the studies that had dealt with meaning changes which start with
ideational function (e.g. Traugott 1982, 1989; Plank 1979; Hopper 1977) and
had supported Traugott’s suggested direction.
More recently, in Traugott (1995a), in her hypothesized direction “idea-
tional (propositional) > textual > expressive”, the shift to ‘expressive’ was re-
placed by subjectification, the shift to ‘subjective’. As we will see closely in
(6.4.2), the pragmaticalization of the na elements follows the process of sub-
jectification. The pragmaticalization of na elements is a case which supports
“subjectification”.
Before closing this section which reviews the diachronic analysis of the na
elements, I will mention briefly the motive for the positional shift, i.e. the pro-
cess in which the final na elements move into sentence-initial position. This
discussion will be fully developed in 7.3.1 (relevance to typological character-
istics). When we look at a Japanese sentence from the viewpoint of functional
structure, expressive function (‘ji’ in Tokieda 1950) typically operates on both
edges of a sentence, i.e. sentence-initial and sentence-final positions. Originally,
the na group of sentence-final particles serve expressive function in sentence-
final position. Recall that, as mentioned in (1.2.1.4), the sentence-initial posi-
tion is where discourse markers can better demonstrate the ‘marking-function’.
I suggest that the na group of sentence-final particles started appearing in the
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Chapter 6
sentence-initial position for this reason.15 (For a further discussion of this issue,
see 7.3.1.)
While (6.4.1) discussed a more general conclusion based on the former hy-
pothesis, this section sees more particular tendencies recognized in the prag-
maticalization of the na elements: Subjectification and intersubjectification in
different aspects of this pragmaticalization.
A hypothetical tendency in meaning-shift was “less personal to more per-
sonal (rather) than the reverse” (Traugott 1982: 253).16 In later works (Traugott
1989: 35, 1995a: 31), ‘subjectification’ refers to:
a pragmatic-semantic process whereby ‘meanings become increasingly based
in the speaker’s subjective belief state/attitude toward the proposition’, in other
words, towards what the speaker is talking about.
In a more recent work (Traugott & Dasher 2002), relation between subjec-
tification and intersubjectification is more distinctly described.
[Subjectification] falls directly out of SP/W-AD/R interactions, and the com-
peting motivations of speakers to be informative and of addressees to construe
invited inferences. . . . It therefore inevitably involves intersubjectivity to some
degree. (Ibid.: 31)
Chapter 6
m
o
r
e
l
o
c
a
l
l
e
v
e
l
(9)) and ‘seeking confirmation’ (such as (10)) show intersubjective sense, and
development from exclamation to these intersubjective functions seem a case
of intersubjectification. For example, in (8), the sentence-final particle na mit-
igates the imperative force of the speaker’s utterance, hence to save the hearer’s
“image needs” (Traugott & Dasher 2002: 229). Likewise, in other examples ((9),
(10)), the speaker pays intersubjective attention to the hearer’s acceptance or
comprehension of what the speaker says (in these involvement strategies).
In the initial position, summons was the function most widely associated
with the na group of interjections in all the time stages. Later in their history,
functions such as ‘before new information’, ‘linking prior and upcoming infor-
mation’ and ‘reinforcement’ emerged. Compared with ‘summons’, the original
and fundamental function (Suzuki 1973: 170; Yamada 1908 cited in Suzuki
1973; Hoshina 1911 cited in Suzuki 1973), the later functions express the
speaker’s more subjective judgment upon the use of communicative strategies.
Among the later subjective functions, ‘before new information’ and ‘reinforce-
ment’ seem to show intersubjective concern for the hearer’s attention before the
upcoming information or acceptance of information. The development from
‘summons’ to these functions shows increased intersubjectivity.
In addition, in the history of the interjections, the least personal meaning,
‘exclamation’, which appeared occasionally in co-occurrence with the dom-
inating other-directed meanings, ceases to appear in the late 18th century.
TSL[v.20020404] Prn:8/11/2004; 15:02 F: PB13206.tex / p.35 (191)
In the end, the initial elements lost the residual meaning which was appar-
ently the primary function in the final position and which is also the least
subjective function.
As shown, subjectification is reflected on two different levels of the di-
achronic evolution of the na elements. And intersubjectification takes place
specifically in the developments of sentence-final particles and interjections.
The pragmaticalization of na elements which set off with the original ‘excla-
mation’ function also involves the change, ‘non-subjective → subjective →
intersubjective’ meanings.
Chapter 6
a sentence
Ji [expressive] Ji
Shi [ideational]
Interjections SFPs
initial end, and sentence-final particles (SFPs) at the terminating end. Ji located
at either end of a sentence conveys the speaker’s subjectivity.
Okutsu (1978: 52) then states the following, focusing on the sentence-final
expression.
A Japanese sentence-final expression consists of a succession of a stem of a
verb or an adjective at the beginning, various auxiliary verbs, suffixes, and
sentence-final particles at the end.
Pred1 is the stem of a verb or an adjective, which can be followed by any number
of predicate elements (Predn ) such as ‘causative verb’ and ‘negative element’.
‘Tense’ indicates ‘tense auxiliary’. ‘Confirmative’ signifies ‘epistemic modal aux-
iliary’ such as hazu-da (should), daroo (can) and kamoshirenai (may). Then ‘Fi-
nal’ designates so-called sentence-final particles. What is important in Okutsu’s
examination is that sentence-final particles conveying the speaker’s attitude
appear at the terminating end of a Japanese sentence and interjections also
conveying the speaker’s attitude appear at the initiating end of a sentence.
Watanabe’s (1971) speculation on Japanese final expression reveals the
nature of the expressive function of the na elements among Japanese sentence-
final particles more clearly. First, his basic model of ‘statement (Chinjutsu)’
opposed to ‘predication (Jojutsu)’ is illustrated in Figure 6.4. Jojutsu which is
shi in Tokieda (1950) is paraphrased by the ideational function, while chinjutsu
which is ji can be called the expressive function.
In Watanabe’s model, expressive function is considered to be a base sup-
porting ideational function dynamically throughout a sentence. While admit-
ting the operation of expressive function inside a sentence by elements such as
sentence-internal particles, Watanabe claims that expressive function is served
typically at either end of a sentence, especially in the sentence-final position.
This view concurs with Okutsu’s (1978: 62). Watanabe also states that the
a sentence
(from Watanabe 1971: 108)
Chapter 6
distinct feature of the expressive function which differs from the ideational
function is exposed in the sentence-final position (Watanabe Ibid.: 111).
Watanabe discusses sentence-final particles quite extensively. He proposes
a continuum of communication-boundedness for sentence-final particles that
occur in the sentence final position. This proposal is demonstrated in (4).
(4) i. Sakura ka i ne.
Cherry.blossom Q FP FP
<‘Isn’t (it) cherry blossom?’>
ii. Sakura sa ne.
Cherry.blossom FP FP
<‘(It) is cherry blossom.’>
iii. Saku yo ne.
Bloom FP FP
<‘(It) will bloom, won’t it?’>
iv. Saku zo ne.
Bloom FP FP
<‘(It) will definitely (of course) bloom.’>
(Sentences except (iii) are from Watanabe Ibid.: 149)
In (4), the four sentences all contain more than two sentence-final particles
at the end. The detailed examination of each sentence-final particle is not of
interest here, but my focus is on the location of ne in the alignment of sentence-
final particles. Ne is always at the very end. Watanabe proposes a criterion of
what I translate as ‘emotion markerness’,19 i.e. marking the speaker’s emotion
towards others, to account for this sentence-final particle alignment. Accord-
ing to Watanabe’s criterion, ka in (i), a question marker (Kuno 1978a: 79),
is a non-emotion-marker. Sa in (ii) is a semi-emotion-marker. Yo in (iii) is
a half -emotion-marker. And ne in all the examples is a full-emotion-marker
(Watanabe: 149). Thus ka-sa-yo-ne fit on the ‘emotion markerness’ continuum
(0 → high) in this order, and ne in fact marks the highest degree of emotion
towards other people. Another way of saying this is that ne has the most other-
oriented, i.e. communication-oriented meaning. A sentence-final particle with
higher emotion markerness emerges closer to the terminal end of a sentence.
Watanabe accounts for the fact that ne emerges following all the other
sentence-final particles in a sentence, as follows. Ne is veritably the extreme in
the continuative aspect of marking emotion. Considering ‘calling the hearer’s
attention’ to be the fundamental function of ne (Watanabe Ibid.), ne is thought
to be the most basic means of expressing the speaker’s relationship with
the hearer.
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Chapter 7
Conclusion
In this final chapter, in (7.1) I summarize the main points of the study, re-
viewing the pragmaticalization of the conjunctions demo and dakedo and of
the interjection ne and its variants. In (7.2), since ‘development of discourse
markers’ seems to draw increased interests in the recent argument about gram-
maticalization, some thoughts on ‘grammaticalization’ is shown.
In (7.3), to conclude this study, I discuss the relevance of my findings to
a few other linguistic issues, inside and outside pragmatics, i.e. relevance to
typological characteristics of language (7.3.1), productivity (7.3.2) and con-
ventionalization of conversational implicatures (7.3.3).
Chapter 7
gained textual and expressive functions while in the clause-final position it only
carried the ideational function. Between the 18th century and the early 20th
century, demo’s expressive function was to signal the speaker’s contrastive ac-
tion of refutation. Later, in Present Day Japanese, demo’s expressive function is
realized by additional speaker’s actions, such as ‘changing the topic’, ‘opening
conversation’ and ‘claiming the floor’. Thus, the expressive function must have
expanded over time. The change in demo follows a general tendency “less to
more personal” (Traugott 1982): Between the 14th century and the 19th cen-
tury, V-te + mo seems not to have marked personal meaning, but when the
element appears in the initial position in the 18th century, it clearly serves an
expressive function.
As for dakedo, the original form V + kedo seems to have appeared first in
the 18th century in my data (as shown in Figure 7.2). Then it seems to have
turned up in the utterance-initial position as dakedo in the early 20th century
in my data. Dakedo at this stage has expressive function optionally, i.e. some
dakedo carry just ideational and textual functions, but others carry all three
functions. Whereas the element expressed no personal meaning explicitly at
first as an initial marker, it began to convey expressive meaning clearly: The
pragmaticalization of dakedo also complies with the tendency “less to more
personal”.
The functional change in the interjection ne and its variants na, noo, no,
naa and nee which is accompanied by the positional shift from the sentence-
final elements through internal elements into initial markers is summarized in
Figure 7.3. This development of na elements could be discussed as an example
of grammaticalization, as reported in (7.2).
As seen in Figure 7.3, in general, the na group of elements emerge in final
and internal positions around the same time or in succession; then they emerge
in initial positions later. As mentioned before, analysis of Japanese language
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Conclusion
Chapter 7
position, the original function was only that of summons; however, later the
item began marking more extended interpersonal meanings such as ‘reinforce-
ment’ and ‘before new information’: this is also a change from less to more
interpersonal meaning.
In Chapter 1 where the definition of discourse markers was introduced
(1.2.1.4), I listed the specific conditions that allow an expression to be a marker,
proposed by Schiffrin (1987: 328):
1. it has to be syntactically detachable from a sentence
2. it has to be commonly used in initial position of an utterance
3. it has to have a range of prosodic contours
4. it has to be able to operate at both local and global levels of discourse, and
on different planes of discourse
. Grammaticalization
This book is about the pragmatics of some Japanese discourse markers (DMs),
which at first did not address the issue of grammaticalization. However, in the
last decade, grammaticalization has grown to be one of the themes that at-
tracts primary attention in linguistics. And in today’s on-going discussions on
grammaticalization, even the issue of development of discourse markers itself
(exactly the topic of this book) has drawn more attention. Book-length works
on grammaticalization appeared one after another in the 1990s (Heine, Claudi,
& Hünnemeyer 1991; Traugott & Heine (Eds.) Vols. 1 and 2, 1991; Hop-
per & Traugott 1993; Pagliuca (Ed.) 1994; Lehmann 1995; Ramat & Hopper
1998; etc.). And still today, discussions to develop and remodel the theory of
grammaticalization are being argued (e.g. Traugott & Dasher 2002; Wischer &
Diewald 2002, etc.). In this climate of the field, the question “if the develop-
mental process of discourse markers is judged as a case of grammaticalization
or not” has been argued from time to time. In this section, I will give some
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Conclusion
There are at least two scholars who declare that the development of discourse
markers is a case of grammaticalization. This view, the development of dis-
course markers as grammaticalization, will be firstly presented.
First, Traugott (1995b: 1) suggests that a cline be added to the inven-
tory of “staples of grammaticalization theory”, “in addition to nominal clines
(nominal adposition > case) and verbal clines (main verb > tense, aspect,
mood marker)”. The newly suggested cline is: “Clause-internal Adverbial >
Sentence Adverbial > Discourse Particle (of which Discourse Markers are a
subtype)” (Ibid.).
In this paper, Traugott specifically argues that three English discourse
markers, ‘indeed’, ‘in fact’ and ‘besides’, developed following this cline. ‘Indeed’,
for example, undergoes a path from a verbal adverbial through a sentential ad-
verb to a discourse marker. (i) (Ernst 1984: 202; quoted in Traugott 1995b: 6)
illustrates this developmental direction (a → b).
(i) a. Many people hated it indeed.
b. Indeed, many people hated it.
The three discourse markers, ‘indeed’, ‘in fact’ and ‘besides’, also all origi-
nally started from the stage (Stage 0) where lexical nouns (‘deed’, ‘facte’ and
‘siden’ (meaning side)) were included. Then, Traugott considers the devel-
oped forms, namely discourse markers, as “part of the grammar of a language
(Fraser 1988: 32), even though they are pragmatic in function” (Ibid.: 5). She
argues that discourse markers fill a syntactic slot, and have highly constrained
syntactic properties (Ibid.). Thus, according to this view, the development of
discourse markers fulfills the natural tendency of grammaticalization; from
non-grammatical lexical items to grammatical elements. Treating Japanese dis-
course markers such as demo and dakara (often called conjunctions in Japanese
grammar), I also consider that these demo type connectives fill syntactic slots
and have syntactic properties. It seems to depend on each discourse marker to
what extent a marker is part of the grammar of a language and contributes to
the propositional component of a language.
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Chapter 7
Conclusion
This cline would explain pragmatic markers such as look-forms, I mean, you
see, I think/guess/suppose and you know (195). Synchronically, pragmatic mark-
ers are divergent in structure: They are “verbs, adverbs, interjections, coordi-
nating and subordinating conjunctions, literal phrases, and idioms” (Fraser
1988: 24 quoted in Brinton 2001: 195). Diachronically, pragmatic markers also
have a variety in sources, including “interjections (hwæt), adverbs (anon),
verbs/auxiliaries (gan), or matrix clauses (þa gelamp þæt) (Brinton 1996)”. I
also agree on such diversity in pragmatic markers. Because of this diversity, it
is plausible that there are plural clines of grammaticalization to be proposed in
addition to the traditional view of its unidirectional tendencies.
Chapter 7
Conclusion
‘indeed’ and ‘besides’ (7.2.1). The analysis illustrated in (7.2.1) is indeed im-
plicative for the analysis of other discourse markers.
If a process exhibits the arrival at a new morpho-syntactic status or a new
grammatical element, such process is surely counted as a case of grammatical-
ization. For the case of na elements, however, unclear part is the grammaticality
of the developed forms, the interjections na.2 If their development is seen as
one from non-grammatical sentence-final particles to non-grammatical in-
terjections, such process cannot be a grammaticalization. Nonetheless, the
historical evolution of na elements at least partly involves features of gram-
maticalization, if grammaticalization is a process which crucially involves cor-
relations between semantic/pragmatic and morphosyntactic change. The case
of na elements at least show the signs of grammaticalization such as ‘semantic
and syntactic reclassification’, ‘gradual step-by-step change (cline)’, ‘layering’,
‘pragmaticalization’ and ‘subjectification’ and the signs of grammaticalization
of discourse markers such as ‘increase in scope’ and ‘increase in syntactic free-
dom’ (see also 1.1.1). This case would be judged as a grammaticalization in the
broadest viewpoint in the current field.
Chapter 7
the original forms, kedo, mo and ne, are all postposed and such adpositions
are indeed called postpositions. Postpositions are ascribable to the fact that
Japanese is a postpositional language, which is another typological feature (see
Greenberg’s Language Universal 9 in (2.3)).
How do [clause + kedo/mo] and [ne appended to a sentence] shift into
the unit-initial position? There are two possible ways of accounting for this
shift. The first way to account for the shift in the formation of conjunctions
like demo/dakedo is by postposing. In Japanese there are two types of move-
ment processes, “scrambling” and “postposing”3 (Hinds 1986: 164). Although
scrambling, also referred to as “free word order” (Kuno 1973), is a typical
typological feature of Japanese, it is not clear that ‘postposing’ can be cate-
gorized as a typological feature.4 Free word order and postposing are briefly
illustrated below.
‘Free word order’ is partly attributable to agglutination. This is because
case-marking particles (postpositions) which contribute to agglutination in
Japanese clearly designate the cases, hence the relationships among phrases
(words) in a sentence, and therefore phrases can move around relatively easily.
An example given to show the clear case-relation among words and free word
order which can occur in Japanese (Kuno 1973: 351–352, reviewed in (2.3)) is
repeated below.
(1) a. John ga Mary o Cambridge de mita.
nominative accusative in saw
particle particle
<‘John saw Mary in Cambridge.’>
b. John ga Cambridge de Mary o mita.
c. Mary o John ga Cambridge de mita.
d. Mary o Cambridge de John ga mita.
e. Cambridge de John ga Mary o mita.
f. Cambridge de Mary o John ga mita.
In (1), (a) is realizable as (b) through (f), and the six sentences are all gram-
matical. As seen in this example, in Japanese it is possible for a phrase to be
detached from the rest of the sentence and moved to a different position as long
as the rigid constraint is observed that verbs must appear in the sentence-final
position (Kuno 1973: 3).
‘Postposing’ takes place relatively frequently in conversational interaction,
but it also appears sometimes in written language (Hinds 1986: 166). As will be
illustrated in (2) and (3), subordinate clauses (underlined part) seem able to
be postposed.
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Conclusion
In (2) and (3), the subordinate clauses ‘if you compare the two countries’ and
‘although I wish I could’ are postposed. Postposing is a convenient strategy in
conversation, since the speaker can add something extra (e.g. a supplementary
explanation, excuse, justification etc.) after starting the main sentence. In ad-
dition to the phrases seen in (1), postposed subordinate clauses like (‘although
I want to speak it’: hanashitai kedo) in (3) seem easy to detach and move.
Following the clause (‘although I want to speak it’), the speaker might like
to re-assert his/her information to emphasize it and say:
(4) Dakedo, dooshitemo hanasenai desu.
But anyhow speak can NEG COP
<‘But, I can’t speak [French] no matter what [I do].’>
In (4), instead of saying dakedo, the speaker of course has the option of just
repeating the clause preceding (4) (‘although I want to speak it’: hanashitai
kedo). However, since the element da (more strictly its stem d) has the function
of replacing a prior predicate, the speaker utters dakedo in which d replaces
the predicate hanashitai (‘I want (wish) to speak’): thus the speaker uses an
economical d replacement strategy rather than a redundant or repetitive ex-
pression.5 Thus, in Japanese sentence structure a subordinate clause such as
(V + kedo/mo) seems detachable and somewhat movable. It stands to reason
that the mobility of a subordinate clause and the replacement function of d
would allow the formation of the initial condensed subordinate clause-like
word dakedo/demo. Thus, ‘postposing’ is involved in the formation of initial
markers since it allows a subordinate clause to be detached from the rest of
the sentence. Postposing contributes to the marker formation in the case of
conjunctions such as demo/dakedo.
There may be another way of accounting for the shift of a final element
into an initial marker in the case of ne, a sentence-final particle (SFP) which
later becomes an initial marker. That is, in Japanese, a postpositional language,
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Chapter 7
elements which in the final position of a sentence already express the speaker’s
subjectivity shift into the initial position which (in Japanese) seems the most
efficient site for expressing subjectivity. This account relies upon (1) the func-
tional structure of the Japanese sentence suggested by Watanabe (1971) or
Hayashi (1983) and (2) the bracketing function of initiating markers. Although
the entire sketch of motivation for this pragmatic change remains indefinite,
this account gives us a hint to consider the motivating factor.
Watanabe’s (1971) model (mentioned in (6.5)) is illustrated below as Fig-
ure 7.4: This time our focus is rather on the functions of language which could
be pertinent to the typological feature of postpositionality. ‘Predication’ (jo-
jutsu) is what is expressed by ideational function, i.e. ideational content, or
state of affairs. Opposed to predication, ‘statement’ (chinjutsu) is what is ex-
pressed by expressive function; the content of the state of affairs into which the
speaker’s attitude is added.
‘Statement’ is paraphrased as what is expressed by ‘ji’ in Tokieda’s the-
ory (1950). ‘Ji’ is “an expression representing the speaker’s perspective toward
the referent” as opposed to ‘shi’, “an expression representing an objective and
conceptualized notion of referents” (translation from Maynard 1989b: 30). ‘Ji’
and ‘shi’ are two grammatical categories into which all the word classes in
Japanese are classified: ‘ji’ includes conjunctions, interjections, auxiliary verbs
and particles, whereas ‘shi’ subsumes nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
What is noteworthy in Watanabe’s model (Figure 7.4) is that ‘ji’ adding the
speaker’s attitude to the proposition of an utterance (sentence) serves espe-
cially in sentence-initial and final parts (Watanabe emphasizing the final part).
In the sentence-initial part, typically interjections as ‘ji’ function to express the
speaker’s attitude, and in the sentence-final part, sentence-final particles also
have this function as ‘ji’ (cf. Okutsu 1978: 62). One might wonder why the el-
ements need to move to the initial part, if both initial and final parts are the
locations where the speaker’s attitude may be expressed.
Hayashi’s (1983) model illustrates the idea that expressive function is oper-
ating in the peripheral parts (initial and final ends) of a Japanese sentence more
comprehensibly. According to Hayashi, a Japanese sentence is functionally
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Conclusion
predication
judgment
sentiments
interaction
sentence sentence
initial final
í
a sentence
structured with four-layers as shown in Figure 7.5: the central layer is “predi-
cation” (byoojo), the core part of the sentence, where the semantic content of
events is described, and the three layers encircling “predication” outward are
“judgment”, “sentiments” and “interaction”.
“Judgment” expresses the speaker’s judgment regarding the proposition;
“sentiments” convey the speaker’s various sentiments toward the semantic con-
tent; and “interaction” transmits the speaker’s interactive attitude concerning
the other participants in a given situation. To capture a more concrete idea of
this functionally layered-structure of a sentence, an example is given in Fig-
ure 7.6, which Hayashi (1983: 49) calls the “layered-structure of an utterance”.
Figure 7.7 presents the English equivalent for the utterance in Figure 7.6.
In this model (see Figure 7.5), ‘sentiments’ and ‘interaction’ included in
the expressive component are expressed in the outwardmost layers, hence in
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Chapter 7
‘Teacher,’
well,
looks like
what should we do
question marker
both sentence-initial and final positions. With the predication, which is the de-
scribed semantic content, as the core of the sentence, ‘judgment’, ‘sentiments’
and ‘interaction’ functions operate, forming layers outward, i.e. in both di-
rections toward the initiating and terminating ends of a sentence (see Figures
7.5 and 7.6).
Furthermore, the following might hint an account of the pragmaticaliza-
tion of na elements. In the outermost layer, ‘interaction’ (see Figure 7.5), the
na group of sentence-final particles move into sentence-initial position and be-
come interjections, since the initial position is where the marking or bracketing
function of a discourse marker stands out and operates the most effectively.6
From the two models of the functional structure of a Japanese sentence
(Watanabe 1971; Hayashi 1983), we now understand that in a Japanese sen-
tence the semantic content is placed in the center and the speaker’s subjective
attitude toward the content is in the peripheral part (in initial and terminal po-
sitions). Among the items that express the speaker attitude (ji), especially those
which transmit the speaker’s interaction-oriented (interpersonal) meanings (e.g.
summons, interrogation, suggestion, etc.) are in the outermost positions.
Items such as the na elements originally located in the sentence-final po-
sition are detached from the sequence of discourse: those items are cut from
the rest of discourse in the position of ‘ji’. As seen in the preceding chapters,
those detached items move into the sentence-initial position. A reason for this
can be as follows. The sentence-initial position is the most appropriate place for
markers to serve their ‘marking’ function because this is where ‘initial brackets’
(Schiffrin 1987: 36–37; Goffman 1974: 255; see (1.2.1.4)) work. As a conse-
quence, the sentence-initial position is the most expressive and subjective site.
It is also noted that the bracketing function of an initial marker can be even a
TSL[v.20020404] Prn:21/10/2004; 13:43 F: PB13207.tex / p.15 (211)
Conclusion
stronger motivating force than the functional structure where the interactional
meaning is expressed in both sentence-initial and final positions.7
Although this is not yet clear, there may already be the “path” for the prag-
maticalization in Japanese (at least, in the case of the na group of interjections),
because in this language, both sentence-final and sentence-initial locations are
expressive and subjective. In the case of na elements, those in sentence-final
location gradually come to be used in sentence-initial location where the “sig-
naling” (marking) function of a discourse marker serves the most efficiently.
In this section, an account for the shift of unit-final elements into initial
markers in Japanese has been attempted in relation to the typological features
of Japanese. Schiffrin (1987) suggests that English conjunctions have come to
be used as markers. However, in English, this pragmatic change is not accom-
panied by a positional shift of items, as is the case for the Japanese markers
examined here. This possibly occurs because English is a typically prepositional
language. In English, conjunctions are located in the unit-initial position in the
first place (McCawley 1988; see (2.3)), and they need not move into the initial
position to become markers. Therefore, the exact process of discourse marker
formation, whereby items obtain the status of markers is very much a matter
of whether the language is typologically pre- or postpositionally structured.
In sum, in Japanese which is a postpositional and agglutinative language, a
certain group of unit-final items become unit-initial discourse markers, involv-
ing at least the above two typological characteristics. The pragmaticalization in
Japanese seen in this study clearly shows the accompanying positional shift of
the items, which can never be seen in English. Therefore, the examination of
Japanese gives us a piece of evidence which shows how some items evolve into
markers. Thus this study adds support for the evolutionary development of
markers, first suggested in Schiffrin’s (1987) analysis of English, by showing
visually explicit evidence, the accompanying positional shift in pragmaticaliza-
tion in Japanese, a language typologically quite unlike English.
.. Productivity
Chapter 7
Conclusion
Chapter 7
Conclusion
Geis and Zwicky contend that an invited inference which has been associated
with a word can become part of its semantic representation (Ibid.). Horn (cf.
1984) also seems to support the idea that the conventionalization of a salient or
stereotypical conversational inference is involved in the development of ‘since’
from a temporal to a causal marker (cf. Traugott 1989).
The process of the conventionalization of implicatures which I focus on
here is explicated quite clearly by Dahl (1985). “Implicature” as used by Dahl
is the term coined by Grice (1975). Dahl writes that conventionalization of
implicatures is a powerful mechanism which creates secondary foci and sec-
ondary interpretations of a word. Although secondary foci and interpretations
will be explained below, Dahl’s (1985: 11) description of the process of the
conventionalization of a conversational implicature is as follows:
if some condition happens to be fulfilled frequently when a certain category is
used, a stronger association may develop between the condition and the cat-
TSL[v.20020404] Prn:21/10/2004; 13:43 F: PB13207.tex / p.20 (216)
Chapter 7
Conclusion
Observing the principle of informativeness, (5) can be read as all the following
relations between two conjoined clauses, (i), (ii) and (iii).
(6) Given p and q, try interpreting it as:
(i) ‘p and then q’; if successful try:
(ii) ‘p and therefore q’; if successful try also:
(iii) ‘p, and p is the cause of q’
Chapter 7
Notes
Chapter 1
* Since my earlier works (Onodera 1993, 1995, 2000), analysis, especially the diachronic
one, has been redone and updated. Part of data and treatment of data have been changed.
As a result, in this book, tables (e.g. Tables 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3) have been revised, and some
dates for the appearance of the items are reported differently from the earlier works.
. As for the source element of demo, a possible original device (clause-final -nitemo (-ni +
te + mo)) will be also analyzed in 4.1.1.
. Brinton (1990, 1996), as historical works, also use this language model and display fertile
findings.
. Recently, however, Heine and Kuteva (2002), a book on grammaticalization with a holis-
tic viewpoint, which covers “data from roughly 500 different languages” (1) appeared.
. Conjunctions and connectives are similar terms. When ‘conjunction’ is used, it refers
to a grammatical category as an established word class long discussed as ‘setsuzoku-shi’ in
Japanese linguistics (Kokugogaku).
. In this book, the citations from the sources written in Japanese are my translation unless
a note is provided.
. Although interjections are referred to in the proceedings, the focus here is the similarity
between the function of “filling” and “stopping gap”.
. The data used for my survey is a ten-hour taped and transcribed corpus of Japanese
spoken discourse (Ide et al. 1984. A Housewife’s One-Week Discourse Corpus). I am deeply
indebted to Sachiko Ide who willingly let me use this corpus.
. In Tables (6.1, 6.2, 6.3) in Chapter 6, a dotted line is drawn between Muromachi pe-
riod and its preceding time periods to mark the secondary treatment of data of the latter
time periods.
. In my earlier works (Onodera 1993, 1995), ‘pragmatic change’, ‘semantic-pragmatic
change’ are employed rather than the term ‘pragmaticalization’. Now that this research
area including the development of discourse markers has expanded and ‘pragmaticalization’
seems the term in the most general use. This terminological convention is followed.
. The broader perspective of grammaticalization is also seen in Mori (1996) and Suzuki
(1998: 130). Restrictive definitions (such as Comrie 1998 and Lehmann 1995) consider that
grammaticalization involves ‘decrease in syntactic freedom’ and ‘increase in boundness’.
TSL[v.20020404] Prn:4/11/2004; 12:33 F: PB132NO.tex / p.2 (220)
Notes
. The deictic center in unmarked cases is the speaker, the time when the utterance is
presented and the location of the speaker.
. Levinson points out the deictic relationship only between an utterance and what is
“prior”. However, as we have already seen in Schiffrin (1987), I suggest that deictic ex-
pressions mark the relationship between an utterance and both the prior and upcoming
discourse (see ‘textual coordinates’ in Schiffrin 1987: 323).
. This kind of practical points in data collection rarely appear in Tannen’s publica-
tions. However, since they are very useful in the practice of discourse analysis, they are
mentioned here.
. In fact the majority of literature in all the genres inside and outside linguistics use eras
when referring to Japanese history.
. I appreciate Heiko Narrog’s comment on the unfeasibility in written data of this period.
As seen in Tables showing the chronological view of appearance of na group of sentence-
final and sentence-internal particles and interjections; respectively Tables 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3
in Chapter 6, the validity of analysis holds, even if the data analysis of Nara period were
excluded from the study.
. If an English title is used conventionally to refer to a work (as in e.g. Keene 1955a, 1955b,
1956), such title is also provided in the parentheses following the Japanese title.
. This play script seems written in Kamigata Japanese. However, as mentioned in 1.1.4,
Kamigata Japanese was exceptionally examined when relevant or meaningful in exploring
diachrony of language.
. The category of sentence of those days differs from that of the present. However, kedo’s
connecting function is recognized here and thus the form V + kedo is regarded as the
source element.
. In this proposed direction, the shift to ‘expressive’ was later replaced by the shift to ‘sub-
jective’ (Traugott 1995a). In either way, the original direction is still recognized in many
examples of pragmaticalization in different languages. So, it is regarded as an index of the
general direction of pragmaticalization in this study.
Chapter 2
. In McCawley (1988) to and and are both called conjunctions. Strictly speaking, while the
English and is a conjunction which links NPs and VPs, the Japanese to is usually considered
a particle which links only NPs.
. In Kuno (1978a), the connective particles node and noni are exemplified. Kedo belongs to
the same group as these particles since it is attached to a verb and is a clause-final connective
device. This device seems the original element of the conjunction dakedo.
. Östman (1981) who also analyzes interjections admits the ‘referring’ function of inter-
jections, quoting James (1973).
. Now we see a similar historical approach in Brinton (1996).
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Notes
Chapter 3
. Demo and dakedo fall into this category, adversative conjunctions. In Present Day
Japanese, other conjunctions such as shikashi, keredomo, ga and daga are also members of
this category. Of these, conjunctions which appeared earlier in the history of Japanese and
are still in wide use in today’s written text have tended to draw primary attention from gram-
marians. Shikashi which first appeared in the 12th century and keredomo in the 17th century
are such conjunctions.
. Among the contrasting functions, referential contrast and pragmatically inferable con-
trast do not co-occur in a pair contrasting two pieces of information.
. In addition to Traugott’s claim, Halliday and Hasan (1976: 26), which is the base for Trau-
gott’s functional-semantic model, also state that their ideational component is concerned
not only with logical relations but with something more.
. This Levinson’s category includes both what is said and what is implicated. Based
on Grice (1975), what is implicated is divided into conventional implicature and non-
conventional implicature which is then divided into more specific categories (Levinson
1983: 131–132).
. Referential and pragmatically inferable contrasts are basic; however, it is not obligatory
for functional contrast and contrastive actions to be accompanied by these basic contrasts.
In (3.4), for example, we will see a case of contrastive action not accompanied by a referential
or pragmatically inferable contrast.
. The finding of this nested functional structure is due to Schiffrin’s (1982a: 10) analysis
of nested paraphrase. Although paraphrase is her focus in that paper, in her example of a
nested paraphrase, it is noticed that ‘but’ used in the outer paraphrase seems to subordi-
nate the inner paraphrase which is intervening discourse. This example gave me a hint in
understanding the nested functional structure.
. Associated with cooperative and uncooperative transitions, Schiffrin (1987: 174) dis-
tinguishes two locations where a transition occurs: “transition space entry” and “non-
transition space”.
. In the transcript, “indicate(s) second utterance latched onto first, without perceptible
pause” (Tannen 1984: xix).
. In English conversation, ‘so’ works in a parallel way to demo, which opens the conversa-
tion in (11) and (12) (Schiffrin p.c.).
. Tokorode conveys the equivalent meaning of the English “by the way”, and it is mainly
used in written or planned (Ochs 1979) spoken Japanese today.
. Tokorode seems to occur more frequently in written text. The user of this conjunction in
the corpus is a male middle-class office worker in his 50s.
. I do not mean that the use of demo/dakedo is obligatory to change topics. It is possible
to change a topic without using any conjunction.
. Ne is a sentence-final particle which will be examined in a later chapter. Semantically
this particle does not add anything extra. Therefore, I treat demo + ne as a propositional
equivalent to demo here.
TSL[v.20020404] Prn:4/11/2004; 12:33 F: PB132NO.tex / p.4 (222)
Notes
Chapter 4
. As stated in (1.2.1.3), this language model is still useful in examining functions of lan-
guage. Another diachronic study which employs the same model is Brinton (1996).
. Among da-, desu-, and degozaimasu- styles, da- style is called ‘ordinary’ style. Desu style
marks ‘polite’ style, then degozaimasu style the most polite (formal) style.
. Mio (1995: 209) lists the conjunctions formed based on da as follows: Dakara,soredakara,
dakedo, dakedomo, dakeredo, dakeredomo, daga, danoni, soredanoni,dattara, datositara, dato-
suruto, datte, damonde, damondakara. Most of these conjunctions are prefaced by da. In
Onodera (2000), I called them demo type connectives.
. National Language Studies (Kokugogaku) is a branch in the study of Japanese language
with a long history. For instance, the grammar taught in school in Japan is mainly influenced
by Kokugogaku.
. The S in parentheses designates an omitted subject.
. As for the importance of the difference in Japanese of West and East, I owe a great deal to
an anonymous reader and Prof. Akio Tanaka’s comments.
. In this book, I show the updated and corrected data analysis. In my earlier works, part of
description was based on the analysis of Japanese from the 8th century through today. Such
analysis captures the whole history of written Japanese, but it would overlook the separate
evolutions of Japanese language of East and West Japan.
. As to the first appearance of kedo, Shoogaku Tosho (Ed.) (1981) also documents the
excerpt (10) as one such example (cf. also Uchio & Okamura 1973).
. This first appearance is reported in Yuzawa (1970b: 505) and Shoogaku Tosho (Ed.)
(1981).
. Aoki (1973) also reports the first appearance of dakedo in the Taishoo era. Regarding the
‘first appearance’ of an item, Aoki (1973: 210) states that it is not something which provides
strong evidence for “no existence of the item in the preceding time stages”. Her ‘first appear-
ance’ rather means “the emergence of the item is first recognized in that time stage” (Ibid.).
I basically agree with Aoki’s treatment of the term. The reason for this is that it seems al-
most impossible for anybody to obtain exactly the first use of an item both in written and
spoken language.
. The ratios of the instances of dakedo with only the ideational and textual functions and
the instances of dakedo also with the expressive function (2) do not change when comparing
the Taishoo Japanese with Present Day Japanese. In both time periods, 1/5 of instances of
dakedo belong to group (1), and the remaining 4/5 belong to (2). In sum, by the Taishoo era,
already, a larger percentage of the instances of dakedo bears the expressive function.
. Studies of discourse analysis emerged in the 1960s (van Dijk 1990). Thus the discourse
functions of Japanese conjunctions have been unveiled only recently. However, despite the
fact that we came to know the discourse functions of language only within the last four
decades, conjunctions, for example, seem to indeed have been in use as discourse markers
for a long period without having been documented. Demo, for instance, seems to have been
in use as a marker since the 18th century.
TSL[v.20020404] Prn:4/11/2004; 12:33 F: PB132NO.tex / p.5 (223)
Notes
. When this tendency was first proposed, it was associated with the process of grammat-
icalization. However, in her later works Traugott enlarged the domain which this tendency
involves: from only grammaticalization to include other types of lexical changes.
. As mentioned before, “propositional” function in Traugott’s work has been argued as
“ideational” function in this study.
. This direction was also first associated only with grammaticalization (Traugott 1982).
However, other kinds of meaning shift are now also considered to pursue this direction.
. I would suggest that this kind of shift first take place in spoken language rather than in
written language.
. In Japanese, the equivalent expression to ‘It rained’ is Ame ga futta (‘Rain SB fell’). In
this structure, futta (fell) is the predicate.
. De in demo is a -te gerundive form of the verb da, as already explained in (4.1). As an
inflected form of da, it is assumed that de also bears the replacement function.
. These conjunctions were also formed relatively recently: Daga and dakara first appeared
in the Edo period (1603–1867), datte in the Meiji period (1868–1912), and denakereba in the
Shoowa period (1926–1988) (Aoki 1973). If the conjunctive expressions not yet considered
to be proper conjunctions are also taken into consideration, there is even a larger number of
items which have undergone the same process.
Chapter 5
. Later I will discuss a similar notion ‘rapport’. In this study while ‘harmony’ refers to a
more general communicative situation, ‘rapport’ is used for a particular situation where
‘rapport marker’ is employed (5.6). Harmony is seen at a more global level; therefore, the
correlation between the two terms is: harmony > rapport.
. Meta-knowledge “concerns what speakers and hearers know about their respective
knowledge” (Schiffrin 1987: 28).
. One such difference is, while English has tag-questions, Japanese does not.
. The following is noted to clarify my judgment of lengthened variants as emphatic. In
the corpus examined (A Housewife’s One-Week Discourse Corpus), the original form ne (1
mora) and a form with another vowel, nee (2 moras), are in common and wide-spread use.
I categorize lengthened forms consisting of more than three moras (nee: (3 moras), ne::e
(4 moras) etc.) as emphatic use, following the phonetic designation of the transcript in the
corpus. Between the lengthened vowels and the emphasized meaning, there seems a “con-
ventionalized co-occurrence expectation” (Gumperz 1982: 131). Therefore, this phonetic
variation is considered to be a “contextualization cue” (Ibid.).
“Mora” mentioned just above is explained as follows. Japanese is a mora-counting
language or what is called a CV-patterned language. On the other hand, English is a syllable-
counting language or a CVC- patterned language. Because of this difference in phonological
structure, syllabification sometimes confuses us. English street has only one syllable, while
Japanese [su to ri : to] (meaning ‘street’) is perceived to have five syllabic bits. This syllabic
TSL[v.20020404] Prn:4/11/2004; 12:33 F: PB132NO.tex / p.6 (224)
Notes
bit is a mora. [Su to ri : to] consists of five moras because a lengthened vowel [i :] is counted
as two mora units (cf. Ootsuka & Nakajima (Eds.) 1982: 650 and 1216–1217).
. Discourse markers are theoretically defined as contextual coordinates (Schiffrin 1987: 327,
see (1.2.1.4)). Contextual coordinates consist of participation and textual coordinates, i.e.
markers index an utterance to local context, i.e. both participants (speaker/hearer) and text
(prior/upcoming text) (Ibid.: 323).
. External evaluation consists of the points the speaker makes, in a frame outside of the
story (current topic) itself, which show the speaker’s stance/point of view concerning the
“story” (cf. Labov 1972: 371).
. ‘A sultry night’ (nettaiya) is officially (meteorologically) defined to be a muggy night
when the temperature does not drop below 25 ◦ C.
. I realize that the universality of Brown and Levinson’s framework of politeness itself and
hence the classification of specific strategies may remain disputable. However, I myself con-
sider their theory of negative and positive politeness to be valid in investigating politeness
phenomena in many cultures, and here I apply it to argue that the notion, involvement, is
identified with their positive politeness.
Chapter 6
Notes
Chapter 7
. The “mystery features” Brinton found in medieval texts and treated in her study (Brinton
1996) “resemble the forms identified as discourse markers in Modern English” (6). Brinton
calls such mystery features (gan, anon, gelamp, bifel, hwæt, I gesse are examined in her 1996
book) pragmatic markers.
. As for grammaticality of ‘conjunctions’, that there are also disparate opinions in linguis-
tics is true.
. The movement ‘postposing’ discussed here is a different category from “postpositions”
(Kuno 1978a: 78) that are clearly considered typological.
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Notes
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Text references
The texts used as data for this study are listed chronologically according to the Japanese time
period. (If there is an English title conventionally used for a Japanese work (cf. Keene 1955a,
1955b, 1956, etc.), the English title is also given in the parentheses following the Japanese
title.) As mentioned in 1.1.4 and elsewhere, the texts before the Muromachi period and the
texts written in Kamigata (Kyoto-Osaka) Japanese are analyzed as secondary information in
this study.
Time period
Nara (710–784)
712 Kojiki (‘Record of Ancient Matters’), ed. by Oo no Yasumaro. Kodaikayoo Shuu [Nihon
Kotenbungaku Taikei 3]. Tokyo: Iwanami. 1957.
720 Nihonshoki, ed. by Oo no Yasumaro et al. Kodaikayoo Shuu [Nihon Kotenbungaku
Taikei 3]. Tokyo: Iwanami. 1957.
759 Manyooshuu (‘Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves’), ed. by Ootomo no Yakamochi.
Shintei Shinkun Manyooshuu. Vols. 1 & 2, ed. by Sasaki Nobutsuna. Iwanami Bunko.
Tokyo: Iwanami. 1927.
Heian (794–1192)
905 Kokin wakashuu (‘Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems’), ed. by Ki no Tsurayuki
et al. Kokin Wakashuu Hyookai, by Tani Kanae. Tokyo: Yuuseidoo. 1955.
9–10th C Fuuzokuuta. Kodai Kayoo Shuu [Nihon Kotenbungaku Taikei 3]. Tokyo: Iwanami.
1957.
1000 Makura no Sooshi (‘The Pillow Book’), by Sei Shoonagon. Iwanami Bunko. Tokyo:
Iwanami. 1962.
1008 Genji Monogatari (‘The Tale of Genji’), by Murasaki Shikibu. Iwanami Bunko. Tokyo:
Iwanami. 1965.
1171 Ryoojin Hishoo, ed. by Emperor Goshirakawa. Wakan Rouei Shuu/Ryoojin Hishoo
[Nihon Kotenbungaku Taikei 73]. Tokyo: Iwanami. 1965.
Muromachi (1336–1573)
before 1384 Jinenkoji (Noo script), by Kan’ami. Yookyoku Shuu Vol. 1. [Nihon
Kotenbungaku Taikei 40]. Tokyo: Iwanami. 1960.
before 1432 Sumidagawa (Noo script), by Motomasa. Yookyoku Shuu Vol. 1. [Nihon
Kotenbungaku Taikei 40]. Tokyo: Iwanami. 1960.
* Hachinoki (Noo script), by *. Yookyoku Shuu Vol. 2. [Nihon Kotenbungaku Taikei 41].
Tokyo: Iwanami. 1963. (* For this work, the date of the publication and the authorship
are unknown.)
before 1520 Arashiyama (Noo script), by Konparu Zenpoo. Yookyoku Shuu Vol. 2. [Nihon
Kotenbungaku Taikei 41). Tokyo: Iwanami. 1963.
TSL[v.20020404] Prn:8/11/2004; 15:03 F: PB132RE.tex / p.13 (239)
References
1518 Kanginshuu, ed. by *. Shintei Kanginshuu. Iwanami Bunko. Tokyo: Iwanami. 1989.
(* The authorship is unknown.)
Edo (1603–1867)
1694 Kooshoku denju, by Kojima Hikojuuro. In Tokugawa jidai Gengo no Kenkyuu, by
Yuzawa Kookichiro. Tokyo: Kazama Shoboo. 1970.
1713? Keisei sando gasa, by Kino Kaion. In Tokugawa jidai Gengo no Kenkyuu, by Yuzawa
Kookichiro. Tokyo: Kazama Shoboo. 1970.
1732 Chuushin kana tanzaku, by Namiki Soosuke et al. In Tokugawa jidai Gengo no Kenkyuu,
by Yuzawa Kookichiro. Tokyo: Kazama Shoboo. 1970.
1758 Sanjikkoku yofune no hajimari, by Namiki Shozo. Kabuki Meisakushuu Vol. 1, by
Kawatake Shigetoshi. [Hyooshaku Edobungaku Soosho Vol. 5]. Tokyo: Koodansha.
1970.
1768–1769 Yuushihoogen, by Inakaroojin Tadanojijii. Kibyooshi/Sharebon Shuu. [Nihon
Kotenbungaku Taikei 59]. Tokyo: Iwanami. 1958.
1770 Tatsumi no sono, by Muchuusanjin Negoto Sensei. Kibyooshi/Sharebon Shuu. [Nihon
Kotenbungaku Taikei 59]. Tokyo: Iwanami. 1958.
1772 Niwaka dooshin. Kanokomochi, by Kimuro Booun. Kobanashibon Shuu. Iwanami
Bunko. Tokyo: Iwanami. 1987.
1775 Kake suzuri. Hanaegao, by Ryuunisai Monshu. Kobanashibon Shuu. Iwanami Bunko.
Tokyo: Iwanami. 1987.
1777 Geisha yobu kodori, by Tanishi Kingyo. Tokugawa Bungei Ruijuu 5: Sharebon. Tokyo:
Kokusho kankoo kai. 1970.
1784 Futsukayoi oosakazuki, by Banshoo Teisaku. Tokugawa Bungei Ruijuu 5: Sharebon.
Tokyo: Kokusho kankoo kai. 1970.
1789 Unubore kagami, by Shinrotei. Tokugawa Bungei Ruijuu 5: Sharebon. Tokyo: Kokusho
kankoo kai. 1970.
1792 Kyoogen scripts. Ookura Torahiro hon: Noo kyoogen. Vols. 1, 2 & 3. Iwanami Bunko.
Tokyo: Iwanami. 1942.
1794 Hokka tsuujoo, by Shunkooen Hanamaru. Tokugawa Bungei Ruijuu 5: Sharebon.
Tokyo: Kokusho kankoo kai. 1970.
1809 Ukiyoburo, by Shikitei Sanba. [Nihon Kotenbungaku Taikei 63]. Tokyo: Iwanami. 1957.
1811–1812 Ukiyodoko, by Shikitei Sanba. Iwanami Bunko. Tokyo: Iwanami. 1928.
Meiji (1868–1912)
1887 Ukigumo (‘The Drifting Cloud’), by Futabatei Shimei. Iwanami Bunko. Tokyo:
Iwanami. 1941.
1906 Hakai (‘The Broken Commandment’), by Shimazaki Tooson. Iwanami Bunko. Tokyo:
Iwanami. 1957.
1908 Sanshiro, by Natsume Sooseki. Iwanami Bunko. Tokyo: Iwanami. 1938.
Taishoo (1912–1926)
1917 Ude Kurabe, by Nagai Kafuu. Iwanami Bunko. Tokyo: Iwanami. 1987.
TSL[v.20020404] Prn:8/11/2004; 15:03 F: PB132RE.tex / p.14 (240)
References
Shoowa (1926–1988)
1929 Tade kuu Mushi (‘Some Prefer Nettles’), by Tanizaki Junichiro. Iwanami Bunko. Tokyo:
Iwanami. 1948.
1938 Yukiguni (‘Snow Country’), Kawabata Yasunari. Iwanami Bunko. Tokyo: Iwanami.
1952.
Name index
A E
Aijmer 13, 216 Ernst 201
Akatsuka 4
Aksu-Koç 216
Aoki 104, 119, 212, 222, 223 F
Auchlin 37 Fasold 11, 226
Fitzmaurice 11, 42
Fraser 201, 203
B Fujii 11, 21
Barnlund 124, 125
Bateson 152
Blake 45, 205 G
Blakemore 32 Gazdar 13
Brinton 4, 42, 202, 203, 218–220, 222, Geis 215
225 Genetti 39
Brown, Gillian 38, 130 Gilman 58, 139
Brown, Penelope 58, 63, 152–154, 224 Givón 41
Brown, Roger 58, 139 Goffman 16, 63, 64, 120, 152, 210
Brown, William 126 Greenberg 8, 43, 206
Brunet 37 Grice 3, 60, 215, 217, 221, 226
Gumperz 152, 223
Guy 39, 188
C
Chafe 36, 152
Claudi 2, 200 H
Comrie 219 Hünnemeyer 2, 200
Cook 16, 37 Haga 124–126
Coulmas 36 Halliday 15, 17, 60, 85, 106, 112, 174,
Croft 8 183, 221
Hansen 13
Hasan 15, 17, 60, 85, 106, 112, 174, 183,
D 221
Dahl 215, 216 Hashimoto 46, 168
Dasher 2, 3, 38, 40, 189, 190, 200 Hayashi, Ooki 21, 45, 102
Diewald 200 Hayashi, Reiko 124, 125
Duncan 130 Hayashi, Shiro 7, 208–210
Durkheim 152 Heine 2, 200, 219
TSL[v.20020404] Prn:10/12/2004; 11:37 F: PB132NI.tex / p.2 (242)
Subject index
A C
address terms 138, 139, 153 call attention 54
adjacency pair(s) 63, 64, 72 in diachronic analysis 184
adversative conjunction(s) 32, 57, in synchronic analysis 124, 132,
83, 85, 107, 214, 221 135, 138
adversative meaning 25, 89, 96 careful style 58
agglutinating 8, 45, 46, 55 casual style 58
agglutination 8, 45, 55, 205, 206, 212 “cause’ 6, 212
agglutinative language 43, 45, 55, change the topic/sub-topic 84
211 see also changing the topic
agreement 28, 34, 37 see also sub-topic change
in diachronic analysis 183 changing the topic 81–83
in synchronic analysis 71, 124, chinjutsu 47–49, 193, 208
127–132, 137, 142–146, 151, claim(ing) the floor 198, 218
153, 154 in diachronic analysis 98, 99,
amelioration 40 108–110
atmosphere sustainer 124, 148, 150, in synchronic analysis 73, 77,
151 78, 83
attention getting 143 clause-connecting function 91, 92
communication/interaction-oriented
194, 195
conjunction(s) 5, 6, 24, 26, 31, 32,
B 40, 45–51, 55, 56, 197, 201,
back channel(s) 129–132, 134, 142, 211–214, 219–223, 226
143, 146–148, 154 dichotomy of Japanese
frequency of 130 conjunctions 47
before new information 200 frequency of 5, 6
in diachronic analysis 175–178, in diachronic analysis 85–87,
180, 181, 183, 190 100, 117, 119, 121, 159, 186,
in synchronic analysis 132–135, 191
142, 143, 154 in synchronic analysis 57–59,
‘besides’ 201–203, 205 83, 84, 123
bracketing 16, 210 context 3, 13, 16, 116, 142, 143, 224
brackets (of talk) 13, 16, 118, 120, context-dependent 51
174, 210 contextual coordinates 16, 17, 35,
‘but’ 6, 9, 32, 33, 35, 40, 57, 78, 84, 133, 142, 224
212–214 contrasting functions 58, 59, 61, 221
TSL[v.20020404] Prn:10/12/2004; 13:24 F: PB132SI.tex / p.2 (246)
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and masculinity in ethnography and discourse. 2002. xxiv, 357 pp.
94 McILVENNY, Paul (ed.): Talking Gender and Sexuality. 2002. x, 332 pp.
95 FITZMAURICE, Susan M.: The Familiar Letter in Early Modern English. A pragmatic approach. 2002.
viii, 263 pp.
96 HAVERKATE, Henk: The Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics of Spanish Mood. 2002. vi, 241 pp.
97 MAYNARD, Senko K.: Linguistic Emotivity. Centrality of place, the topic-comment dynamic, and an
ideology of pathos in Japanese discourse. 2002. xiv, 481 pp.
98 DUSZAK, Anna (ed.): Us and Others. Social identities across languages, discourses and cultures. 2002.
viii, 522 pp.
99 JASZCZOLT, Katarzyna M. and Ken TURNER (eds.): Meaning Through Language Contrast. Volume
1. 2003. xii, 388 pp.
100 JASZCZOLT, Katarzyna M. and Ken TURNER (eds.): Meaning Through Language Contrast. Volume
2. 2003. viii, 496 pp.
101 LUKE, Kang Kwong and Theodossia-Soula PAVLIDOU (eds.): Telephone Calls. Unity and diversity
in conversational structure across languages and cultures. 2002. x, 295 pp.
102 LEAFGREN, John: Degrees of Explicitness. Information structure and the packaging of Bulgarian
subjects and objects. 2002. xii, 252 pp.
103 FETZER, Anita and Christiane MEIERKORD (eds.): Rethinking Sequentiality. Linguistics meets
conversational interaction. 2002. vi, 300 pp.
104 BEECHING, Kate: Gender, Politeness and Pragmatic Particles in French. 2002. x, 251 pp.
105 BLACKWELL, Sarah E.: Implicatures in Discourse. The case of Spanish NP anaphora. 2003.
xvi, 303 pp.
106 BUSSE, Ulrich: Linguistic Variation in the Shakespeare Corpus. Morpho-syntactic variability of
second person pronouns. 2002. xiv, 344 pp.
107 TAAVITSAINEN, Irma and Andreas H. JUCKER (eds.): Diachronic Perspectives on Address Term
Systems. 2003. viii, 446 pp.
108 BARRON, Anne: Acquisition in Interlanguage Pragmatics. Learning how to do things with words in a
study abroad context. 2003. xviii, 403 pp.
109 MAYES, Patricia: Language, Social Structure, and Culture. A genre analysis of cooking classes in Japan
and America. 2003. xiv, 228 pp.
110 ANDROUTSOPOULOS, Jannis K. and Alexandra GEORGAKOPOULOU (eds.): Discourse
Constructions of Youth Identities. 2003. viii, 343 pp.
111 ENSINK, Titus and Christoph SAUER (eds.): Framing and Perspectivising in Discourse. 2003.
viii, 227 pp.
112 LENZ, Friedrich (ed.): Deictic Conceptualisation of Space, Time and Person. 2003. xiv, 279 pp.
113 PANTHER, Klaus-Uwe and Linda L. THORNBURG (eds.): Metonymy and Pragmatic Inferencing.
2003. xii, 285 pp.
114 KÜHNLEIN, Peter, Hannes RIESER and Henk ZEEVAT (eds.): Perspectives on Dialogue in the New
Millennium. 2003. xii, 400 pp.
115 KÄRKKÄINEN, Elise: Epistemic Stance in English Conversation. A description of its interactional
functions, with a focus on I think. 2003. xii, 213 pp.
116 GRANT, Colin B. (ed.): Rethinking Communicative Interaction. New interdisciplinary horizons. 2003.
viii, 330 pp.
117 WU, Ruey-Jiuan Regina: Stance in Talk. A conversation analysis of Mandarin final particles. 2004.
xvi, 260 pp.
118 CHENG, Winnie: Intercultural Conversation. 2003. xii, 279 pp.
119 HILTUNEN, Risto and Janne SKAFFARI (eds.): Discourse Perspectives on English. Medieval to
modern. 2003. viii, 243 pp.
120 AIJMER, Karin and Anna-Brita STENSTRÖM (eds.): Discourse Patterns in Spoken and Written
Corpora. 2004. viii, 279 pp.
121 FETZER, Anita: Recontextualizing Context. Grammaticality meets appropriateness. 2004. x, 272 pp.
122 GONZÁLEZ, Montserrat: Pragmatic Markers in Oral Narrative. The case of English and Catalan.
2004. xvi, 410 pp.
123 MÁRQUEZ REITER, Rosina and María Elena PLACENCIA (eds.): Current Trends in the
Pragmatics of Spanish. 2004. xvi, 383 pp.
124 VINE, Bernadette: Getting Things Done at Work. The discourse of power in workplace interaction.
2004. x, 278 pp.
125 LERNER, Gene H. (ed.): Conversation Analysis. Studies from the first generation. 2004. x, 302 pp.
126 WU, Yi’an: Spatial Demonstratives in English and Chinese. Text and Cognition. 2004. xviii, 236 pp.
127 BRISARD, Frank, Michael MEEUWIS and Bart VANDENABEELE (eds.): Seduction, Community,
Speech. A Festschrift for Herman Parret. 2004. vi, 202 pp.
128 CORDELLA, Marisa: The Dynamic Consultation. A discourse analytical study of doctor–patient
communication. 2004. xvi, 254 pp.
129 TABOADA, María Teresa: Building Coherence and Cohesion. Task-oriented dialogue in English and
Spanish. 2004. xvii, 264 pp.
130 HALMARI, Helena and Tuija VIRTANEN (eds.): Persuasion Across Genres. A linguistic approach.
viii, 244 pp. + index. Expected Winter 2004-2005
131 JANOSCHKA, Anja: Web Advertising. New forms of communication on the Internet. 2004.
xiv, 230 pp.
132 ONODERA, Noriko O.: Japanese Discourse Markers. Synchronic and diachronic discourse analysis.
2004. xiv, 251 pp.
133 MARNETTE, Sophie: Speech and Thought Presentation in French. Concepts and strategies.
xii, 357 pp. + index. Expected Spring 2005
134 SKAFFARI, Janne, Matti PEIKOLA, Ruth CARROLL, Risto HILTUNEN and Brita WÅRVIK (eds.):
Opening Windows on Texts and Discourses of the Past. xi, 399 pp. + index. Expected Spring 2005
A complete list of titles in this series can be found on the publishers website, www.benjamins.com