Focusing On The Matter of Topic: A Study of Wa and Ga in Japanese

Author: S.-Y. KURODA

Source: Journal of East Asian Linguistics, Volume 14, Number 1, January 2005 , pp. 1-58(58)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

It is shown first that Wa is not a topic marker and Ga is not a focus marker. Next, the theory of judgments is introduced. The distribution patterns of the functions of Wa(contrastive or not) and Ga(exhaustive listing or not) in independent as well as embedded clauses are described as manifestations of the distinction between judgments and propositions. Contrastive reading concerns propositions while exhaustive listing reading is a matter of judgments. The claim that Wa sentences express categorical judgments and non-Wa sentences, whether with a SL or IL predicate, express descriptions (thetic judgments in the extended sense) is elaborated. This extension is justified on the ground that a cognitive act expressed by a non-Wa sentence is affirming, as opposed to asserting, an act expressed by a categorical judgment. Finally, it is claimed that the maximality constraint imposed on descriptions accounts for the exhaustive listing implicature associated with Ga.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10831-004-2701-5

Affiliations: 1: Department of Linguistics, University of California--San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, #0108, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0108, USA, Email: kuroda@ling.ucsd.edu

Publication date: 2005-01-01