Overview

"This volume brings together 16 scholars from Japan and America, all of whom have a single task: the elaboration of the description of ""wa"". Within the field of Japanese linguistics, few areas have generated as much research and controversy as the post-positional particle ""wa"". It has traditionally been described as a marker of old or contrasted information and its function as a discourse marker has also been explained. While linguists frequently agree on the broad parameters governing its use, details have proven elusive for linguists and learners of Japanese alike. Historical, formal and discourse perspectives are presented, making this volume a contribution to the overall description of the Japanese language. The four topics discussed are: ""wa"" in narrative and expository discourse, ""wa"" and other syntactic phenomena, historical perspectives on ""wa"", and pragmatic perspectives on ""wa""."

Full Product Details

Author:   John Hinds ,  Shoichi Iwasaki ,  Senko K. Maynard
Publisher:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Imprint:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Volume:   14
Weight:   0.565kg
ISBN:  

9789027228864

ISBN 10:   9027228868
Pages:   307
Publication Date:   01 January 1987
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

1. Preface; 2. Part I: Wa in narrative and expository discourse; 3. The use of wa as a cohesion marker in Japanese oral narratives (by Clancy, Patricia M.); 4. Thematization as a staging device in the Japanese narrative (by Maynard, Senko K.); 5. Thematization, assumed familiarity, staging, and syntactic binding in Japanese (by Hinds, John); 6. Identifiability, scope-setting, and the particle wa: A study of Japanese spoken expository discourse (by Iwasaki, Shoichi); 7. A study of the so-called topic wa in passages from Tolstoi, Lawrenceand Faulkner (of course, in Japanese translation) (by Kuroda, S.-Y.); 8. Part II: Wa and other syntactic phenomena; 9. The role of wa in negation (by McGloin, Naomi Hanaoka); 10. Wa and the WH phrase (by Miyagawa, Shigeru); 11. Part III: Historical perspectives on wa; 12. Functions of the theme marker wa from synchronic and diachronic perspectives (by Ueno, Noriko Fujii); 13. Wa in diachronic perspective (by Wolf, Charles M. De); 14. Part IV: Pragmatic perspectives on wa; 15. How relevant is a functional notion of communicative orientation to ga and wa? (by Makino, Seiichi); 16. Abbreveations

Reviews

This volume will appeal to a wide range of linguists, not simply those who study Japanese. It succeeds in raising new questions about the functions of wa, and will stimulate new research. -- The Journal of Asian Studies, Noriko Nagai, Duke University

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