Osamu Sawada
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198714224
- eISBN:
- 9780191782633
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198714224.003.0007
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
Chapter 7 investigates the meaning and use of Japanese counter-expectational scalar adverbs—that is, the counter-expectational intensifier yoppodo and the Japanese scale-reversal adverb kaette. It ...
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Chapter 7 investigates the meaning and use of Japanese counter-expectational scalar adverbs—that is, the counter-expectational intensifier yoppodo and the Japanese scale-reversal adverb kaette. It shows that although yoppodo and kaette convey some kind of counter-expectational meaning as lower-level pragmatic scalar modifiers, the way they trigger counter-expectational meaning is quite different. In an adjectival environment, yoppodo semantically intensifies degrees based on extraordinary evidence and conventionally implies that the degree is above the speaker’s expectation. By contrast, kaette reverses the scale of the gradable predicate and conventionally implies that the opposite situation is generally true. It is also proposed that there are two types of counter-expectational expressions that use scalarity: a relative type, which represents “above expectation” (e.g. yoppodo), and a reversal type, which expresses counter-expectation via polarity reversal (e.g. kaette). Comparison with wh-exclamatives, sentence exclamation, and the counter-expectational but is also discussed.Less
Chapter 7 investigates the meaning and use of Japanese counter-expectational scalar adverbs—that is, the counter-expectational intensifier yoppodo and the Japanese scale-reversal adverb kaette. It shows that although yoppodo and kaette convey some kind of counter-expectational meaning as lower-level pragmatic scalar modifiers, the way they trigger counter-expectational meaning is quite different. In an adjectival environment, yoppodo semantically intensifies degrees based on extraordinary evidence and conventionally implies that the degree is above the speaker’s expectation. By contrast, kaette reverses the scale of the gradable predicate and conventionally implies that the opposite situation is generally true. It is also proposed that there are two types of counter-expectational expressions that use scalarity: a relative type, which represents “above expectation” (e.g. yoppodo), and a reversal type, which expresses counter-expectation via polarity reversal (e.g. kaette). Comparison with wh-exclamatives, sentence exclamation, and the counter-expectational but is also discussed.
Osamu Sawada and Jun Sawada
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198871217
- eISBN:
- 9780191914225
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198871217.003.0011
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter investigates the interpretation of tense in Japanese mirative sentences using nante/towa and considers cross-linguistic variations of mirativity in terms of tense. In Japanese, when ...
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This chapter investigates the interpretation of tense in Japanese mirative sentences using nante/towa and considers cross-linguistic variations of mirativity in terms of tense. In Japanese, when nante or towa is combined with a proposition that contains the so-called non-past form ru, the sentence becomes ambiguous as having both a non-past (future/present) reading and a past reading. Based on a theory by Sawada and Sawada (2019), we argue that this ambiguity of tense is due to the conventional implicature of nante/towa: nante/towa can take a ‘non-tensed’ proposition p and conventionally implies that (i) p is settled (i.e., p is/was true or predicted to be true) and (ii) the speaker did not expect such p. It will be shown that a basic analysis of nante/towa can apply to the English exclamatory that-clause, which also presents an ambiguity of tense, and at least partially to the Korean mirative tani sentence in which a past-oriented meaning can be represented based on the stem form of a verb.Less
This chapter investigates the interpretation of tense in Japanese mirative sentences using nante/towa and considers cross-linguistic variations of mirativity in terms of tense. In Japanese, when nante or towa is combined with a proposition that contains the so-called non-past form ru, the sentence becomes ambiguous as having both a non-past (future/present) reading and a past reading. Based on a theory by Sawada and Sawada (2019), we argue that this ambiguity of tense is due to the conventional implicature of nante/towa: nante/towa can take a ‘non-tensed’ proposition p and conventionally implies that (i) p is settled (i.e., p is/was true or predicted to be true) and (ii) the speaker did not expect such p. It will be shown that a basic analysis of nante/towa can apply to the English exclamatory that-clause, which also presents an ambiguity of tense, and at least partially to the Korean mirative tani sentence in which a past-oriented meaning can be represented based on the stem form of a verb.
