Cognitive act of judgment, discourse structure, and language grammar at the crossroads: the case of Japanese particles Wa and Ga
This project revisits a classical debate regarding two particles in Japanese, wa and ga, which, in their canonical use, attach to the subject of a clause. They have drawn much attention due to their importance in the clause structure as well as their relevance to various aspects of linguistics (syntax, lexical semantics, pragmatics, prosody, etc.).
Out of the numerous proposals in the literature, this project focuses on two influential analyses: information structure-based and judgment-based. In the former, a common view is that wa and ga mark certain elements in discourse structure (or information structure), while in the latter they are claimed to mark two types of cognitive acts of judgment. Despite decades of debate, there has not been any conclusive evidence that supports one over the other, or any account that unifies the two theories.
The project tackles this long-standing debate with three novel tools: 1) large-scale corpora of written and spoken Japanese, 2) a new theory of information structure, and 3) a new theory of speech act/illocutionary force. The recent advancements made in the development of language corpora and in information structure and speech act theories will enable us to overcome theoretical and empirical challenges associated with the debate.
The ultimate goal of the project is to provide new empirical evidence to this long-standing issue in Japanese linguistics and to unify the two approaches using more recent theoretical frameworks.
Out of the numerous proposals in the literature, this project focuses on two influential analyses: information structure-based and judgment-based. In the former, a common view is that wa and ga mark certain elements in discourse structure (or information structure), while in the latter they are claimed to mark two types of cognitive acts of judgment. Despite decades of debate, there has not been any conclusive evidence that supports one over the other, or any account that unifies the two theories.
The project tackles this long-standing debate with three novel tools: 1) large-scale corpora of written and spoken Japanese, 2) a new theory of information structure, and 3) a new theory of speech act/illocutionary force. The recent advancements made in the development of language corpora and in information structure and speech act theories will enable us to overcome theoretical and empirical challenges associated with the debate.
The ultimate goal of the project is to provide new empirical evidence to this long-standing issue in Japanese linguistics and to unify the two approaches using more recent theoretical frameworks.