前置き的に用いられる「ね」

Abstract

The Japanese sentence ending particle 「ne(ね)」 is essential in some cases as the meaning of the sentence will be changed if it is omitted and is arbitrary in other cases as the meaning of the sentence will not be changed much even if it is omitted. In this paper, the latter, that is, cases where the use of 「ne」 is arbitrary, are considered and analyzed from the viewpoint of politeness, focusing on the subsequent speech. The research shows that the sentence ending particle 「ne」 is sometimes used when the speaker rejects the listener's request but does so gracefully similar to a case when one apologize before rejecting the request. This is called cushioning (前置き). What follows is usually a form of rejection or decline of a request or recommendation often times related to the listener. Therefore, it is important to decrease any friction between the speaker and the listener. This is when 「ne」 is used. In the end, it can be said that the sentence ending particle 「ne」 has a characteristic that it is used not only to express information sharing with the listener in the conversation (「consent request」), but also to express personal consideration to avoid infringing upon the listener's private domain.