Abstract
AbstractThe idea that discourse is made up of sentences has been widespread among linguists. Does this traditional discourse perspective (“sententialism”) apply to casual language in daily communication? This paper examines the validity of sententialism by focusing on a type of speech called “dependent grafted speech” in Japanese conversation. Close examinations of various words, phrases, and sentences reveal that dependent grafted speech is different from sentences on two points: (i) Generally, the lexical accent of the copula at the beginning of dependent grafted speech is a high tone; and (ii) the interaction particle at the end of dependent grafted speech is not uttered with a falling intonation unless it is proceeded by a very abrupt rising intonation (“leaping” intonation). These findings cast doubt on the status of dependent grafted speech as a sentence. Moreover, they demonstrate a new conception of discourse as a mixture of diverse constituents, including sentences, dependent grafted speech, and other utterance types.
Highlights
It has traditionally been thought that discourse is made up of sentences (e.g., Nitta 2016; Ōiwa 1949; Smith 2003)
The idea that discourse is made up of sentences has been widespread among linguists. Does this traditional discourse perspective (“sententialism”) apply to casual language in daily communication? This paper examines the validity of sententialism by focusing on a type of speech called “dependent grafted speech” in Japanese conversation
Close examinations of various words, phrases, and sentences reveal that dependent grafted speech is different from sentences on two points: (i) Generally, the lexical accent of the copula at the beginning of dependent grafted speech is a high tone; and (ii) the interaction particle at the end of dependent grafted speech is not uttered with a falling intonation unless it is proceeded by a very abrupt rising intonation (“leaping” intonation)
Summary
It has traditionally been thought that discourse is made up of sentences (e.g., Nitta 2016; Ōiwa 1949; Smith 2003). This view of discourse (“sententialism” hereafter) might appear valid for well-prepared formal Japanese language, does it apply to casual Japanese in daily communication?. While considerable research, based on sententialism, views one-noun utterances as a special sentence (itigobun in Japanese),. Nitta (2016) argues that the utterance rasii desu ne (“apparently so”) in Example (1) below would be judged by him as well as Japanese researchers, in general, to be a sentence. Based on the observation of two prosodic points, it will be argued that these utterances (“dependent grafted speech” hereafter) do not resemble sentence speech. I will introduce the concept of dependent grafted speech (Section 2), discuss observations of each of the two prosodic points (Sections 3 and 4), and summarize the argument (Section 5)
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