Abstract
The Japanese sore-yori ‘lit. than it’ and nani-yori ‘lit. than what’ have a pragmatic use (in addition to semantic use), and their pragmatic functions are highly discourse-sensitive. In terms of scalarity, the pragmatic sore-yori is non-endpoint-oriented in that it conventionally implicates that U in sore-yori(U) is preferable to the previous utterance. In contrast, the pragmatic nani-yori is endpoint-oriented in that it conventionally implicates that U in nani-yori(U) is preferable to any alternative utterance. In this paper I argue (i) that these two types of scalar meanings at the level of conventional implicaure (CI) are derived compositionally by the single yori ‘than’, and (ii) that various kinds of discourse-pragmatic functions of sore-yori and nani-yori―such as “topic shifting” in sore-yori, and “priority listing” and “additive reinforcing” in nani-yori―automatically arise from the interaction between the expression’s scale structures (endpoint vs. non-endpoint scales) and Grice’s conversational maxims (relevance, manner). This paper shows that scale structures play a crucial role in managing the direction of discourse and that there is a rich interaction between CIs and general conversational maxims in pragmatic comparative expressions.
Highlights
IntroductionI will investigate the discourse-dependent pragmatic properties of the Japanese comparative expressions sore-yori ‘lit. than it’ and nani-yori ‘lit. than what’ and consider how scalarity and comparison are utilized in discourse structure
In this paper, I will investigate the discourse-dependent pragmatic properties of the Japanese comparative expressions sore-yori ‘lit. than it’ and nani-yori ‘lit. than what’ and consider how scalarity and comparison are utilized in discourse structure.The Japanese comparative expressions sore-yori and nani-yori can be used at the level of semantics, as shown in the following:(1) Hanako-no keeki-wa sore-yori-(mo) ookii
This paper investigated the discourse-pragmatic uses of Japanese comparative expressions soreyori-(mo) and nani-yori-(mo) and considered their discourse-dependent pragmatic functions
Summary
I will investigate the discourse-dependent pragmatic properties of the Japanese comparative expressions sore-yori ‘lit. than it’ and nani-yori ‘lit. than what’ and consider how scalarity and comparison are utilized in discourse structure. I will investigate the discourse-dependent pragmatic properties of the Japanese comparative expressions sore-yori ‘lit. The Japanese comparative expressions sore-yori and nani-yori can be used at the level of semantics, as shown in the following:. In (1), the sentence with sore-yori compares Hanako’s cake with a contextually determined thing (possibly another cake) and denotes that the former is larger than the latter at the level of semantics. In (2), the sentence with nani-yori compares health with contextually related. In (3), sore-yori-mo compares a previous utterance (which is referred to by sore) and the at-issue utterance and denotes that the latter is more important. In (4), nani-yori-mo signals that the atissue is the most important among possible alternatives concerning Shizuoka.. The interesting aspect about the pragmatic use of sore-yori and nani-yori is that their pragmatic functions are highly discourse-dependent. In (5B), sore-yori seems to shift the topic of the conversation (Kawabata 2002) or the discourse goal:
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