Unit linking in conversational Japanese

Abstract

This paper investigates the preferred ways in which “intonation units” (IUs) are linked in informal dyadic Japanese conversation. It was found that the most preferred IU linkage types are those by means of intonation alone or by means of intonation plus particles, whereas use of explicit connectives or simultaneous use of connectives and particles is less preferred. This suggests that the linking or demarcating of IUs in conversational discourse is performed in a non-elaborate manner, such that “one or two” devices, that is, use of intonation alone or intonation plus particles/connectives, are favored to link one IU to another. Further, given that particles were found to be importantly involved in IU linking, far more crucial than explicit connectives, we should note their significance as idea-linking and discourse-segmenting IU-final particles. The speakers’ preference for the combined use of prosody and syntax to link IUs indicates the important role of syntactic, not merely prosodic, criteria for the identification of IU boundaries in dialogic conversational discourse.