28.100, Diss: Information Structure in Spoken Japanese: Particles, Word Order, and Intonation

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-100. Thu Jan 05 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.100, Diss: Information Structure in Spoken Japanese: Particles, Word Order, and Intonation

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Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2017 14:56:41
From: Natsuko Nakagawa [nakagawanatuko at gmail.com]
Subject: Information Structure in Spoken Japanese: Particles, Word Order, and Intonation

 
Institution: Kyoto University 
Program: Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2016 

Author: Natsuko Nakagawa

Dissertation Title: Information Structure in Spoken Japanese: Particles, Word
Order, and Intonation 

Dissertation URL:  http://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/215634/2/dnink0

Linguistic Field(s): Text/Corpus Linguistics

Subject Language(s): Japanese (jpn)


Dissertation Director(s):
Yuji Togo
Yukinori Takubo
Koji Fujita

Dissertation Abstract:

This thesis investigates the associations between information structure and
linguistic forms in spoken Japanese mainly by analyzing spoken corpora. It
proposes multi-dimensional annotation and analysis procedures of spoken
corpora and explores the relationships between information structure and
particles, word order, and intonation.

Particles, word order, and intonation in spoken Japanese have been
investigated separately in different frameworks and different sub fields in
the literature; there was no unified theory to account for the whole
phenomena. This thesis investigated the phenomena as a whole in a consistent
way by annotating all target expressions in the same criteria and by employing
the same analytical framework. Chapter 1 outlines the questions to be
investigated and introduces the methodology of this thesis. Chapter 2 reviews
the literature of Japanese linguistics as well as the literature on
information structure in different languages. Chapter 3 proposes the
analytical framework of the thesis. Major findings are discussed in Chapter 4,
5, and 6.

Chapter 4 analyzes the distributions of topic and case particles. It is made
clear that so-called topic particles (wa, zero particles, toiuno-wa, and
kedo/ga preceded by copula) are mainly sensitive to activation status, whereas
case particles (ga, o, and zero particles) are sensitive to both focushood and
argument structure. While the distinction between wa and ga gather much
attention in traditional Japanese linguistics, the distribution of different
kinds of topic and case particles, including zero particles, are analyzed in
this thesis.

Chapter 5 studies word order: i.e., clause-initial, pre-predicate, and
post-predicate noun phrases. Topical NPs appear either clause-initially or
post-predicatively, while focal NPs appear pre-predicatively. Clause-initial
and post-predicate NPs are different mainly in activation statuses. The
previous literature investigated clause-initial, pre-predicate, and
post-predicate constructions in different frameworks; however, there was no
unified account for word order in Japanese. The thesis outlines word order in
spoken Japanese in a unified framework.

Chapter 6 investigates intonation. While the previous literature mainly
concentrates on contrastive focus, this thesis discusses in terms of both
topic and focus. It turns out that intonation as a unit of processing and
argues that information structure influences on the form of intonation units.
Chapter 7 discusses theoretical implications of these findings. Finally,
Chapter 8 summarizes the thesis and points out some remaining issues and
possible future studies.




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