1971 MA (California State University, F
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Ellipsis in Japanese Discourse By Shigeko Okamoto. A.B. (Kyoto Prefectural university) 1971 M.A. (California State university, Fresno) 1976 C.Phil. (university of California) 1979 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Linguistics in the GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Approve* Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Ellipsis in Japanese Discourse Copyright © 1985 by Shigeko Okamoto Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To My Mother Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgments I am greatly indebted to Professor Charles Fillmore, chairman of my doc toral committee, for his patient guidance and kind support. He has given me freely of his time at different stages of this dissertation and provided me with profound and insightful comments and suggestions which always made me enjoy thinking and rethinking the subject matter. It has been a privilege to have had him as my graduate adviser. My special thanks also go to Professor Wallace Chafe for his useful sugges tions which led to improvements of my dissertation as well as for his general guidance in my graduate work which brought a wider perspective to my under standing of linguistics. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Haruo Aoki for his constant support without which this dissertation would not have been possible. He has always generously given me his precious time and has provided valuable comments and suggestions. I appreciate his wisdom, kindness, and patience. I wish to use this opportunity to thank Professor P.J. Mistry and Karen Mis- try for their warm encouragement throughout my graduate study. They have been my good mentors as well as my family in this country. 1 appreciate Profes sor P.J. Mistry’s helpful comments on my dissertation. I am very grateful to Yoshiko Matsumoto with whom I have had many interesting discussions on topics related to this dissertation. I also thank Knud Lambrecht for his comments and, in particular, for the discussions we had at the early stage of this dissertation.. Finally, I am thankful to Per Gjerde for his friendship and encouragement at times when most needed. i i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 Footnotes to Introduction ....................................................................................... 8 Part I: Nominal Ellipsis in Japanese 1.1. B ackground .......................................................................................................... 9 1.1.1. Functions of Nominal Ellipsis in Japanese: Textual and Pragmatic Functions ....................................................................................... 9 1.1.2. Basic Conditions on the Use of Nominal Ellipsis: Recovera bility vs. Interpretability ..v............................................................................. 11 1.1.3. Factors Affecting the Interpretability of Nominal Ellipsis .......... 17 1.1.4. Rules of Interpretation of Nominal Ellipsis ..................................... 19 1.1.5. The Framework of the Present Study ............................................... 23 1.2. Interpretation of Nominal Ellipsis in Japanese ........................... 24 1.2.1. Principle of Role Assignment for the "Referent" .................... 24 1.2.2. Principle of Local Interpretation ................................................. 33 1.2.3. Principle of the Use of Syntactic Clues ..................................... 35 1.2.3.1. Honorific Verbals ............................................................................ 36 1.2.3.2. Giving and Receiving Verbals ...................................................... 37 1.2.3.3. Subjective Verbals and E vidential ............................................ 39 1.2.3.4. Conjunctive Particles .................................................................... 43 1.2.3.5. Expressions of Invitation, etc ....................................................... 44 1.2.3.6. Expressions of Generality ............................................................ 46 1.2.4. P rin cip le of P ragm atic In te rp re ta tio n .............................................. 46 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1.2.4.1. Application of Specific Knowledge ............................................... 48 1.2.4.2. Integration of Specific and General Knowledge of the W o rld ..................................................................................................... 49 1.2.4.3. Application of the Frame "Information Exchange" .............. 50 1.2.4.4. Application of Frames of Discourse Types ............................... 52 1.2.4.5. Different Ways of Arriving at the Same Interpretation ................................................................................................................................ 57 1.2.4.6. Application of Multiple Fram es ...................................................... 60 1.2.5. Vague "Referent" for Nominal Ellipsis ................................................. 64 1.2.5.1. Known "Referent" ............................................................................. 67 1.2.5.2. Unknown "Referent" ...................'........ 70 1.2.6. General "Referent" for Nominal Ellipsis .............................................. 72 1.2.6.1. Anyone ................................................................................................ 73 1.2.6.2. Any Addressee .................................................................................. 79 1.2.6.3. A Group of Third Persons ............................................................. 79 1.2.6.4. The Speaker’s Group ...................................................................... 86 1.2.6.5. The Addressee’s G roup .................................................................. 89 1.3. Pragmatic Functions of Nominal Ellipsis in Japanese .......................... 90 1.3.1. Mitigation of Speech Acts ...................................................................... 91 1.3.2. Avoidance of Commitment to a Particular Reference .................. 97 Footnotes to Part I ....................................................................................................... 104 Part II: Verbal and Clausal Ellipsis in Japanese 2.1. Background ........................................................................................................ 108 2.1.1. Review of Previous Studies ................................................................... 109 2.1.2. The Framework of the Present Study .............................................. 114 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.2. Politeness and Verbal and Clausal Ellipsis................................................. 115 2.2.1. Pream ble .................................................................................................... 115 2.2.2. Mitigation of Speech Acts ...................................................................... 119 2.2.2.1. Verbal and Clausal Ellipsis and Other Modes of Mitiga tion in Japanese.............................................................................................. 120 2.2.2.2. Mitigation of Assertion .................................................................. 131 2.2.2.3. Mitigation of Objection, Complaint, and Accusation ............ 151 2.2.2.4. M itig a tion of Request ..................................................................... 165 2.2.2.5. Mitigation of Refusal ...................................................................... 171 2.2.2.6. Mitigation of Offering and Invitation ........................................ 174 2.2.2.7. Mitigation of Suggestion and Advice .......................................... 179 2.2.3. Intensification of Speech Acts ............................................................. 181 2.2.4. Avoidance of Commitment to a Particular Honorific or Non-honorific Expression ................................................................................. 187 2.3. Avoidance of Responsibility and Verbal and Clausal Ellipsis................. 192 2.4. Intimacy, Power, and Verbal and Clausal Ellipsis..................................... 195 2.5. Emotional Utterances and Verbal and Clausal Ellipsis.......................... 201 2.6. Attention Getting and Verbal Clausal Ellipsis ............................................ 205 Footnotes to Part II ................................................................................................... 210 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 214 References ........................................................................................................................... 218 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Introduction The literature on Japanese language and culture makes frequent refer ences to the tendency of Japanese to use elliptical expressions.1