View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of New Mexico University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs Education ETDs 2-9-2011 First-person singular pronouns in Japanese: How do they work in conversation? Mami McCraw Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/educ_llss_etds Recommended Citation McCraw, Mami. "First-person singular pronouns in Japanese: How do they work in conversation?." (2011). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/educ_llss_etds/26 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Education ETDs at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Mami O. McCraw Lana/oale Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies l!kPUf "IIt:fll This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: .Chairoerson 11 FIRST -PERSON SINGULAR PRONOUNS IN JAPANESE: HOW DO THEY WORK IN CONVERSATION? BY MAMI O. MCCRAW B.A., English & American Studies, Kansai Gaidai University, 1989 M.S.Ed., Reading, Southwest Missouri State University, 1999 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Educational Linguistics The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December, 2010 iii DEDICATION For Ikuko and Yukio Osaki For Romeo McCraw iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Honestly speaking, the process of writing this dissertation was like walking on a long rocky road. I paused for a nap several times and also thought about giving up on the way. However, with support from many people, my steps gradually became light and steady toward the end of a journey. I realized that I was not alone. I will always remember how fortunate I am to have such wonderful people around me. I am very grateful to my dissertation committee for being patient with my slow progress and providing both academic and morale support over the years. My dissertation chair, Catherine Travis has spent considerable time with me analyzing the data, editing the drafts countless times, providing a great deal of knowledge, and sharing candid opinions and thoughts. She has been always available for me whether she is on campus or on the other side of the globe. I will never forget how Melissa Axelrod has been compassionate and caring. During the time I was most struggling, she met with me on a weekly basis and we had great discussions. Her kind words and encouragement kept me going through the difficult time. Barbara Shaffer, who is like a big sister for all graduate students, has shared brilliant ideas, invaluable resources and funny stories with me. Visiting Kyoto, Japan with her and Terry Janzen, another exceptional linguist, is one of the most beautiful memories I always cherish. Tsuyoshi Ono has inspired me with his outstanding research, and I am honored to have had him on my committee. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the faculty members of Linguistics and Educational Linguistics, my colleagues, my friends and my family for their understanding, encouragement and constant support. Thank you all for walking along with me during this journey of my dissertation. v FIRST-PERSON SINGULAR PRONOUNS IN JAPANESE: HOW DO THEY WORK IN CONVERSATION? BY Mami O. McCraw ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Educational Linguistics The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December, 2010 vi FIRST-PERSON SINGULAR PRONOUNS IN JAPANESE: HOW DO THEY WORK IN CONVERSATION? by Mami O. McCraw B.A., English & American Studies, Kansai Gaidai University, 1989 M.S.Ed., Reading, Southwest Missouri State University, 1999 Ph.D., Educational Linguistics, University of New Mexico, 2010 ABSTRACT Subjectivity-- expression of our thoughts and emotions-- is the essence of everyday conversation (e.g., Benveniste, 1971; Scheibman, 2002). Previous studies have found that subjectivity is expressed in a variety of linguistic items in a wide range of languages. First-person singular (1SG) pronouns may be one of the most fundamental linguistic items for expressing subjectivity because they directly reflect the speaker, who is the owner of subjective point of view. This dissertation explores the use of 1SG pronouns in Japanese utilizing the analysis of naturally occurring conversational data. In Japanese, personal pronouns including first person are used infrequently, especially in spoken language, and the first-person reference is often unexpressed (what is known as pronoun ellipsis). Although they may look odd or ill-formed from the perspective of languages that have rigid syntactic structures such as English, utterances with unexpressed elements can be considered to be the “default” in Japanese conversation. Because of the variability of expression of 1SG pronouns, it is assumed that they add vii some pragmatic functions when they are explicitly expressed. Data analyses of 1SG pronouns taken from naturally occurring conversation revealed that the use is often motivated by various discourse-pragmatic functions such as expressing subjectivity, introducing a topic, and holding the floor rather than referential necessity. The speaker decides to use 1SG pronouns or not to use them in order to achieve his or her particular communicative goals. First-person singular pronouns in Japanese are a versatile linguistic item beyond so-called pronouns that simply replace nouns. This strongly suggests that 1SG pronouns are essentially different from English I, and will lead us to reconsider the categorization of 1SG pronouns in Japanese. Furthermore, the use and nonuse of 1SG pronouns in Japanese has important educational implications. In order to teach linguistic items that are not syntactically required but are used by pragmatic motivations, I suggest that educators seek more effective teaching methods based on authentic language use. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures.................................................................................................................. xv List of Tables ..................................................................................................................xvi Chapter 1 Introduction..................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Introduction..............................................................................................................1 1.2. Organization of the Study ........................................................................................6 Chapter 2 First-person Singular Pronouns: Basic Concepts ...................................... 10 2.1. Introduction............................................................................................................10 2.2. Ellipsis: A Prevalent Linguistic Phenomenon in Japanese ....................................10 2.2.1. Definition of Ellipsis .......................................................................................13 2.2.2. Frequency in Japanese and Other Languages .................................................14 2.2.3. Factors Affecting Ellipsis................................................................................16 2.2.3.1. Genre ........................................................................................................16 2.2.3.2. Position in the Argument Structure..........................................................17 2.2.3.3. Animacy, Transitivity, Humanness, Person Hierarchy............................17 2.2.3.4. Gender ......................................................................................................19 2.2.3.5. Diachronic Change................................................................................... 19 2.2.4. Clues for “Missing” Information..................................................................... 21 2.2.4.1. Martin’s Four Types of Subject Ellipsis ..................................................21 2.2.4.2. Shibatani’s “Pro-drop” Categories...........................................................22 2.2.4.3. Hinds’ Cognitive Model........................................................................... 25 2.2.4.4. Identifying Ellipsis Based on Language-specific Properties ...................27 2.2.4.5. Discourse Level Explanations.................................................................. 32 ix 2.2.5. The Issue of Definition and an Alternative View of Ellipsis ..........................36 2.3. Personal Pronouns as a Grammatical Category .....................................................39 2.3.1. Definition ........................................................................................................39 2.3.2. First-Person Singular “Pronouns” in Japanese................................................41 2.3.3. Possible Functions of First-person Singular Pronouns ...................................45 2.4. The Notion of “Subject”.........................................................................................47 2.4.1. Problems in the Definition of Subject in Japanese..........................................48 2.4.2. Postpositional Particles Following Subjects ...................................................50 2.4.2.1. Ga and Wa : Subject Versus Topic?..........................................................50