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The Pragmatic Function of wa in Japanese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Satomi Currah  and
Gary D. Prideaux
Satomi Currah
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
Gary D. Prideaux
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
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Extract

The Japanese postpositional particle wa has probably received more attention within the linguistic literature dealing with that language than any other single element of Japanese grammar. The present paper is a further contribution to the long and honorable series of attempts to come to grips with the function of this highly frequent, but still poorly understood, linchpin of Japanese grammar.

The particle wa may occur with subject nouns, as in (1), with other parts of speech, and may even be attached to entire sentences. Because of the variability of the elements with which wa can be associated, the element to which wa is attached is referred to throughout the present paper simply as X.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , December 1991 , pp. 325 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1991

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