Abstract
This study investigates the discourse functions of two common modal auxillaries in Japanese - wake da and no da in written discourse, and the essential differences between them. Although previous studies provide a wealth of information on the uses and meanings of these two expressions, they have shown serious limitations and problems. The majority of previous works are carried out at the level of the sentence or paragraph, and rely on the scholars' own interpretations of the meanings, or their subjective judgments regarding whether or not one expression can be replaced by the other. They focus on descriptions of the similarities and interchangeabilities between the two expressions, rather than their distinctive characteristics and functions. Many research characterize the functions of both of the two expressions as 'asking or giving explanations' or 'conveying explanatory modality'.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Place of Publication | Germany |
Publisher | Lincom Europa |
Number of pages | 260 |
ISBN (Print) | 9783895862960 |
Publication status | Published - 2008 |
Keywords
- Japanese language
- modality
- auxiliary verbs
- grammar