Topic maintenance in Japanese narratives and Japanese conversational interaction∗

I wish to thank Wako Hinds for reading a preliminary version of this paper and making useful comments. This work was supported in part by a grant from the College of Liberal Arts, Penn State University.

Abstract

The way in which characters in a Japanese narrative or in any Japanese conversational interaction continue to be referred to on second and subsequent mention is the subject for investigation in this paper. Differences in referencing techniques between narratives and conversational interactions exist, but similarities predominate. Of primary significance is the fact that there is a strong tendency for a consistent pattern of introduction, development, and maintenance to be followed: Noun phrases on first mention are marked by one particle, while second mention requires a different particle. Third and subsequent mentions provide other options.

Notes

I wish to thank Wako Hinds for reading a preliminary version of this paper and making useful comments. This work was supported in part by a grant from the College of Liberal Arts, Penn State University.