Volume 40, Issue 1

Referential systems are language specific, and the Japanese referential system is achieved by using grammatical particles ( wa and ga ) as well as ellipsis. While there are basic patterns, violations of these patterns commonly occur. This study examined the reasons why violations could occur by focusing on reintroductions. The data were collected from ten oral narratives and five written narratives. The results demonstrated that grammatical constraints and additional functions constituted the two main reasons why the most expected referential markings were not used. Other observed factors included the centeredness of the character in the story and the different types of referential markings. It was also found that referential markers were highly related to predicates that could predict which particle would predominantly be used. However, predicates themselves were not the only primary driver of particle selection. Instead, other components of the sentence outside the predicates may have contributed to the selection of referential marking.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the characteristics of the X ie imperative expression (abbreviated to X ie ) with reference to other related expressions, such as conditional imperatives and past imperatives, in Japanese and other languages. Three criteria are proposed for a description of imperatives in terms of the realization of the propositional content: (i) possibility of realization, (ii) attitude toward realization, and (iii) preparedness for realization. X ie is an imperative of a reproof, characterized by the unique combination of (i) possible, (ii) negative, and (iii) unprepared. This paper further focuses on a discourse-pragmatic relation of the expression with its preceding and following utterances, a topic not fully discussed in the literature. The analysis in this paper shows that X ie is a marked imperative form of a verb of speech that expresses the speaker’s instantaneous reaction to newly obtained information, i.e., the addressee’s violation of the maxim of quality. This characterization suggests that the Japanese language is sufficiently sensitive to the violation to lexicalize it and that X ie can be considered in terms of mirativity. Finally, this paper systematically compares X ie and non-directive imperatives from other languages.

This study explores the multimodal and interactional practices of female-to-male (FtM) transgender individuals in Japanese, focusing on their identity construction. Most previous studies on transgender identity in Japanese contexts examine male-to-female (MtF) transgender individuals’ linguistic practices, particularly the use of so-called Japanese women’s language. In contrast, this study explores how FtM individuals use not only linguistic but also other semiotic resources to construct and negotiate their gender and sexual identities. The study utilizes empirical data such as YouTube videos and draws on multimodal conversation analysis (CA) and membership categorization analysis (MCA) to analyze the participants’ accomplishment of social actions. The findings demonstrate the use of various resources for identity construction and how the participants challenge and/or conform to hegemonic gender ideologies. The study also unveils both the diversity among FtM transgender people (inter-individual variation) and the fluidity and complexity of identities that can exist within one person (intra-individual variation).

The Double- o Constraint (D o C) was proposed to explain the ungrammaticality of having two or more noun phrases (NPs) marked by the accusative case marker - o in a single Japanese clause. It has been argued that there are two types of D o Cs: the Surface Double- o Constraint (SD o C) and the Deep Double- o Constraint (DD o C). The DD o C prohibits two accusative arguments in a single argument structure and is not affected by the number of accusative case markers on the surface. The evidence is from Japanese causatives. Our study conducted an experiment to test the DD o C and found that it may only apply to some native Japanese speakers.