SHOSEN DOOSE
Q: Because I did not study, a it did not go well.’
T he sentence (8a) serves as a consequence, not a reason. The resu lt th e speaker Q rep o rts m ight have been expected as inevitable by h im /h e r before s ittin g for the ex am ination . However, doose is not su itab le in sentences working as a consequence, like this.
In a sam ple of 58 doose-tokens collected from w ritte n m aterials (listed a t th e end of th e th esis), all item s m ay be in te rp re te d as holding a causal relatio n sh ip w ith an a d ja c e n t sentence.
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Nara is one of the so-called conditional forms often corresponding to the if-clause in English. However, it has various uses. In this case, the preferable reading is as a reason clause.
Some pieces of the sam ple contain those rendering fu tu re prediction. In general, as is seen in (1), sentences relatin g to fu tu re prediction may n ot have reason reading. Except those, it is possible to claim th a t doose only occurs where th e sentence to w hich doose is adjoined can be read as reason in the c o n tex t.
T o go fu rth er, it is observed th a t a certain lim ita tio n is m ade on a causal relatio n sh ip involving doose. For in stan ce, the adv erb is not a p p ro p ria te in c o n tex ts such as th a t following:
(9) a.Kyoo wa Haha no tanjoobi da. today TOP mother GEN birthday COP b.# D o ose kyoo wa haha no tanjoobi da. Omoshiroi hon o katte okuritai. interesting book ACC buy GER send want
‘a. Today is my mother’s birthday.
I want to buy her an interesting book.’
In th e case of (9a), th e principle above does no t appear to apply.
One tendency which m ay be observed is the co n stru ctio n of pairs of sentences, one c o n tain in g doose, the o th er contain in g expressions such as those tra n s la ta b le in to ‘it is all rig h t’, ‘it does not m a tte r 5, ‘it is perm issible’, ‘it m ight as w ell’ and so on. T h e m eaning sh ared by these expressions m ay be t h a t an event involved is possible:. In provisional term s, I will regard this as a c o n stra in t on th e sem antic relation ship of th e paired sentences. C onsequently, the (te n ta tiv e ) ex p lan atio n for th e oddity of (9b) is th a t th e c o n te n t of th e second sentence is not ju s t possible, but m ore positive.
E x p lo ratio n of the function of doose in reason sentences requires extensive analysis of c o n te x t. I will leave this issue open.
E x p la n atio n of surface restrictio n s is in order. It is unusual for doose to a p p e ar in p ast tense declarative sentences. On the o th er hand, when noda is a tta c h e d to such sentences, the accep tability is increased. E xam ples for this are found in (4) and (5).
A possible in te rp re ta tio n is as follows. It is hard to explain the in co m p atib ility sem an tically . R ath er, this seems due to com m unicative requirem ents; sentences w ith doose (for expressing a reason) sound incom plete w ith o u t su p p o rt from o th er expressions which explicitly denote th e sense of reason. It ap p ears th a t th e expressions like noda are frequently used w ith oth er d eclarativ e sentences as well.
In sum, doose has quite a complicated mechanism. It is involved in a speaker’s perception th a t (1) the present situation relating to an action involved is assessed in a certain way, and (2) the tru th about the action involved is set (regardless of circum stances), (3) on this premise, there are a limited range of things which can be
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done.1 Its use for future prediction includes the first two properties listed above. This use is rather close to th a t of adverbs which comment on the content of a sentence.114 On the other hand, when doose is concerned with linking functions, the last two properties are highlighted. The adverb serves to place a reason, confining the possible content of the adjacent sentence. The third property, which is a tentative solution, should be more closely explored by contextual analysis.
For the present, it does not seem appropriate to put this adverb in any particular discrete category because of the intricate nature of i t . 115
8 .2 .2 . Shosen
The following explanation presented in the Japanese dictionary Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten (1972) may give a rough idea of the meaning of shosen.
Are kore kangaetaga, ketsuron to shitewa taishitakoto niwa naranai yoosu. To feel,as a conclusion,that the situation cannot be any better, after running out of ideas. (The translation is mine.)
From this account It is possible to assume a sense of conclusion in the use of shosen.
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’’From this, pragmatic implications such as feeling of resignation seem to emerge.
114The analysis of this chapter puts focus on the possible relationship with an antecedent sentences, and problems of presupposition are involved too. However, this does not mean that only the adverbs treated here pertain to presupposition. Adverbs like igainimo (unexpectedly), ainiku (unfortunately) need presupposition like the first property listed here. For instance, to say something is unexpected, it is necessary to presuppose about what is expected. To explore the semantics of individual adverbs, presupposition may play an important role in many cases.
It should be noted as well that this presupposition is different from that discussed in relation to conditions of uses for Group II-2-2 including the above adverbs. Bach and Harnish (1979:159) regard both as pragmatic presuppositions and classify them. The difference in presuppositions appearing in the present analysis is not discussed further.
11^There are a few adverbs such as sekkaku and nam aji, appearing mainly in subordinate clauses. They seem to be included in or very closely related to the SSA category. The function of doose in reason clauses can be compared with them. For the treatments of these adverbs, Watanabe (1980) (about sekkaku), Aoki (l98,‘l) (about namaji) and so on are informative.
C onsider the following co nversation for an illu stratio n of th e occurrence of the adverb.
(10)
P: Yamada-san wa sono shigoto kara te o