Abstract
The present study conducted four experiments to investigate how modality information provided through the sentence-final particles -yo and -ne were utilized in identifying an empty subject by native Japanese speakers. Experiment 1 conducted a whole-sentence anomaly decision task, finding that base sentences without -yo and -ne attached were processed more quickly than sentences with either -yo or -ne and that sentences with -yo were processed more quickly than the same sentences with -ne. A delay in processing sentences with -ne was created by the ambiguity of an empty subject identified by -ne as either ‘I’ or ‘you’. In Experiment 2, the auxiliary verb -ou ‘let us’ was added to the base sentence before -yo and -ne, providing a cue to identify the empty subject as ‘we’. Although the base sentences were processed more quickly than those containing the particles -yo and -ne, no other difference resulted from the attachment of these particles. To eliminate the possibility of orthographic-length effects, Experiment 3 compared base sentences with -ou, -ou-yo, and -ou-ne, finding no difference among them (i.e., no ortho- graphic-length effects). Experiment 4 was conducted to further eliminate the possible involvement of discourse-level computation by utilizing base sentences with overt subjects, past tense verbs, and the auxiliary verb -rasii ‘appear to’. Once subjects of sentences were clearly shown, there was no difference among base sentences and those with either -yo or -ne attached (i.e., no discourse-level computation effects). Thus the present study proved that the modality information inherent in the particles -yo and -ne was used for identifying empty subjects.
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The present study is supported by the Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX) at the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Kawaguchi, Japan.
The principle recipient of this grant is Dr. Hiroko Hagiwara at the Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan.
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Tamaoka, K., Matsumoto, M. & Sakamoto, T. Identifying empty subjects by modality information: the case of the Japanese sentence-final particles -yo and -ne . J East Asian Linguist 16, 145–170 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10831-007-9010-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10831-007-9010-8