Varieties of wh-exclamatives: A view from the negative wh-expressives in Japanese

Wh-exclamatives are usually considered degree constructions (e.g., Zanuttini & Portner 2003, Castroviejo 2008, Rett 2008). However, Japanese possesses what I call negative wh-expressives, which are unrelated to degree. I argue that unlike typical wh-exclamatives, negative wh-expressive sentences express a speaker’s negative attitude, and their compositional system is similar to that of an interrogative sentence except for the speech act operator. That is, a negative wh-expressive occurs with a speech act operator, which takes a set of propositions Q and (i) presupposes that there is a unique proposition p in Q that is salient, and (ii) conventionally implies that p is unexpected and that the speaker has a negative attitude toward it. In this paper, we also look at cases in which the wh expression is embedded in the complement of omo-tteiru ‘think’ and cases in which nani ‘what’ acts as an adjunct, and show that these cases can also be explained by the core component of the proposed mechanism. This paper shows that wh-related exclamatives have both scalar and non-scalar types, and considers a new typology of exclamatives

On the properties of expressivity and counter-expectation in the Japanese minimizer NPI kakera ‘piece’

The Japanese expression kakera has a literal meaning of ‘piece’. However, when kakera is combined with mo ‘even’, it can behave as an idiomatic negative polarity item (NPI). The distinctive features of the NPI kakera are that it usually co-occur with a property-related positive noun (e.g., seijitsu-sa ‘sincerity’) and is used for expressing a feeling of complaint. I argue that unlike the typical minimizer NPIs, the NPI kakera has an expressive property in that it not only denotes a minimum degree of an NP, but conventionally implies that high degrees of NP are expected (as a desire), and a judge (typically a speaker) is complaining about the target in question. Previous studies have shown that the meaning of EVEN (explicitly or implicitly) contributes to the creation of the emphatic function of minimizer (e.g., Horn 1989; Chierchia 2013). However, the phenomenon of kakera suggests that in addition to EVEN, minimizers can have expectation/attitudinal components that further restrict the situation in which they are used. This study shows that the multidimensional approach (Potts 2005; McCready 2010; Sawada 2010, 2018; Gutzmann 2012) to meaning allows us to capture the item-specific pragmatic properties of minimizers in a systematic fashion

Scalar properties of Japanese and English sense-based minimizers

The Japanese minimizers kasukani ‘faintly’ and honokani ‘approx. faintly’ and the English minimizer faintly are similar to typical minimizers, such as the Japanese sukoshi ‘a bit’ and English a bit, in that they semantically represent a low degree. However, their meanings and distribution patterns are not the same. I argue that kasukani, honokani, and faintly are sense-based minimizers in that they not only semantically denote a small degree but also convey that thejudge (typically the speaker) measures degree based on his/her own sense ( the senses of sight, smell, taste, etc.) at the level of conventional implicature (CI) (e.g., Grice 1975; Potts 2005; McCready 2010; Gutzmann 2011). It will be shown that this characteristic restricts sense-based minimizers to occur only in a limited environment. This paper also shows that there are variations among the sense-based minimizers with regard to (i) the kind of sense, (ii) the presence/absence of evaluativity, and (iii) the possibility of a combination with an emotive predicate, and will explain them in the non-at-issue domain. In analyzing the meaning of sense-based minimizers, the relationship between a sense-based minimizer and a predicate of personal taste (e.g., Pearson 2013; Ninan 2014; Kennedy & Willer 2019; Willer & Kennedy 2019) will also be discussed

Scalarity and alternatives of Japanese mora (letter)-based minimizers

This paper investigates interpretations of the Japanese mora- (letter-) based minimizer "X.Y."-no "X"-no ji-mo 'even the letter "X" of "X.Y.Z".' I argue that this mora/letter-based minimizer has two types, a literal type and a non-literal type, and each type has different semantic characteristics regarding scale structure and computation of alternatives. In the literal type, X corresponds to the first mora of a target "X.Y.Z" and is construed as a minimum on the number scale of moras (among higher scalar alternatives). On the other hand, in the non-literal type it refers to the degree of a main predicate about the target "X.Y.Z" where X is construed as a minimum on the scale of the main predicate. That is, in the non-literal type, scale does not have to do with the number of moras, but with the degree of a predicate. I propose on the basis of the findings that in addition to a local minimizer whose alternatives are lexically activated (Chierchia 2013), there is a global minimizer in natural language, whose alternatives are activated by information contained in the main predicate

The meanings of positive polarity minimizers in Japanese: a unified approach

In Japanese there are multiple lexical items for positive polarity minimizers (hereinafter, minimizer PPIs), each of which can differ in meaning/use. For example, while sukoshi 'lit. a bit/a little' can only express a quantitative (amount) meaning, chotto 'lit. a bit/a little' can express either a quantitative meaning or an "expressive" meaning (i.e. attenuation in degree of the force of a speech act). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the semantics and pragmatics of the Japanese minimizer PPIs chotto and sukoshi and to consider (i) the parallelism/non-parallelism between truth conditional scalar meanings and non-truth conditional scalar meanings, and (ii) what mechanism can explain the cross-linguistic and language internal variation between minimizer PPIs. As for the semantics/pragmatics of minimizers, I will argue that although the meanings of the amount and expressive minimizers are logically and dimensionally different (non-parallelism), they can systematically be captured by positing a single lexical item (parallelism). As for the language internal and cross-linguistic variations, it will be shown that there is a point of variation with respect to whether a particular degree morpheme allows a dimensional shift (i.e. an extension from a semantic scale to a pragmatic scale). Based on the above proposals, this paper will also investigate the pragmatic motivation behind the use of minimizers in an evaluative context

The Japanese Contrastive Wa: A Mirror Image of EVEN

n/

Scale structures in discourse: Discourse-pragmatic properties of Japanese comparative expressions

The Japanese sore-yori 'lit. than it' and nani-yori 'lit. than what' have a pragmatic use (in addition to semantic use), and their pragmatic functions are highly discourse-sensitive. In terms of scalarity, the pragmatic sore-yori is non-endpoint-oriented in that it conventionally implicates that U in sore-yori(U) is preferable to the previous utterance. In contrast, the pragmatic nani-yori is endpoint-oriented in that it conventionally implicates that U in nani-yori(U) is preferable to any alternative utterance. In this paper I argue (i) that these two types of scalar meanings at the level of conventional implicaure (CI) are derived compositionally by the single yori 'than', and (ii) that various kinds of discourse-pragmatic functions of sore-yori and nani-yori – such as "topic shifting" in sore-yori, and "priority listing" and "additive reinforcing" in nani-yori – automatically arise from the interaction between the expression's scale structures (endpoint vs. non-endpoint scales) and Grice's conversational maxims (relevance, manner). This paper shows that scale structures play a crucial role in managing the direction of discourse and that there is a rich interaction between CIs and general conversational maxims in pragmatic comparative expressions

Comparison of Macular Thickness in Diabetic Macular Edema Using Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography and Time-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

Purpose. To compare the macular thicknesses in diabetic macular edema (DME) measured with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and time-domain (TD) OCT. Patients and Methods. The average macular thicknesses of 50 eyes of 29 patients with DME were measured using SD-OCT and TD-OCT. Results. The mean macular thicknesses measured with TD-OCT and SD-OCT were 401.5 ± 117.8 μm (mean ± SD) and 446.2 ± 123.5 μm, respectively. The macular thicknesses measured with the two devices were well correlated (Pearson's product moment correlation, r = 0.977, P < 0.001). A significant correlation was found between the best-corrected visual acuity and the retinal thickness measured by TD-OCT and SD-OCT (Pearson's product moment correlation, TD-OCT, r = 0.34; P < 0.05; SD-OCT, r = 0.32; P < 0.05). Discussion. The mean macular thickness measured with SD-OCT was about 45 μm thicker than that measured with TD-OCT. Attention should be paid when comparing data obtained using different OCT machines

Investigating an Asymmetry in the Semantics of Japanese Measure Phrases

n/