On the So-Called Thematic Use of Wa: Reconsideration and Reconciliation

PACLIC 23 / City University of Hong Kong / 3-5 December 200

On the Functional Differences between the Discourse Particles Ne and Yone in Japanese

The Japanese discourse particles (sentence-final particles) ne and yone both have the functions that can be roughly characterized as the ⟨shared information ⟩ use and the ⟨call for confirmation ⟩ use. In the literature, an ad-equate descriptive analysis has not been ob-tained as to how the choice between the two particles is made. This paper aims to clarify discourse conditions under which ne and yone can be felicitously used.

On the morphological status of -te, -ta, and related forms in Japanese: Evidence from accent placement

Abstract The morphological structure of Japanese predicate forms with the morphemes /te/, /ta/, /tara/, /tari/, and /taQte/ (the t-morphemes), has been a point of contention. Modern grammarians have tended to consider the t-morphemes as inflectional affixes that directly follow the stem (the "attachment-to-stem" analysis). On the other hand, in the current school grammar (gakkoo bunpoo), as well as in some contemporary scholarly works, they are regarded as particles or the like following the infinitive form (ren'yookei) of a predicate (the "attachmentto-infinitive" analysis). This paper argues for the second view. With experimental data, it will be demonstrated that a t-morpheme may be separated from its host (the preceding item) by an accent phrase boundary with the host having the accent pattern expected for an infinitive form, whereas inflectional affixes like /reba/ (provisional) and /ru/ (present indicative) lack this property. This prosodic contrast agrees well with the "attachment-to-infinitive" analysis, while it is hard to account for under the "attachment-to-stem" analysis

Spin-filter tunnel junction with matched Fermi surfaces

Efficient injection of spin-polarized current into a semiconductor is a basic prerequisite for building semiconductor-based spintronic devices. Here, we use inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy to show that the efficiency of spin-filter-type spin injectors is limited by spin scattering of the tunneling electrons. By matching the Fermi-surface shapes of the current injection source and target electrode material, spin injection efficiency can be significantly increased in epitaxial ferromagnetic insulator tunnel junctions. Our results demonstrate that not only structural but also Fermi-surface matching is important to suppress scattering processes in spintronic devices.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure