Denotational Semantics for interrogative Sentences in Japanese

We present a new approach to a sentence of interrogative form in Japanese within the framework of Montague Grammar. The possibility of various uses of an interrogative sentence; uses as a question, an exclamation, a rhetorical question, a demand and a recommendation is explained based on the same denotation for the sentence. The denotation which is neutral for all possible uses is defined in terms of a new modal operator in the formal language level, and of possible world semantics in the denotational level. Our interpretation of the" Japanese end marker particle "ka" also explains some other usages of the same particle "ka" in a uniform way; especially, "ka" as the parallel listing (disjunctive) particle, which is another important usage of "ka", is explained uniformly with the interrogative "ka". This uniform interpretation in the denotational semantics level will be supported by the historical development of usages of "ka", as briefly explained. Some part of our new approach for the Japanese interrogative forms can be, in our opinion, generalized to many other languages, although there are also some part particular to Japanese.