A Conversational Logic : wa and ga

This paper (a) presents a fragment of a logic of conversation with some philosophical basis (b) attempts to model and explain differences and properties of wa and go, notably the so called Unagi-Bun, the comparative (contrastive) readings of wa and uniqueness (completelist) readings of go (c) brings inner piece to those who wisely do not react it. 1 Basic examples The fundamental intuition is that wa serves to emphasise the predicate whereas ga serves to emphasise the subject.' 1. Ga has a sense of uniqueness (complete-listing) that wa does not. Compare Sachi wa nihon ye kaerimashita (Sachi wa to Japan returned) with Sachi ga nihon ye kaerimashita which in some cases (more cases than with `wa') suggests that Sachi is unique in her returning, or at least that Sachi makes up a complete list of (relevant) people who have returned. This may be seen more easily if the predicate is one which demands uniqueness. Gabbay san wa ichiban yatsu hito desu (Mr Gabbay wa the most awful person is) is acceptable, but. *Or: Bakka na seiyojin ga nihon go wo narattara tohomonai koto Uzi narimasn. 'NOTE: Most data was collected or tested personally from numerous native speakers unlucky enough to be passing the author at the time. Only individual preferences were noted, hence, in this paper, a sentence may be said to be 'better' than another with little further qualification. Further qualification was not given by subjects of the survey mainly because they were not confident to do so. Translations are for the most part literal but neither stylised nor complete for that would be to beg the question. Gabbay san ga ichiban yatsu hito desu2 is preferred. Furthermore, not only is dare ga sonno use wo iimashita, ka? (Who wa such a lie told?) a much better formed question than the `wa' form but to either, the response Jitsuo ga iimashita (Jitsuo ga told [it]) is better formed than Jitsuo wa iimashita, ). Unagi-Bun: to say Watashi wa piza (I wa pizza) can be acceptable, maybe meaning 'I want a pizza', whereas the -a' form Watashi ga piza is apparently less useable. Use of `ga', if not meaning that one is identical with a pizza seems acceptable more in cases where a question 'Dare ga piza.' is asked. :3. Wa has a sense of making a comparison that it would appear ga lacks. Kore wa shiroi keredomo are wa kuroi (This wa white but that wa black) or with conjunction Kore wa shirokute are wa, kuroi (This wa white[ing]' 3 that wa black) a comparison is welcomed. With the use of ga however the first was said to be very strange and Kore ga shirokute are ga kuroi was said to sound like what teacher might say to a student of Japanese who had failed to understand the difference between `shiroi' and `kuroi'. The `ga' form of Motosan wa shinda (Mr Moto wa (lied) seems slightly preferred. But the `wa' form is likely to be expected to continue: keredomo Osakisan wa [mada] ikite iru ( ... but Osakisan wa [still] alive) It is assumed here that this type of comparison is brought on by a mechanism based on meaning of wa rather than one based on the meaning of the predicate. Here is a different class of comparison that is assumed here brought on by the meaning of the predicate: 'Also: Yoshiko ga inottomo uruwa,shii onna (Ia etc.. The gerund beini,g used where English uses 'and'. In English too, e.g. 'Peter running lane walked'. Yuji wa tatte iru no da, suwatte iru no ja nai (Yuji is standing but not sitting) also Yuji wa hashitte iru keredomo asette (wa) inlasen. (Yuji running is but hurrying is not) The thought being that it is wa that seems best for such sentences. 4. Kingyo ga iru (Goldfish ga is, i.e. there is a goldfish) which seems a little preferred to its ‘wa' form Of the . wa,' form was said strange, but acceptable if continued by something like keredomo inu wa nai' ( • • • but dog wa not. Compare with Watashi Ili wa, ie ga, aru (me to/at/ill wa house ga Which was said a more useable way of claiming to have a house than Watashi ni wa ie wa aru. To start with `watashi ni ga ' was said to be impossible. 5. Further, it seems that ga, is for the most part not used with a negative. ano hito wa nihonjin ja nai (that person wa Japanese is not) being held in much preference to its `wa' form.