Accessibility among Situations : Pragmatics of Disjunction in Japanese

ACCESSIBILITY AMONG SITUATIONS: PRAGMATICS OF DISJUNCTION IN JAPANESE Y asunari Harada School of Law Waseda University 1-6-1 Nishi-waseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169-8050 JAPAN EmaiLharada@mn.waseda.ac.jp Kumiko Honda Center for Japanese Language Waseda University 1-7-14 Nishi-Waseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169-8050 JAPAN Email: khonda@mn.waseda.ac.jp ABSTRACT Disjunctive expressions in Japanese coordinated with "ka" get either "or"-reading or "and"-reading depending on the situations in which the utterance takes place. This is comparable to some extent to the English counterparts with "or". In this paper, we will examine some cases where the same string of words gets different readings depending on the situations involved. We argue that the differences in interpretation emerge from the differences in accessibility among situations associated with the utterance. Pragmatically, our observation that a given disjunctive expression gets either "or"-reading or "and"-reading in a given situation reflects that only one of those readings can make the expression under consideration informative enough in that particular utterance situation. 1. INTRODUCTION The long-term goal behind our current study is to give an integrated account of how variables in formal languages and indeterminate expressions in natural languages should be treated in formal pragmatics. These expressions are typically used not in connection with particular entity or objects but to express quantification, query or co-variation among entities or objects within the domain of discourse. In Japanese, we have indeterminate expressions such as "dare" (who), "dore" (which one), "doko" (where) and "dono" (which)'. Combined with appropriate particles such as "mo" and "ka", these indeterminate expressions are used not only for question but also for quantification. It is interesting to note that these two particles are used also in coordination: "mo" for conjunctive coordination and "ka" for disjunctive coordination.' For disjunction with "ka", we observe that so-called "or"-reading and "and"-reading are available depending on the situations involved. Further, this disjunctive particle "ka" is also used as 'question marker'. Reflections upon these linguistic facts in Japanese will suggest how disjunction relates to existential quantification, question, and "and"-reading of conjunction. In this paper, we will mainly focus our attention on interpretation of disjunction with "ka", discussing how the differences between "or"-reading and "and"-reading emerge, touching upon existential and universal quantification and question. 1 In Japanese, expressions such as "dare (who)" ,"dore (which one)", "doko (where)" and "dono (which)" are categorized as "do-" pronoun/adverbial/adnominal within the traditional "ko-so-a-do (this-that'-that2-which)" paradigm. In this paper, we will call these expressions indeterminates'. 2 See Harada & Honda (1997a, 1997b, 1998, 1999a, 1999b, 1999c) and Harada, Honda & Noguchi (1999). 2. CONJUNCTION, DISJUNCTION, QUANTIFICATION AND QUESTION Before we start our discussion on disjunction, it may be worthwhile to see how coordination is expressed in Japanese. In Japanese, conjunctive coordination is expressed with conjunctive particle "mo" while disjunctive coordination is expressed with disjunctive particle "ka". These two particles, with indeterminate expressions such as "dare" (who), "dore" (which one), "doko" (where) and "dono" (which), are used to express existential quantification and universal quantification, respectively. Interestingly, disjunctive particle "ka" is also used as 'question marker'. 2.1. Conjunction, Disjunction and Quantification In Japanese, …

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