On the Condition of Forming One-Word Nominal Sentence and Existential Sentence: Mainly in the Case of Discovery Expression

Abstract

This paper compares one-word nominal sentences and existential sentences in Chinese and Japanese in terms of discovery contexts and examines their establishment conditions from the aspect of preferred perspectives. One-word nominal sentences focus on the objects found, and existential sentences comprise circumstances of the object. Previous studies point out Chinese’s inclination to the objective perspective, while Japanese prefers to take the ego-centric perspective. Chinese has few one-word nominal sentences, while existential sentences are plenty. On the contrary, Japanese has many one-word nominal sentences, while existential sentences are scarce.