On the Interaction of Sentence Grammar and Discourse Grammar

Abstract

This paper draws on the issue of wa and ga, which I assert to be an appropriate topic to review the development of the study of Japanese within the framework of Generative Grammar (more specifically, the Standard Theory). After reviewing two notable works on case attachment in the grammar of Japanese, namely Kuroda (1965a) and Kuno (1973a), I propose a set of noncyclic case assignment rules that crucially employ the notion of [+/– transitive] in sentence grammar. The proposal precludes the surface manifestation of sequences of redundant case particles, which were inevitable in the earlier works. I then proceed to observe the interpretative characteristics of wa and ga, for which I provide an account in terms of notions such as new/old information and a “spotlighting” function in discourse. Through the course of discussion, the interactions between sentence grammar and discourse grammar are clarified, signaling the importance of both in accounting for characteristic properties of Japanese.