Discourse and Syntactic Features of Repetition Sentences with Adjective Root Form

Abstract

This paper examines discourse and syntactic features of repetition sentences with adjective root form such as “Roku-jo no heya tte kekko hiroi yona (A sixmat room is pretty big)——iya iya semai semai (No, it's too small).”

In regards to discourse features, this paper presents the observation that repetition sentences with adjective root form are more natural in monologues during situations of high stimulation (taikan-do) or introspection (tansaku-ishiki), and more natural in dialogues when the rapidity and activity of an utterance is high. From these observations, it is inferred that repetition sentences with adjective root form are naturally formed in a discourse environment where the relation between cognition and the environment and interaction between the speaker and the hearer are prominently recognized.

Regarding syntactic features, it is observed that there are some constraints not found in non-repetition sentences regarding co-occurrence with degree adverbs and final particles and verbalization of subjects of attributes or states. These observations imply that repetition sentences with adjective root form invoke weak sentence characteristics in describing attributes or states.