2023 Volume 19 Issue 2 Pages 70-88
In contrast to previous research that focused primarily on confirmation and agreement request functions of negative questions in made-up or written sentences, this research investigates the form, frequency and function of negative questions and related forms in a video- and audio-recorded corpus of spontaneous conversations at Dairy Taster Brunches. Expanding Tanomura's (1988) de wa nai ka2, the object of study is uses of P nai, P zyan and P daroo (P= predicate) with rising and non-rising intonation that assert rather than negate P. The analysis focuses on 1) the forms and frequency of P nai, P zyan and P daroo, and 2) the functions of these forms in conversational interaction. Statistical analysis shows that P nai? was used more by younger than older people and both P nai? and P desyoo? were used more by women than men. Young women used A (adjectival) ku nai? the most, including uses for strong assertion, and there were cases in utterance sequences where young women responded to P nai? with P nai?. In contrast, older women often responded to P nai? with back channel utterances to show agreement. A list of utterance and discourse functions was obtained from interviews with Japanese native speakers about the functions of actual uses of P nai, P zyan and P daroo. Then after a training workshop, the 9 trainees were given the video and transcription of one each of the conversations in the corpus and were asked to choose the function(s) that applied to each of the uses of these forms. Results showed that depending on the conversational development and position within utterance sequences, P nai, P zyan and P daroo were used for one or more of the following utterance functions (question, assertion, agreement request), and discourse functions (precondition, reason, topic presentation, objection).
