2024 Volume 20 Issue 1 Pages 35-51
In Japanese, the adjectival predicate suki da ([I/Someone] likes X) is typically used with the object case particle ga (noun ga suki da), but under certain conditions, it can be used with the particle o (noun o suki da). Prior research has shown that the acceptability of o is based on factors such as avoiding particle duplication (i.e., o is acceptable when ga has already been used in same clause), degree of transitivity, clause type, and modality. This paper considers other factors that may be at play in the choice between ga and o preceding suki da by focusing on ga and o in relation to the information structure (old vs. new). Data were obtained from The Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese and analyzed using the referential distance (RD) method. The results show that the particle o is more likely to be used in contexts with a high degree of givenness of object. Although previous research identified modality as a key factor in the use of o with suki da, this paper argues that its use is tied to the information structure.
