Akio Kamio

The theory of territory of information: The case of Japanese

Abstract This paper proposes a pragmatic theory of the territory of information. Just as many animals, including humans, have territories of which they claim their ownership, this paper asserts that the use of human language is controlled by a notion of territory. The target of analysis in terms of this notion here is Japanese. Arguments are presented which demonstrate that the notion of territory does indeed play a major role in the language. A formalization of the theory of territory of information is attempted, and, using examples from Japanese, the details of the theory are explained and justified. Finally, applications of the theory to other languages and to a variety of pragmatic phenomena are suggested.

Territory of information in English and Japanse and psychological utterances

Abstract This paper presents a comparative pragmatic analysis of Japanese and English based on the theory of territory of information develped in an earlier paper. The theory assumes that the notion of territory familiar from studies on the behavior of animals (including human beings) is also relevant to the evidential aspect of language. On this assumption, it aims to specify the relationship between the forms of utterance and the notion of territory of information. This paper first presents a summary of an analysis of utterances in Japanese, developed in the earlier paper, and then provides an analysis of English utterances within the framework of the theory of territory of information. On the basis of these results, it further attempts to analyze psychological utterances in both languages and show that their pragmatic characters are also explained by the theory.

English generic we, you, and they: an analysis in terms of territory of information☆

This paper discusses the generic and non-specific uses of English personal pronouns we, you, and they and argues that they constitute the same system as those which underlie Japanese and English demonstrative systems. That is, they constitute a system based on the notion of the speakers and hearers territories and the sphere outside of both territories, which were extensively discussed in Kamio (1997); Thus, this paper claims that the basic notion of the speakers territory of information can be applied to generic and non-specific uses of English personal pronouns.

Cleft Sentences and the Territory of Information

In an excellent discourse analysis of English cleft sentences, Ellen Prince has proposed two major notions that characterize their informational structure: Given Information and Known Information. She defined them as follows: Given Information: Information which the cooperative speaker may assume is appropriately in the hearer’s consciousness Known Information: Information which the speaker represents as being factual and as already known to certain persons (often not including the hearer) (Prince 1978:903) Prince claims that these notions describe the informational value of the ‘presuppositional’ part (henceforth, the P-part) of clefts, the former being relevant to the wh-clauses of wh-clefts, the latter to the that(/which/who/when)-clauses of it-clefts.

Topicalization and subjectivization in Japanese: Characterizational and identificational information

Abstract This paper discusses two well-known constructions in Japanese, namely, topicalization and multiple subjectivization, as typically illustrated in the following two examples cited from Mikami (1960) and Kuno (1973): 1. (1) Zoo -wa hana -ga nagai. elephant- top trunk- nom is-long ‘Elephants have long trunks.’ 2. (2) Bunmeikoku -ga dansei-ga heikin-zyumyoo -ga mizikai. civilized countries - nom male - nom average life span - nom is-short ‘It is in civilized countries that men are such that their average life span is short.’ We will argue that the acceptability of the constructions in question crucially depends on whether the topicalized or subjectivized NP is characterized by the rest of the sentence, and propose the Characterization Condition for the ‘ Zoo-wa hana-ga nagai ’ Construction (CC) and the Characterization Condition for Subjectivization (CCS). We will also argue that the phenomenon of subjectivization, which seems more complex than that of topicalization, is subject to the requirement that ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ in the structure [X- ga Y- ga Z- ga …] be identified by ‘X’ and ‘Y’, respectively, which we will call the Identifiability Condition for Subjectivization (ICS). It will also be argued that the cline of acceptability often observed in the subjectivization phenomenon can be accounted for by the interaction between the CCS and the ICS.