Date of Award
5-13-2011
Document type
dissertation
Access Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Linguistics
First Advisor
Christopher Potts
Second Advisor
Angelika Kratzer
Third Advisor
John Kingston
Subject Categories
Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics | Linguistics
Abstract
This dissertation is concerned with how pragmatic particles interact with sentential force and with general pragmatic constraints to derive optimal dynamic interpretations. The primary empirical focus of the dissertation is the Japanese sentence final particle yo and its intonational associates. These right-peripheral elements are argued to interact semantically with sentential force in specifying the set of contextual transitions compatible with an utterance. In this way, they semantically constrain the pragmatic interpretation of the utterances in which they occur. These conventional constraints on interpretation are wedded with general pragmatic constraints which provide a further filter on the road to optimal interpretation.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/2176105
Recommended Citation
Davis, Christopher M., "Constraining Interpretation: Sentence Final Particles in Japanese" (2011). Open Access Dissertations. 397.
https://doi.org/10.7275/2176105
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/397