Onishi, Masayuki (1994). Semantic primitives in Japanese. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 361-386). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.18oni
It is said that, in Japanese, a clear stylistic difference between male and female speakers is observed. Usually, lexeme choice and use of certain discourse devices are considered to be the symptoms of that difference. However, recent literature seems to suggest that at least some of the ‘gender-specific’ features can be analysed simply in terms of general conversational constraints, which reflect the power relationship of speakers in Japanese society. This issue is crucially important in the discourse of NSM mini-sentences and the choice of Japanese exponents for certain primitives sensitive to pragmatic contexts – notably I and YOU, but also many others. A somewhat neutralized version of the so-called male familiar style is used as the basic style of the mini-sentences, with plain forms of predicates and no sentence-final particles. In general, lexemes felicitously used in this style are chosen as the exponents of the primitives. Throughout this paper, the language of mini-sentences used for the identification of the Japanese exponents of the primitives is based on the Tokyo uptown dialect.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
