An Introduction to The National Language Research Institute:
A Sketch of its Achievements
Third Edition(1988)/
HTML Version(1997)
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II.2.4 Sentence Patterns in Spoken Japanese
Part I- On Materials in Conversation
(Report 18, 1960. 347 pages)
This is a study of sentences in conversation to make clear
the sentence patterns from the point of view of grammar.
Materials were gathered from various kinds of daily
conversation. We regarded a sentence pattern as a synthesis of
three elements:
1) sentence mood, such as exclamation, statement,
interrogative, imperative, etc.;
2) construction as a combination of components;
3) intonation.
The work was begun with the identification of a sentence;
it proceeded then to the basic studies of sentence moods,
construction and intonation.
1. Sentence mood- The structures of expression
were broadly divided into exclamations, statements,
demands and responses. These were then further divided into 21
subclasses. The characteristic forms at the end of
sentences were mainly investigated.
2. Construction- We investigated such patterns
of constructions as the combinations of predicates at the end of
a sentence with the other components directly related to the
predicates.
3. Intonation- We observed the intonations at the end of
sentences which were directly related to the formation of
sentences. We divided the intonations into five patterns: level
tone, rising tone I (/), rising tone II ( ), falling tone ( )
and a special tone. We then examined the correspondence of
these patterns with the sentence moods.
In the various expressions corresponding with the
sentence moods, we examined and put in order what
patterns of construction and intonation were used. Further, we
presented typical examples.
The persons in charge were OISI Hatutaro~, IITOYO Kiiti,
MIYAZI Yutaka and YOSIZAWA Norio.
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