Linguistic Emotivity. Centrality of Place, the Topic-Comment Dynamic, and an Ideology of Pathos in Japanese Discourse.

Pragmatics & Beyond New Series #97

by Senko K. Maynard

In this text on emotives in the Japanese language, Senko examines linguistic signs and strategies on varied levels, for example lexicon, syntax and text, including those signs that have not been traditionally identified as emotives. He takes the position that although some linguistic signs and strategies may seem to carry the propositonal meaning alone, they always express, in varying degrees, emotive meanings as well. By concentrating on seemingly emotionless signs, a stronger case is made that emotivity is pervasive in all aspects of language. Senko identifies and analyses a number of emotives in contemporary Japanese discourse to illustrate how rich and critical linguistic emotivity is in language and its use.

Genres: Linguistics

476 pages, ebook

First published June 1, 2002

About the author

Senko K. Maynard is professor of Japanese language and linguistics at Rutgers University. She received her bachelor's degree from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and her doctorate in linguistics from Northwestern University. She has published extensively in the field of Japanese linguistics, especially in the area of discourse analysis and conversation analysis. Among her books are Japanese Conversation: Self-contextualization through Structure and International Management (1989), An Introduction to Japanese Grammar and Communication Strategies (1990), and Discourse Modality: Subjectivity, Emotion and Voice in the Japanese Language (1993). Author of numerous articles in Japanese, U.S., and international scholarly journals, Professor Maynard is the founding and current editor of Japanese Discourse: An International Journal for the Study of Japanese Text and Talk.