「は」と「が」に関する一考察 : 外国語としての日本語教育との関連

概要

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This paper deals with the particles 'wa' and 'ga' in Japanese as subject markers. The analysis is based on the notions of 'theme' and 'rheme', and their semantic correlates 'old information' and 'new information'. The use of the notions 'theme' and 'rheme' for describing the functions of 'wa' and 'ga' is not new, but all the previous studies limit their analyses to simple sentences. Our analysis treats also complex sentences, mainly complex sentences with subordinate clauses, and shows that the notions 'theme' and 'rheme' can provide a rather unified description for the functions of 'wa' and 'ga' as subject markers both in simple sentences and in the subordinate clauses of complex sentences. The analysis also shows that the notions of 'theme', 'rheme', or their semantic correlates 'old information', 'new information', could be effective in Japanese language teaching. The final part of the paper deals with the problem of the usage of 'wa' and 'ga' in the opening sentence of text. On the basis of a survey of 20 native Japanese speakers, we conclude that the usage of 'wa' and 'ga' in opening sentences basically follows the established rules, but in some cases is subjectively determined.
横浜国立大学の論文