The usage of japanese particles “wa“ and “ga“ based on speaker's attitude of mind

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the usage of Japanese particles “wa” and “ga” based on speaker's attitude of mind. To consider the education of Japanese for foreigners, hypotheses were built up pragmatically; a speaker used “wa” to lay emphasis on the following part of a sentence which particles divide, and “ga” to emphasize the preceding phrase. It was opposed to given-new information hypothesis. The first study investigated the different usages of “wa” and “ga” on the first sentences appearing in newspapers. The results showed that “wa” was much used in economic pages as “ga” was rather used in social ones. It suggested that the different usages of “wa” and “ga” were related to a writer's different attitude of mind. The second study investigated different usages by undergraduates when asked to select appropriate particles in given sentences and to write their reasons why they selected them. It suggested that the selection of the particles depended on how to lay emphasis rather than on given-new information. © 1987, The Japanese Association of Educational Psychology. All rights reserved.