A NOTE ON THE SELECTIONAL REQUIREMENTS OF
ASSERTIVE DISCOURSE PARTICLES*
Keiko Murasugi
Nanzan University

1. Introduction
Japanese, an agglutinative language, may realize the right pheriphery by rich sentencefinal particles. There has been much discussion on the hierarchical structure of the Japaneseright periphery, including those particles. The rough structure is shown in (1).
(1) [[[[v(*)P Tense] Modal] Complementizer*] Discourse Particle*]
The hierarchy is in part due to semantic and discourse interpretation. At the same time, it
is argued in Saito (2015) that the actual distributions of the elements in (1) are also dictatedby their selectional requirements. For example, he shows that the discourse particle wa
precedes other discourse particles when they cooccur and it is incompatible withcomplementizers and modals because it selects Tense. In this paper, I discuss similar
discourse particles in Nagoya Dialect and Ina Dialect, and confirm the conclusion that evendiscourse particles with similar functions can have different selectional requirements.
In Section 2, I briefly go over Saito’s (2015) analysis of Japanese discourse particles.
In particular, I discuss his analysis for two discourse particles, wa and yo, that express
assertion. When these particles cooccur, wa must precede yo because wa selects Tense andyo does not have this requirement. In Section 3, I introduce Yoshida’s (2013) analysis of
ga in Nagoya Dialect, which also expresses assertion and selects Tense like wa. In Section
4, I consider Ina Dialect in a little more detail and show that the particle ni with similar
discourse function has wider distribution like yo. Section 5 concludes the paper.
2. The Hierarchy of Discourse Particles
In the so-called standard Japanese, discourse particles can be stacked at the end of asentence as shown in (2).
*I would like to sincerely thank Mamoru Saito for insightful discussion on this paper. Deep thanks
go to Emiko Murasugi, a native speaker of Ina Dialect, spoken in the southern part of Nagano
Prefecture, for grammatical judgments of the data and helpful discussion on the material presented
in this paper. The research reported here was supported in part by the JSPS KAKENHI #20K00587
and Pache Research Subsidy IA (2022, 2023).

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(2) Hanako-wa soko-ni i-ta(wa) (yo) (ne).
Hanako-TOP there-at be-Past wa yo ne‘Hanako was there.’
When two or more of these particles cooccur, they must appear in the order shown in (2) as
discussed in detail in Endo (2010). Saito (2015) first notes that ne is expected to follow theother two because of its discourse function. Wa and yo express assetion whereas ne solicits
response, typically asking for confirmation. 1 One can make an assertion and solicit aresponse on it. But it makes no sense to assert a solicitation of a response.
The remaining question is why yo has to follow wa if both express assertion. Discussing
this problem, Saito (2015) observes that wa selects Tense. (3) shows that wa can be mergedwith tensed clauses.
(3) a. Watasi-ga soko-ni ik-uwa.
I-NOM
there-to go-Pres. wa‘I will go there.’b. Taroo-wa yasasi-katta wa.
Taroo-TOP kind-Pastwa‘Taroo was kind.’(4), on the other hand, shows that wa cannot follow a modal or a complementizer.
desyoo (*wa).
(4) a. Hanako-wa ku-ru
Hanako-TOP come-Pres. willwa‘Hanako will come.’b. Hanako-ga
soko-ni i-ru
no (*wa)
Hanako-NOM there-at be-Pres. no wa‘Hanako is there.’
Desyoo, which is a modal that expresses surmise, takes a TP complement and does not carrytense itself. No is Finite head and it also selects Tense. Wa can follow neither.
The discourse particle yo, on the other hand, does not have a selectional requirement of
this kind. It can follow a tensed clause, a modal, or a complementizer, as shown in (5).

1

Yo is a more general assertive particle than wa, which is stylistically marked. Wa is typically
employed in female speech though it is used in male speech as well in limited contexts. I abstract
away from non-grammatical factors of this kind in this paper.

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Selectional Requirements of Discourse Particles (K. Murasugi)(5) a. Watasi-ga soko-ni ik-u
yo.
I-NOM
there-to go-Pres. yo‘I will go there.’b. Taroo-wa yasasi-katta yo.
Taroo-TOP kind-Pastyo‘Taroo was kind.’c. Hanako-wa ku-ru
desyoo (yo).
Hanako-TOP come-Pres. willyo‘Hanako will come.’
d. Hanako-ga
soko-ni i-ru
no (yo)Hanako-NOM there-at be-Pres. no yo‘Hanako is there.’If wa selects Tense and yo does not have this selectional requirement, this explains thehierarchical relation between wa and yo, illustrated in (6).
(6) a. [[[TP ...] wa] yo]b. *[[[TP ...] yo] wa]
This analysis implies that discourse particles with similar discourse function can havedifferent selectional properties.
3. Yoshida (2013) on the Nagoya Dialect Ga
Among the discourse particles discussed in Saito (2015), wa is the only one thatspecifically selects Tense. However, Yoshida (2013) points out that ga, the counterpart ofyo in Nagoya Dialect, has this propery as well. I introduce her findings in this section.
Yoshida presents a formal analysis for some well-known Nagoya Dialect expressions.
One of them is dagane at the end of a sentence. Some examples are shown in (7).
(7) a. Kyoo dagane.
today dagane‘It’s today.’b. Sizuka dagane.
quiet dagane‘It’s quiet.’-19-

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Although dagane is often referred to as a unit, Yoshida first notes that ne is optional andshould be analyzed as the same particle as the ne that occurs in many other dialects. 2Further, she points out that da occurs only when the present tense copula da is required.
A copula is required in a predicate after nouns, nominal adjectives and postpositions, butdoes not occur after verbs and adjectives. Da in dagane shows the same distribution. Itappears after a noun in (7a) and after a nominal adjective in (7b). The examples in (8) showthat it does not occur after verbs and adjectives.
(8) a. It-ta(*da)-ga-ne.
go-Past da ga ne‘I went.’
b. Taka-i(*da)-ga-ne.
expensive-Pres. da ga ne‘It’s expensive.’
Then, da in dagane should be analyzed as the present tense copula that commonly occurs
in many dialects. In fact, if the tense is past, the past tense form of the copula, datta, occurs
in place of da, as shown in (9).
(9) Sizuka dat-ta -ga-ne.
quiet da-Past-ga-ne‘It was quiet.’
Given that ga, in isolation or as part of dagane, has similar discourse function as yo in otherdialects, Yoshida concludes that what distinguishes Nagoya Dialect from others here is not
the expression dagane per se, but the usage of ga in place of yo.
Then, Yoshida points out that ga has a selectional restriction that is not observed withyo despite their similarities in function. It selects for Tense just like wa. (10) shows that it
cannot follow a modal. 3(10) Hanako-wa ku-ru
daroo (yo/*wa/*ga).
Hanako-TOP come-Pres. will yo wa ga‘Hanako will come.’
Yoshida goes on to show that ga cannot follow another discourse particle and must beplaced at the bottom of the hierarchy of discourse particles, just like wa. If the Nagoya ga
2

See (2) for an example.

3

Daroo in (10) and desyoo in (4a) and (5c) are basically the same modal for surmise. Desyoo is
the polite form.

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Selectional Requirements of Discourse Particles (K. Murasugi)

is indeed the counterpart of yo in other dialects, this analysis implies that discourse particles
vary across dialects not only in their forms but with their selectional properties as well.
4. Dzura and Ni in Ina Dialect
Much variation is observed in clause-final expressions among Japanese dialects. Ina
Dialect is known for expressions like dzura and dani. In this section, I show that dani
consists of the present tense copula da and an assertive discourse particle ni, and that ni
shares the selectional properties with yo.
In the preceding section, I introduced Yoshida’s (2013) argument that da in dagane isthe copula in present tense. The argument applies to da in dani as well. Examples of dani
are shown in (11).
(11) a. Kono atari-wa
sizuka dani.
this neighborhood-TOP quiet dani‘This neighborhood is quiet.’b. Ano densya-wa Nagoya-kara dani.
that train-TOP Nagoya-from dani
‘That train is from Nagoya.’
As noted above, da is required in a present tense predicate after nouns, nominal adjectives
and postpositions, but does not occur after verbs and adjectives. And da is missing fromdani in the latter cases as shown in (12).
hut-te-ru(*da)-ni.
(12) a. Yuki-ga
snow-NOM fall-ing-Pres. da ni‘It’s snowing.’b. Susi-wa oisi-i(*da)-ni.
sushi-TOP tasty-Pres. da ni‘Sushi is delicious.’
Further, when the examples in (11) are turned into past tense, the past tense copula datta
is substituted for da. (13) shows this for (11a).
sizuka dat-ta-ni.
(13) Kono atari-wa
this neighborhood-TOP quiet da-Past-ni‘This neighborhood used to be quiet.’Thus, what characterizes Ina Dialect here is its use of ni in place of yo in other dialects.

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Ina Dialect is like Nagoya Dialect in having its own form for the assertive discourse
particle. However, the Ina ni is similar to yo and is different from the Nagoya ga in its
selectional property. The Ina Dialect counterpart of the modal for surmise daroo is dzura.
The distribution of dzura is identical to that of daroo. Dzura does not carry tense of its own
and selects Tense. A couple of examples are listed in (14).
(14) a. Kinoo-etu
anta-wa hatake it-tadzura.
yesterday-around you-TOP field go-Past dzura‘You must have gone to the field around yesterday.’b. Kawai-i dzura.
cute-Pres. dzura‘(I imagine) it’s cute.’
Interestingly, dzura even shares an exceptional pattern with daroo. The present tense copula
da is obligatorily deleted before both daroo and dzura.
(15) a. Asu-wa
ame (*da) daroo.
tomorrow-TOP rain da daroo‘It will rain tomorrow.’ame (*da) d zura.
b. Asu-wa
tomorrow-TOP rain da dzura‘It will rain tomorrow.’
Thus, dzura, like daroo, is a modal element that lacks tense. 4 And ni can follow dzura as
the examples in (16) show.
(16) a. Asu-wa
ame dzura ni.
tomorrow-TOP rain dzura ni‘It will rain tomorrow.’b. Taroo-wa asu
Nagoya-ni ik-u
dzura ni.
Taroo-TOP tomorrow Nagoya-to go-Pres. dzura ni‘Taroo will go to Nagoya tomorrow.’
This shows that ni does not specifically select Tense.
Ni can also follow the question complementizer ka, as shown in (17a).

4See Murasugi (2018, 2019) for a more detailed discussion on dzura.

-22-Selectional Requirements of Discourse Particles (K. Murasugi)(17) a. Sonna hen-na toko-ni ik-u
ka ni.
such strange place-to go-Pres. Q ni‘(I) will not go to such a strange place.’ka yo.
b. Sonna hen-na toko-ni ik-u
such strange place-to go-Pres. Q yo‘(I) will not go to such a strange place.’
As ni expresses an assertion, the question embedded under ni in (17a) must be interpreted
as a rhetorical question. This is observed with yo as well in dialects that employ thisdiscourse particle, as shown in (17b). (17a) constutes further evidence that the distributionof ni is not constrained by the selectional requirement for Tense.
5. Conclusion
In this paper, I considered four assertive discourse particles, wa, yo, ga and ni. As
discussed in Section 2, Saito (2015) argues that wa selects Tense whereas yo does not havethis selectional requirement. In Section 3, I introduced Yoshida’s argument that ga in
Nagoya Dialect selects Tense. Finally, in Section 4, I showed that ni in Ina dialect, like yoand unlike wa and ga, does not specifically select Tense. The discussion showed that
discourse partcles at the sentence periphery not only have discourse functions but have clear
selectional properties that dictate their distributions.
The four particles have similar discourse function, that is, to express assertion. It
remains to be seen whether there are subtle differences in the interpretations they yield . If
there is a difference between wa and ga on the one hand and yo and ni on the other, then it
may explain their difference in the selectional property. But if the difference in theselectional property cannot be accounted for in terms of meaning, it presents an interestinglearnability problem. How do children find out that wa and ga specifically select Tense in
the absence of negative evidence? For example, given that yo can follow modals andcomplementizers, how do children find out that wa cannot? Discourse particles, which areacquired at a very early stage, can be a valuable resource for research in language
acquisition as well as for research in syntax.

References
Endo, Yoshio (2010) “The Cartography of Sentence Final Particles,” in Nobuko Hasegawa, ed.,New Developments in Syntactic Theory and the Analysis of Japanese: Beyond Propositions,
67-94, Kaitakusha, Tokyo. (in Japanese)
Murasugi, Keiko (2018) “A Minimalist Approach to Epistemic Modality in Ina Dialect: A
Preliminary Study,” 1-27, Academia (Literature and Language) 108, Nanzan University. (in-23-Nanzan Linguistics 18: Research Results and Activities 2023Japanese)
Murasugi, Keiko (2019) “Dzura in Ina Dialect: The Epistemic Modality selecting Tense Phrase as
its Complement,” in Yoshiki Ogawa, ed., Koopasu-kara wakaru Gengo Henka Heni to GengoRiron 2, 306-322, Kaitakusha, Tokyo. (in Japanese)
Saito, Mamoru (2015) “Cartography and Selection: Case Studies in Japanese,” in Ur Shlonsky, ed.,Beyond Functional Sequence, 255-274, Oxford University Press, New York.
Yoshida, Mai (2013) “On the Grammatical Properties of Nagoya Dialect,” BA thesis, Nanzan
University. (in Japanese)-24-