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Pragmatics of Japanese: Perspectives on grammar, interaction and culture
Edited by Mutsuko Endo Hudson, Yoshiko Matsumoto and Junko Mori
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 285] 2018
► pp. 197–216

Chapter 8
Ne as an “impoliteness” (“detachment”) marker?

| Michigan State University

The sentence-final/interactional particle ne in Japanese is typically used when the speaker assumes the information in the sentence is shared with the hearer, expressing request for confirmation or agreement. Although such ne is obligatory, there are “optional” types of ne as well (e.g., Kamio 1994, 1998). This chapter examines one type, used when the speaker has full information and the hearer has none. It is pronounced short and crisp in low pitch, often followed by a glottal stop, and indicates “self-confirmation” (Takubo and Kinsui 1996a). The present data show that this type of ne carries a detached or even impolite tone. Although a one-to-one mapping between a linguistic form and politeness (or impoliteness) is untenable, we must not ignore connections completely.

Keywords: detachment, impoliteness, information status, interactional particle ne , Japanese, optional ne , pragmatics, self-confirmation, sentence-final particle ne , theory of information territory
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Particle ne
  • 3. “Impoliteness”
  • 4.Data and participants
  • 5.Analysis
  • 6. Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 April 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.285.08hud
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