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The particle 'ka' and its significance

Sageryd, Johan LU (2015) JAP152 20151
Japanese Studies
Abstract
This work investigates the significance of the sentence-final particle 'ka' in modern Japanese by means of questionnaire and qualitative discussions with native informants. The Japanese language makes use of short words known as particles to indicate grammatical category. 'ka' is one such particle that can be used to indicate, among other things, the interrogative mood. Questions can be formed both with and without 'ka', hinting at a relatively low semantic significance in select cases. The results of this study show a few cases where the sentence-final particle 'ka' may be omitted as well as a couple in which it may not, demonstrating that the particle is not purely decorative and does add semantic value to the sentence for some cases,... (More)
This work investigates the significance of the sentence-final particle 'ka' in modern Japanese by means of questionnaire and qualitative discussions with native informants. The Japanese language makes use of short words known as particles to indicate grammatical category. 'ka' is one such particle that can be used to indicate, among other things, the interrogative mood. Questions can be formed both with and without 'ka', hinting at a relatively low semantic significance in select cases. The results of this study show a few cases where the sentence-final particle 'ka' may be omitted as well as a couple in which it may not, demonstrating that the particle is not purely decorative and does add semantic value to the sentence for some cases, but that it in others provides little gain other than giving the sentence a slightly different nuance. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Sageryd, Johan LU
supervisor
organization
course
JAP152 20151
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
japanese, sentence-final, interrogative, particle, ka
language
English
id
5471199
date added to LUP
2015-07-20 14:16:09
date last changed
2015-07-20 14:16:09
@misc{5471199,
  abstract     = {{This work investigates the significance of the sentence-final particle 'ka' in modern Japanese by means of questionnaire and qualitative discussions with native informants. The Japanese language makes use of short words known as particles to indicate grammatical category. 'ka' is one such particle that can be used to indicate, among other things, the interrogative mood. Questions can be formed both with and without 'ka', hinting at a relatively low semantic significance in select cases. The results of this study show a few cases where the sentence-final particle 'ka' may be omitted as well as a couple in which it may not, demonstrating that the particle is not purely decorative and does add semantic value to the sentence for some cases, but that it in others provides little gain other than giving the sentence a slightly different nuance.}},
  author       = {{Sageryd, Johan}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The particle 'ka' and its significance}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}