Systemic Functional Perspectives of Japanese - Descriptions and Applications - Elizabeth A. Thomson
How to argue in Japanese: a systemic functional interpretation of the logico-semantic relations in Japanese expression
Systemic Functional Perspectives of Japanese - Descriptions and Applications - Elizabeth A. Thomson
Motoki Sano
National Institute for Information and Communication Technology
Elizabeth A. Thomson [+]
University of New South Wales
Description
This paper presents a case study of the logico-semantic relations in a set of selected Japanese expository texts. The logico-semantic relations are classified according to Halliday’s (1994) categorisation. The study shows that the logico-semantic relation of ‘enhancement’ plays a central role in the method of development of exposition. Furthermore, it sheds light on the social purpose of Japanese exposition – ‘to present an argument and ask the reader to share the same idea with the writer’. Although paragraphing in Japanese is often considered very flexible and up to the writer, the study shows that the boundaries between paragraphs often correlate with the boundaries between groups that are connected by logico-semantic relations.