David Y Oshima
Biographic Data
| ID | 835921 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Y Oshima |
| GIVEN NAMES | David Y |
| FAMILY NAME | Oshima |
| SIGNATURE | OSHIMA D Y |
| AFFILIATIONS | Nagoya University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2788-8866 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Differential coding of the occurrence of negative eventualities and the nonoccurrence of eventualities in Japanese
In Japanese, the use of a negative preterite (past-perfective) clause (“...V- nakatta ”) is pragmatically constrained, and oftentimes a negative nonpast-nonperfective clause (“...V- te inai ”) is used where a preterite clause is expected. This work argues that the Japanese negative preterite invariably represents the occurrence of a “negative eventuality”—something whose existence and ontological nature have been extensively debated—rather than t…
What a nominal predicate may mean
A nominal predicate construction (NPC; e.g. “Cicero is {Tully/an orator}”) typically indicates the relation of identity or inclusion. NPCs, however, may receive marked interpretations as well, as in “I’m the ham sandwich” and “Their car is a peculiar color”; the former does not entail that the speaker is identical to the sandwich, and the latter does not entail that the car belongs to a set of colors. This article identifies, classifies, and anal…
The semantics and sociopragmatics of the Japanese honorific titles san, kun, and chan
Semantic variation in exclusive quantifiers
The nominative-to-accusative shift in Japanese
Some Japanese predicates allow their object to be marked either with the accusative particle o , the canonical marker of an object, or with the nominative particle ga , the canonical marker of a subject. This work reports and discusses the results of corpus-based surveys on the patterns and recent trends in nominative-marking on objects. It will be demonstrated: (i) that there has been an increase in the proportion of accusative-marking over nomi…
When (not) to use the Japanese particle wa
In Japanese linguistics and elsewhere, the particle wa in its thematic use has been widely regarded as a paradigmatic instance of a ‘topic marker’. This work aims to demonstrate that, contrary to this received wisdom, most often thematic wa merely indicates the groundhood (the status as a nonfocus) rather than the topichood (the status as a topic) of the marked constituent, although it serves as a marker of contrastive topic in some configuration…
The nominative/accusative alternation in Japanese and information structure
Anaphoric demonstratives and mutual knowledge
How multiple past tenses divide the labor
It is a common perception that in languages having multiple past tenses with different remoteness specifications, the past tenses cover the entire past without a gap or overlap. This paper demonstrates that this way of looking at multiple-past tense systems is not appropriate for the system in South Baffin Inuktitut (a variety of the Inuit language). The dialect has at least four past tenses: recent, hodiernal, pre-hodiernal, and distant. We argu…
On the morphological status of -te, -ta, and related forms in Japanese
Boundary Tones or Prominent Particles? Variation in Japanese Focus-Marking Contours
Iconicity, Implicature, and the Manner Interpretation of Coordination Structure
This paper discusses conditions under which a VP-coordination structure (‘Subj. VP1 and VP2’) may conversationally implicate a manner relation between the two described events, based on data from English and French. It will be pointed out that two factors affect the availability of the manner interpretation. First, the principle of iconicity dictates that, other things being equal, subordination structure is more suitable than coordination struct…
On the interpretation of toki-clauses
Between being wise and acting wise
This paper develops a semantic analysis of three constructions: (i) the subject-oriented adverb construction ( Wisely, John left early ), (ii) the ‘Adj+ to Inf’ construction ( John was wise to leave early ), and (iii) the ‘Adj+ of NP’ construction ( It was wise of John to leave early ), which all involve three semantic components: (i) an individual a ( John ), (ii) a property P 1 that describes a mental/behavioral propensity ( wise ), and (iii) a…
Syntactic direction and obviation as empathy-based phenomena
In previous studies, various syntactic/semantic factors (person hierarchy, animacy, topicality, etc.) have been discussed as relevant to linguistic phenomena known as syntactic direction and nominal obviation. This article develops and motivates a uniform analysis of the direct/inverse and obviation marking (DIO-marking), based on the (extended) theory of linguistic empathy. Drawing on data from four languages that belong to different families (C…
Adversity and Korean/Japanese Passives
GO and Come Revisited
When (not) to use the Japanese particle wa
In Japanese linguistics and elsewhere, the particle wa in its thematic use has been widely regarded as a paradigmatic instance of a ‘topic marker’. This work aims to demonstrate that, contrary to this received wisdom, most often thematic wa merely indicates the groundhood (the status as a nonfocus) rather than the topichood (the status as a topic) of the marked constituent, although it serves as a marker of contrastive topic in some configuration…
How multiple past tenses divide the labor
It is a common perception that in languages having multiple past tenses with different remoteness specifications, the past tenses cover the entire past without a gap or overlap. This paper demonstrates that this way of looking at multiple-past tense systems is not appropriate for the system in South Baffin Inuktitut (a variety of the Inuit language). The dialect has at least four past tenses: recent, hodiernal, pre-hodiernal, and distant. We argu…
Between being wise and acting wise
This paper develops a semantic analysis of three constructions: (i) the subject-oriented adverb construction ( Wisely, John left early ), (ii) the ‘Adj+ to Inf’ construction ( John was wise to leave early ), and (iii) the ‘Adj+ of NP’ construction ( It was wise of John to leave early ), which all involve three semantic components: (i) an individual a ( John ), (ii) a property P 1 that describes a mental/behavioral propensity ( wise ), and (iii) a…
Syntactic direction and obviation as empathy-based phenomena
In previous studies, various syntactic/semantic factors (person hierarchy, animacy, topicality, etc.) have been discussed as relevant to linguistic phenomena known as syntactic direction and nominal obviation. This article develops and motivates a uniform analysis of the direct/inverse and obviation marking (DIO-marking), based on the (extended) theory of linguistic empathy. Drawing on data from four languages that belong to different families (C…
Semantic variation in exclusive quantifiers
Anaphoric demonstratives and mutual knowledge
Adversity and Korean/Japanese Passives
GO and Come Revisited
Syntactic direction and obviation as empathy-based phenomena
In previous studies, various syntactic/semantic factors (person hierarchy, animacy, topicality, etc.) have been discussed as relevant to linguistic phenomena known as syntactic direction and nominal obviation. This article develops and motivates a uniform analysis of the direct/inverse and obviation marking (DIO-marking), based on the (extended) theory of linguistic empathy. Drawing on data from four languages that belong to different families (C…
Between being wise and acting wise
This paper develops a semantic analysis of three constructions: (i) the subject-oriented adverb construction ( Wisely, John left early ), (ii) the ‘Adj+ to Inf’ construction ( John was wise to leave early ), and (iii) the ‘Adj+ of NP’ construction ( It was wise of John to leave early ), which all involve three semantic components: (i) an individual a ( John ), (ii) a property P 1 that describes a mental/behavioral propensity ( wise ), and (iii) a…
On the interpretation of toki-clauses
Iconicity, Implicature, and the Manner Interpretation of Coordination Structure
This paper discusses conditions under which a VP-coordination structure (‘Subj. VP1 and VP2’) may conversationally implicate a manner relation between the two described events, based on data from English and French. It will be pointed out that two factors affect the availability of the manner interpretation. First, the principle of iconicity dictates that, other things being equal, subordination structure is more suitable than coordination struct…
On the morphological status of -te, -ta, and related forms in Japanese
Boundary Tones or Prominent Particles? Variation in Japanese Focus-Marking Contours
How multiple past tenses divide the labor
It is a common perception that in languages having multiple past tenses with different remoteness specifications, the past tenses cover the entire past without a gap or overlap. This paper demonstrates that this way of looking at multiple-past tense systems is not appropriate for the system in South Baffin Inuktitut (a variety of the Inuit language). The dialect has at least four past tenses: recent, hodiernal, pre-hodiernal, and distant. We argu…
Anaphoric demonstratives and mutual knowledge
The nominative/accusative alternation in Japanese and information structure
When (not) to use the Japanese particle wa
In Japanese linguistics and elsewhere, the particle wa in its thematic use has been widely regarded as a paradigmatic instance of a ‘topic marker’. This work aims to demonstrate that, contrary to this received wisdom, most often thematic wa merely indicates the groundhood (the status as a nonfocus) rather than the topichood (the status as a topic) of the marked constituent, although it serves as a marker of contrastive topic in some configuration…
The nominative-to-accusative shift in Japanese
Some Japanese predicates allow their object to be marked either with the accusative particle o , the canonical marker of an object, or with the nominative particle ga , the canonical marker of a subject. This work reports and discusses the results of corpus-based surveys on the patterns and recent trends in nominative-marking on objects. It will be demonstrated: (i) that there has been an increase in the proportion of accusative-marking over nomi…
The semantics and sociopragmatics of the Japanese honorific titles san, kun, and chan
Semantic variation in exclusive quantifiers
What a nominal predicate may mean
A nominal predicate construction (NPC; e.g. “Cicero is {Tully/an orator}”) typically indicates the relation of identity or inclusion. NPCs, however, may receive marked interpretations as well, as in “I’m the ham sandwich” and “Their car is a peculiar color”; the former does not entail that the speaker is identical to the sandwich, and the latter does not entail that the car belongs to a set of colors. This article identifies, classifies, and anal…
Differential coding of the occurrence of negative eventualities and the nonoccurrence of eventualities in Japanese
In Japanese, the use of a negative preterite (past-perfective) clause (“...V- nakatta ”) is pragmatically constrained, and oftentimes a negative nonpast-nonperfective clause (“...V- te inai ”) is used where a preterite clause is expected. This work argues that the Japanese negative preterite invariably represents the occurrence of a “negative eventuality”—something whose existence and ontological nature have been extensively debated—rather than t…
Linguistics (14 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (13 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Mathematics (7 works) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (7 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (5 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · History (4 works)