| Research Abstract |
The aim of this study is to investigate English and Japanese emphatic structures in discourse and elucidate functional and pragmatic principles governing the behavior of them, and to build a database of English and Japanese emphatic structures in discourse. Specific results of the researches are as follows :
1. After discussing inadequacies of previous literature on Japanese emphatic structures, specifically Japanese ga-clefts, I have demonstrated that foreground information and back-ground information which are stipulated in the framework of Relevance Theory, are closely related to the behavior of ga-clefts in discourse. The outcome of this study is published in Kato (1999)[International Journal of Pragmatics, vol.9].
2. I have extensively examined functions of ga-clefts in discourse in the framework of relevance Theory and proposed that ga-clefts are further classified into three subcategories : (a) anterior-foreground ga-clefts, (b) posterior-foreground ga-clefts, and (c) foreground ga-clefts. The results of this research are published in Kato (2000)[UCL Working Papers in Lin-guistics, vol.12], and Kato (2001)[Interface of Meaning and Form].
3. Accumulated data of ga-clefts and English clefts from Japanese and English newspapers and magazines are stored as a database of clefts constructions Japanese and English in a personal computer, which will be open to public through internet.
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