Expressivity in Japanese

Abstract This chapter investigates various kinds of expressives in Japanese and examines how the characteristics of expressivity are realized in the language. Specifically, this study focuses on phenomena such as expressive modifiers, expressive vocatives, expressive intensification, (im)politeness, diminutives, mirativity, sentence-final particles, and expressive adverbs in Japanese, and examines how the meaning of expressivity is encoded in grammar, how it is interpreted, and how it interacts with context. To achieve this, this chapter compares Japanese with other languages and discusses several cross-linguistic variations as well as examining systematic variation within the language. This chapter will focus primarily on the descriptive aspects of Japanese expressives, but will also briefly discuss theoretical analyses and approaches, with reference to previous literature. Future issues will also be touched upon.