Outlook markers (as abstract discourse markers): An analysis of nanka in Japanese

Abstract

We propose a formal model for dealing with what we call outlook markers, a subtype of discourse markers that govern discourse management pertaining to negotiations about ‘agreeable outlooks’ (on possibly subjective matters). For this purpose, we take up the semantic analysis of an ‘emphatic’ discourse marker nanka in Japanese. We argue that nanka is essentially a counterstance marker in that it imposes a constraint on the prior discourse that a contextually salient ‘counterstance’ is at issue, and that the speaker’s own stance embodied in the prejacent is incongruent with this counterstance as a subjective judgment.

The model we develop combines Coppock’s (2018) outlook-based semantics for the treatment of subjectivity and Farkas & Bruce’s (2010) Table model for discourse management. We demonstrate that this unified model illuminates the way in which the notoriously elusive evaluative implication of nanka arises from the very nature of this particle as an abstract, meta-level discourse marker: it explicitly identifies the discourse conflict as a conflict of in principle irreconcilable opinions (which could threaten the whole point of ‘agreeable outlook’ management).