Sawada, Osamu - Professor of Linguistics

HP

http://www.lit.kobe-u.ac.jp/~sawadao/index.html

e-mail

sawadao(at)lit.kobe-u.ac.jp

Research interests

1. Semantics, Pragmatics, Syntax, Philosophy of Language, Cross-linguistic semantics
2. Scalar semantics/pragmatics, context-dependency, polarity sensitivity, expressives, modality, attitude, implicatures, discourse structure, semantics-pragmatics interface

Selected publications

1. [Books]
• Pragmatic Aspects of Scalar Modifiers: The Semantics-Pragmatics Interface (Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics). Oxford University Press. (2018)

1. [Edited volumes]
• Polarity-Sensitive Expressions: Comparisons Between Japanese and Other Languages. Hideki Kishimoto, Osamu Sawada and Ikumi Imani (eds.). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. (2023)
• 『極性表現の構造・意味・機能』 (Polarity-Sensitive Expressions: Their Forms, Meanings and Functions), Osamu Sawada, Hideki Kishimoto, Ikumi Imani (eds.). Tokyo: Kaitakusha. (2019)

1. [Articles, book chapters, proceedings]
• “Scalarity of the Japanese initial mora-based minimizer: A compositional (lexically unspecified) minimizer and a non-compositional (lexically specified) minimizer.” Natural Language Semantics 31: 71-120. (2023)
• “The role of comparison in discourse: The meaning and use of the Japanese utterance comparative expressions sore-yori-(mo) ‘than that’ and nani-yori-(mo) ‘than anything’.” Language and Linguistics 24(1): 36-73. (2023)
• “The scalar contrastive wa in Japanese.” In Gabriela Bîlbîie, Berthold Crysmann & Gerhard Schaden (eds.), Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics 14, 239-271. (2022)
• “The Japanese reactive attitudinal nani-mo: A new class of negative polarity items.” Gengo Kenkyu 160: 43-68. (2021)
• “Cross-linguistic variations in the interpretation of tense in mirative sentences: A view from Japanese mirative expressions nante/towa.” (with Jun Sawada). In Andreas Trotzke and Xavier Villalba (eds.), Expressive Meaning Across Linguistic Levels and Frameworks, 216-247. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (2021)
• “Interpretations of the embedded expressive motto in Japanese: Varieties of meaning and projectivity.” In Daniel Gutzmann and Katharina Turgay (eds.), Secondary Content: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Side Issues (Current Research in the Semantics Pragmatics-Interface (CRiSPI)), 341–375. Leiden: Brill. (2019)
• ”Scalarity and alternatives of Japanese mora (letter)-based minimizers.” Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America Vol.4 (21): 1-15. (2019)
• ”Scale structures in discourse: Discourse-pragmatic properties of Japanese comparative expressions.” Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America Vol.3 (7), 1-15. (2018)
• “The projection of non-at-issue meaning via modal support: The meaning and use of the Japanese counter-expectational adverbs.” In Mihoko Otake, Setsuya Kurahashi, Yuiko Ota, Ken Satoh, Daisuke Bekki (eds.), New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence (Lecture Notes in Computer Science), vol 10091, 122-137. (2017)
• “On the property of mirativity in the Japanese modal demonstrative ano. With Jun Sawada.” In Kenshi Funakoshi, Shigeto Kawahara, and Christopher D. Tancredi (eds.), Japanese/Korean Linguistics 24, 141-155. Stanford: CSLI Publications. (2017)
• “An utterance situation-based comparison.” Linguistics and Philosophy 37: 205-248. (2014)
• “The comparative morpheme in Modern Japanese: Looking at the core from ‘outside’.” Journal of East Asian Linguistics 22: 217-260. (2013)
• “Scale structure, coercion, and the interpretation of measure phrases in Japanese.” With Thomas Grano. Natural Language Semantics 19: 191-226. (2011)
• “Pragmatic aspects of implicit comparison: An economy-based approach.” Journal of Pragmatics 41: 1079-1103. (2009)