Decisions, Dynamics, and the Japanese Particle yo – Christopher Davis (2009)
Uses dynamic semantics to describe the behavior Japanese sentence final particle yo used with assertions, imperatives and questions. Argues that yo adds a presupposition that the post update context is one in which the addressee’s decision problem is solved. A separate tone morpheme which can be either falling or rising determines if the update contributed by the sentence content is meant to be monotonic or non-monotonic. Accounts for the use of falling town when the imperative is contrary to the addressee’s public intentions or if the assertion is contrary to the addressee’s public beliefs. Overall an interesting account that ties together dynamic semantics with contextual decision problems. The solution to questions leaves much to be desired. The questions are not normal in that they are either rhetorical or non-‘ka’ marked. They also do not have the same pattern of intonation as the assertions and the imperatives. More motivation is needed for the semantics given for falling and rising tone.