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Climactic Effect Markers In Spoken And Written Narrative: Japanese Conditionals Tara And To, Suwako Watanabe

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper compares two Japanese conditional constructions — tara and to — used as nonconditionals for narrative effect in spoken and written narratives collected from five native speakers of Japanese. These two constructions connect clauses where two unrelated past events happened in sequence as in: Miru to/Mitara, ame datta ‘When I looked, it was raining’. Examination of the spoken and written narratives revealed that tara is predominantly used in the spoken narratives while to is favored in the written narratives. Although both constructions are similar in the unexpected effect, the reason why the teller uses them differently can be attributed …