Ellipsis is a phenomenon whereby constituents which are normally obligatory in the grammar are omitted in actual discourse. It is found in all types of discourse, from everyday conversation to poetry. The omitted constituents can range from one word to an entire clause, and recovery of the ellipted item depends sometimes on the linguistic and sometimes on the non-linguistic context. From a practical point of view, the contribution of ellipsis in the context is twofold. First, it is one of several important means of achieving cohesion in a text. Secondly, ellipsis contributes to communicative appropriateness determined by the type of linguistic activity (e.g., narrative, casual conversation), the mode of communication (e.g., written / spoken) and the relationship between participants. The aim of this research is to provide a description of the functions of elliptical utterances – textual and interpersonal – in English and Japanese, based on a cross-linguistic analysis of dialogues in the English and Japanese map task corpora. In order to analyse ellipsis in relation to its two key functions, elliptical clauses in the map task dialogues were examined. I discuss how ellipsis is used to realise cohesion in the map task dialogues. The findings challenge the well-known claim that topics are established by full noun phrases, which are subsequently realised by pronouns (English) and null pronouns (Japanese). Rather, the results suggest that full noun phrases are used for topic continuity in both languages. Constituents which are ellipted in an utterance are identified and related to the moves types which the utterance realises within the exchange structure. The ellipted elements will be categorised according to the constituent types (Subject, Finite, Predicator, Complement and Adjunct), using the systemic functional approach. This analysis reveals that whereas in the English dialogues the most common types of ellipsis are that of Subject and Finite elements, in the Japanese dialogues the most common type is that of Subject. Types of ellipsis are also correlated with speech acts in the dialogues. The relation between types of ellipsis and particular speech acts associated with them is strikingly similar in the English and Japanese dialogues, despite the notable difference in grammar and pragmatics between the two languages. This analysis also shows how these types of ellipsis are associated with interpersonal effects in particular speech acts: ellipsis of Subject and Finite can contribute to a sharp contrast in the question and answer sequence, while Subject ellipsis in Japanese can contribute to modifying the command-like force in giving instructions. These effects can be summed up as epistemic and deontic modality respectively. Ultimately, it is argued that some types of ellipsis can serve as modality expressions. Additionally, in comparison to the way of realising the speech act of giving instructions in the English dialogues, it emerges that the Japanese speakers exploit ellipsis, which seems to be associated with lowering the degree of the speaker’s commitment to the proposition. As implications for pedagogical settings, I present pedagogical descriptions of ellipsis for Japanese learners of English and English learners of Japanese. Since the description is for specific learners, the approach which takes the difference in grammar and pragmatics between the two languages is made possible. Although descriptions state some detailed facts of ellipsis in English and Japanese, primarily highlighted is the importance of raising awareness of elliptical forms for particular functions in particular contexts. As ellipsis is a product of forms, functions and contexts, it is a most remarkable feature of spoken language. Spoken language is claimed by some researchers to show similar linguistic features among languages because of the restrictions inherent in the medium on communication. In the form of pedagogical description, I show the similarities and differences in ellipsis which derive from the grammar and pragmatics of each language, which are observed in the preceding linguistic research. Through the presentation of the findings which are modified for learners, learners will know how languages show convergence and divergence cross-linguistically.

This thesis takes a discursive/rhetorical approach to the topic of support for modern constitutional monarchy. It examines in detail some of the rhetorical devices used by modern Japanese speakers when they discuss monarchism. In so doing the thesis highlights both the discursive and social dilemmas involved in contemporary monarchism. In Britain, another constitutional monarchical state, critical psychologists have analysed what have been called 'dilemmas of lived ideology' (BiIIig et al., 1988). Billig (1992) analysed ordinary people's discourses about British monarchism. He points out that people employ dilemmatic themes as they justifY, mitigate and make sense of their own non-privileged positions under egalitarianism. I use Billig's work as a main reference, and apply his analytical frameworks (discursive psychology) for my investigation ofJapanese monarchism. Amongst several features ofJapanese conversation, I focus on its complicated naming and honorific systems. These systems almost always encode power structures amongst speaker-addressee, speaker-referent as well as addressee-referent relationships. Analysing people's mundane (family) conversations about the Emperor system, I have found contradictory rhetorical common-places, which are not always voiced explicitly, but are often formulated implicitly through these linguistic implications (i.e. naming, honorifics). Moreover, these codes have to be managed in their particular discursive contexts where the different systems of showing honour can conflict. By analysing news articles, in addition, I focus on a terminology which is employed exclusively to describe an Emperor's death. Lookingat the contexts in which terms are used (and not used), the process of construction ofthe social reality (i.e. monarchism under egalitarian social norm) is illustrated. Through my analysis, I believe, a new perspective for Japanese monarchism is introduced: people represent the institutional reality and accept the inequality simultaneously through mundane discursive interaction.

Le travail présenté dans cette thèse traite les séquences nominales en français écrit employées seules en dehors des énoncés verbaux, munies cependant d’une référence au monde. Dans le but d’apporter un nouvel éclairage sur de telles séquences nominales, traitées traditionnellement dans le cadre de la phrase, i.e. d’une relation prédicative entre deux termes, nous les appelons énoncés nominaux et adoptons la perspective de la grammaire japonaise qui n’est que partiellement influencée par la logique occidentale. Dans la théorie des Jutsu-tai/ Kan-tai (énoncés verbaux/ énoncés nominaux) de YAMADA Yoshio 山田孝雄 (1936), l’un des précurseurs de la grammaire japonaise, à laquelle nous recourons particulièrement, l’énonciation nominale s’explique, et ainsi s’oppose à l’énonciation verbale, par son mode d’embrayage particulier ; alors que la référence au monde des Jutsu-tai (énoncés verbaux) se définit au plan sémantico-syntaxique par la présence d’un verbe saturé et conjugué, les Kan-tai, les énoncés composés d’une séquence nominale qui n’a en soi aucune prédilection pour une fonction syntaxique spécifique, acquièrent leur énonçabilité en énonciation, par le mode même de l’énonciation. Ce mode, « Yobikake shij-suru yôtai (mode de désigner par appellation) » (YAMADA), que nous traduisons plutôt « désignation in situ », se caractérise par la mise en relation in situ entre l’énonciateur et l’entité désignée par la séquence nominale. Ce qui distingue l’énonciation nominale d’avec l’énonciation verbale qui n’est autre chose qu’une mise en relation prédicative entre deux termes du même niveau sémantico-syntaxique. / The purpose of this study is to investigate the noun phrases in written French outside of the context of verbal utterances, but nevertheless referring to the world. In order to illuminate such nominal phrases from a new angle, which have traditionally only been considered with respect to the sentence, i.e. to the predication between a subject and a predicate, this study calls them nominal utterances and adopts the perspective of Japanese grammar, which has not been influenced by the logic of Occidental grammar. In the definitions of Jutsu-tai and Kan-tai put forth by YAMADA Yoshio 山田孝雄 (1936), — verbal utterance and nominal utterance, respectively — a foundational text on Japanese grammar to which this study engages with, YAMADA defines nominal enunciations in contrast to verbal enunciations as a specific mode of anchoring. Whereas the reference to the world of Jutsu-tai (verbal utterances) is defined at the semantic-syntactic level by the presence of a conjugated verb with its arguments, (Kan-tai), utterances consisting of a noun phrase, which are not intended to assume a specific syntactic role per se, acquire the possibility of functioning as an utterance by the mode of enunciation itself. This mode, called « Yobikake shij-suru yôtai (mode of designation by naming) » (YAMADA), which this study translates as “designation in situ,” is characterised by establishing the relationship between the utterer and the referent of the noun phrase. This relationship distinguishes the nominal enunciation from the verbal enunciation by establishing the relationship between two arguments at semantic-syntactic level.

This thesis disserts on problem of translation of dative relations in Karel Čapek's "Tales from two pockets" into Japanese. Goal of the thesis is to identify and describe means of expression of dative in Japanese translation and figure out if there are any differences in interpretaion and expressing dative in Czech and Japanese and what they are. Using method of excerption of example sentences and comparation of original with translated version, I organised the example sentences into six categories according to linguistic means of expressing equivalent of Czech dative used in Japanese translation. In these six categories, there are included both grammatical and semanthic expressions and idioms and phrases. The result is the detection of the main difference in degree of necessity to express a dative subject explicitly. There is a strong tendency of Japanese to implicit expression of dativ subject by means of special expressions of personal orientation, semanthics of predicate or context.