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18 Use of -wa and -mo presupposes a contextual set We have seen that the speaker refers to a previously mentioned thing or person using the particle -wa, as shown below : Ichi-ji-goro dareka kimashita-yo. Sono hito-wa mata kuru-to iimashita. “Someone came around one. That person said that she will come again.” One can also use -wa to refer to a thing or person which is presumed to be part of the context. For example, if an absent-minded customer knocks on the locked door of a small shop on a holiday, the owner might come out and say the following: Sumimasen. Kyoo-wa yasumi-desu. “I am sorry. Today is a holiday.” In this case, the day is part of the shared context. Or, one can also use -wa to single out one member of a contextual set, implying that the statement does not hold for the other members. This is known as the contrastive use of the particle -wa: ( ) Getsuyoobi-wa yasumi-desu. (Sono hoka-wa yasumi-ja nai-desu.) “Monday is a day off. (The other days are not.)” Generally speaking, the use of -wa and -mo presupposes a contextual set of things or people. The difference is that -wa identifies the thing or person as the only member of a set which meets the description, while -mo identifies the thing or person as part of a larger set whose members all meet the description: Ichi-ji-goro dareka kimashita-yo. Sore-kara anata-no imooto-mo kimashita. “Someone came around one. And then, your sister also came.” Note that -mo may appear several times in a single sentence. In such cases, each mo-marked phrase meets the description separately: 38 Otooto-san-mo imooto-san-mo kimashita. “Your brother as well as your sister came.” set of people who came This sentence is actually the result of collapsing the following two sentences: Otooto-san-mo kimashita. Imooto-san-mo kimashita. “Your brother (also) came. Your sister also came.” The two individuals are subjects of two separate (though identical) events above. This is why, for example, the following sentence means that the individuals are married, but not to each other: Akira-mo Naomi-mo kekkon-shite imasu. “Both Akira and Naomi are married.” set of married people This is of course different from the following sentence, just as the English equivalents differ from each other: Akira-to Naomi-wa kekkon-shite imasu. “Akira and Naomi are married (either to each other or to different individuals).” Checking your comprehension: What is the meaning of the following sentence? Suzuki-san-mo Tanaka-san-mo Nakada-san-mo kekkon-shite-imasu. 39 For related topics, see also Units 16 and 17. ...

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