The role of comparison in discourse


This study investigates the meaning and use of the Japanese utterance comparative expressions sore-yori-(mo) ‘than that’ and nani-yori-(mo) ‘than anything’ and considers the role of comparison in discourse. I argue that sore-yori and nani-yori can compare individuals at the semantic (at-issue) level, but they can also compare utterances (speech acts) at the non-at-issue level (= conventional implicature (CI)) (e.g., Grice 1975; Potts 2005; McCready 2010; Sawada 2010; Gutzmann 2011). The utterance comparative sore-yori conventionally implicates that U in sore-yori(U) is more important than the previous utterance, and the utterance comparative nani-yori conventionally implicates that U in nani-yori(U) is more important than any alternative utterance.
An interesting feature of the utterance comparatives sore-yori-(mo) and nani-yori-(mo) is that their pragmatic functions are quite flexible. As for sore-yori, in some contexts, it can function as a topic-changing expression, but in other contexts it does not. As for nani-yori, when it occurs discourse-initially, it functions like the expression first of all, but when it occurs discourse-finally, it functions as an additive reinforcing expression. I argue that the pragmatic effects of utterance comparative expressions arise based on the interaction between their scalar meanings and the general pragmatic principles of relevance/Question Under Discussion and manner (e.g., Grice 1975; Roberts 1996).
This study demonstrates that in addition to regular comparison and metalinguistic comparison, there is a third type of comparison: utterance comparison, and that the notion of comparison plays an important role in advancing the conversation economically/effectively. Finally, cross-linguistic variations in utterance comparison will also be discussed using English and Korean data.