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The particle が has a property that implies that, of all items from some group,
the sentences applies exclusively to the noun before it. For example, in a
room of people from different countries, saying 「私がアメリカ人です」 would imply that
you are the _only_ American in the room.

However, it is also possible to use a more neutral が without this meaning. For
example, 「雨が降る」 is neutral and isn't comparing the rain to anything.

So how do you know when the particle が carries this exclusive-definition and
when it doesn't?
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2015-05-14T23:21:51.590
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2015-05-15T19:16:20.257
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question
particle-が
Neutral vs. Exhaustive が
**Warning... this answer presents things differently from the more complex and
accurate model, which can be found
here:[http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~heycock/papers/topic-
draft.pdf](http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/%7Eheycock/papers/topic-draft.pdf)**

I can't think of how to summarize the model in that paper to fit in an answer,
so instead I'm going to present a different model (mostly from my intuition,
so do take it with a grain of salt) which works for a more limited number of
sentences, but I think lines up result-wise with the model in that paper.

* * *

Taking a basic `XがY` clause...

The determiners of the semantics of が are:

  1. whether `Y` is **temporary** or **permanent** ,*
  2. whether `X` is **new** or **old** information,
  3. whether the clause is embedded or not

* * *

# Temporary Predicates

When you have a temporary predicate, the neutral reading of が becomes
possible.

> 雨が降っている。  
>  "Rain is falling."
>
> 天気が寒い。  
>  "The weather is cold."
>
> 牛が草を食べている。  
>  "A cow is eating grass."

(Note: all of these can be made exhaustive by placing stress on the が-marked
argument.)

However, if the が-marked argument is already in discourse, then you would mark
it by は.

> 「雨はどう？」「雨はまだ降っている。」 (You could, and normally would just drop 雨は entirely,
> but it's okay to have it, and necessary if you say some other stuff before
> answering the question. Using 雨が would sound weird, as if you aren't
> responding to the question but just making a statement.)
>
> 「今日の天気は寒いねー。」 (Using が would be exhaustive here)
>
> 「あの牛は草を食べている。」 (Using が would be exhaustive here)

There are some things which are in discourse by construction, such as 私, or
things marked by その, あの, 今日の etc. -- so if they are accompanied by が the only
way to read them is as exhaustive reading despite the possibility introduced
by a temporary predicate.

* * *

# Permanent Predicates

When you have a permanent predicate, it is necessarily the exhaustive reading
of 「が」:

> 太郎が背が高い。
>
> アメリカに生まれた人がアメリカ人だ。
>
> 牛が草を食べる。

So you instead mark these things with は to get a neutral reading.

* * *

# Subordinate Clauses

What I've said so far holds true at the top level of the sentence. However, in
(most) subordinate clauses, the only reading available for は is the
contrasitive reading, so instead things fall back to が (regardless of
temporary/permanent or old/new distinctions):

> 太郎は私が好きな本を捨てた。

[*] These are called "stage-level predicate" and "individual-level predicate"
in the literature.
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