From what I understand, there are two types of は-particle:

  1. The thematic-は (topic-marker) which is used to introduce things into the universe of discourse.

  2. The contrastive-は.

[jkerian](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/29/jkerian) states that:

> There can be only one thematic は in a sentence. If you see a second one, the
> second is certainly contrastive, and the first might be.
> ([source](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/51/264))

But [Derek](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/94/derek-schaab) states
that:

> The [non-first] は **often** adds a hint of comparison or contrast.
> ([source](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/1130/264))

These two sentences are contradictory.

Assuming that jkerian is right, that there is only one thematic は in a
sentence, so the non-first は will **always** add a hint of comparison /
contrast, which contradicts what Derek said.

Assuming that Derek is right, that it is possible for the non-first は not to
add any hints of contrast / comparison, then it suggests that we can now have
more than one thematic は in a sentence, which contradicts what jkerian said.

Who is right? Is it _possible_ to have two は-particles in a sentence, both of
them **not** having any comparative / contrastive hints?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2012-04-30T02:50:34.563
5375
2022-07-25T22:41:43.447
2022-07-25T22:41:43.447
30454
264
question
grammar particles particle-は
Can we have two thematic は particles in a sentence?
Yes, but only in some cases.

Consider the following.

実{じつ}は、私{わたし}は行{い}きません

This is perfectly correct and a common pattern. The reason being is that some
phrases set to always have a は in them.

In the case of something like the following

彼女{かのじょ}は行きませんが、私は行きます

The second は is allowed because they only apply to one of the sentence
fragments.

Now there are some cases that you might hear a second は that are technically
incorrect, but are still fairly common. Such as

１９日から月末{げつまつ}にかけては、私は行きません

The reason for this being common would seem to be that people haven't thought
about the end of the sentence until they have already said the start of it.

When it comes とは には etc, these can be considered technically different from は,
that is to say they can't be broken down into something else + は thus they can
be used in sentence with another は however their use is normally limited to
cases when は is not used in the sentence.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-30T03:52:44.657
5376
2012-04-30T03:52:44.657
1129
5375
answer
When we say "contrastive", it is ambiguous.

Sometimes there are two は in a sentence that are being contrasted with each
other, such as in これ＜は＞僕ので＜は＞ありませｎ. But sometimes the extra, non-topical は is
being contrasted with some other instances of something similar in its
category, not the other は. Like this particular thing, and not others.

According to Masahiro Tanimori ( _Handbook of Japanese Grammar_ ):

> _Wa_ cannot be used in a relative clause, and is rarely used in other
> subordinate clauses (conditional/concessive clauses) when it has been
> already used to introduce a word as the topic of the whole sentence or the
> main clause.

That is not talking about the situation in which two words are contrasted.

Let me make up some examples:

Two は:

十月には、私は日本に帰るつもりです。 In October, I intend to return to Japan. (The topic is
October. In that month, I intend to return to Japan.)

What happens if we replace the second with が:

十月には、私が日本に帰るつもりです。 In October, _I_ intend to return to Japan. (The topic is
October. In that month, I'm the one who intends to return to Japan.)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-30T03:53:10.867
5377
2012-04-30T04:33:15.920
2012-04-30T04:33:15.920
1266
1266
5375
answer
That's a little bit hard question, because any language is so big that very
often we can find extremely rare, but still possible exception.

Generally, I would say in a phrase only one は can be thematic. The idea of the
topic is to disambiguate. Any sentence has content which we want to say and
some area to which it belongs. For example, if we provide only content like
"will go to a shop", then such sentence doesn't make any sense, because we
don't know about who we are talking here. Such sentence is possible with
context as:

> - And what you will do?
>
> - Go to a shop.

It's not very common in English, but still understandable. We have context-
topic "you/I" and action "go to a shop". It's very hard to think about any
situation when we would need to use double layer disambiguation and the
closest version is probably a very standard sentence like:

> 像は鼻が長い (elephants have long trunks)
>
> 像の鼻 は・が 長い (Elephants's trunks are long)

These sentences have different nuances due to different topics, but it's easy
to see when we need to talk about some part of a whole, we can use の and
string as far as we want. We can bring some general topic and narrow down to
something much more specific within a single は. At the same time such
disambiguation function gives another usage. If we intentionally emphasize
there are several candidates and our sentence is true for one of these, people
can assume it's false for others and thus we get contrastive implication. it's
similar to a situation like this:

> - What about the Smiths?
>
> - John will come (which implies others members of the family probably won't
> do so).

With the only difference here we used context to make plural candidates, but
in Japanese it's done simply by using は. It's the main function of は to
restrict and If we use は, we automatically mean it could be applied to
something else. Thus you can see so called contrastive function is rather an
intention of speaker to emphasize on a choice and there are many ways to make
that. In can be a flow of conversation when we start to bring similar topics,
or it can be intentional usage of は in unusual places. We can make double
particles like には and it's a place where there is no need for は in a neutral
sentence, we can replace other particles like をー＞は as in ケーキは食べる (I will eat
the cake), which implies person probably won't eat something else, or in some
rare cases we can even put は in relative clause to make contrast.

At the same time there are many words like 実は (truth, reality) or situations
like negation ではない, which technically require は particle. Everything we say
can be either truth or lie. And while it's rather contrastive, many people use
that as a filler word similar to "honestly speaking". Without intention to
emphasize, that doesn't bring significant counter implication. It's also a
little bit hard to categorize, because the only difference between two is that
thematic-は is an old information. Any sentence has new information (something
we want to say) and old information (something about what we say). Thus there
is only one thematic-は and all other forms like 実は bring something new. But
that's a little bit arguable and depending on how we try to explain what は
does, that can be either another thematic-は, contrastive-は or maybe an
exception. We mix here old/new information, disambiguation and implication.
All 3 are slightly different concepts.

In my opinion both statements are rather true, because there is a huge gap
between technically contrastive words/forms, and intentional implication done
by speakers. But picking more precise definition would be something like
"There is only one thematic-は, which can be contrastive or not depending on
context, and any other は is contrastive by default with a different amount of
implication".
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-05T12:10:50.820
86488
2021-05-05T12:21:24.820
2021-05-05T12:21:24.820
41989
41989
5375
answer
I see a challenge with trying to discuss Japanese grammar in English; if the
following statement is true

There can be only one thematic は in a sentence.

...really depends on what the definition of "a sentence" is. In the English
idea of sentence it may be right, in that sentence refers to some form of
subject-verb pair. If a sentence here is Japanese idea of anything and
everything between まる「。」then that's a different story. As others pointed out,
I can throw as many は as I care and still sound legit.これ **は** これ、それ **は**
それという見方 **は** その場合に **は** 正しいと言えなくもないと言ったの **は** そもそもお前だろう。
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-07T11:49:43.023
86515
2021-05-08T22:19:57.747
2021-05-08T22:19:57.747
14444
14444
5375
answer