THEME-RHEME IN THE JAPANESE COMPLEX SENTENCE

An English speaker who produces a complex sentence can make the subord inate clause (Sub) the theme (R) of the utterance by means of at least three different methods. With a cleft sentence (1), he will not only move the thematic intonation to the Sub but will also obtain a narrow focus and/or a contrastive meaning: It is to FORGET, that I drink. The same effect is produced if the main intonational prominence is moved to a marked position within a preposed Sub: To FORGET, I drink. But th ere is a less marked way to obtain a thematic Sub. It consists of simp ly postposing it (3) to the main clause (Main), so that it carries by default a noncontrastive R: I drink to forget. Japanese has syntactic devices similar to (1) and (2) but cannot postpose the Sub to the Main . The present article shows that the very extensively used no da/no de su/no de aru construction has among its functions that of making the S ub in a complex sentence rhematic and not contrastive, similarly to En glish method (3).