The versatile coordinator - <i>ya</i> in Japanese: at the semantics–pragmatics interface

Abstract The Japanese coordinator - ya is noteworthy for its interpretive versatility, allowing not only conjunctive and disjunctive interpretations but also what this paper terms ‘partial’ interpretations. Although partial interpretations have been described previously, their distinctive properties, particularly their differentiation from disjunctions, have not been fully elucidated. Another issue in the literature is that, whilst the structural and interpretive aspects of - ya have been formally modelled, it remains unclear what - ya semantically encodes and how this encoded meaning constrains the pragmatic inferences that lead to specific interpretations. This paper addresses these issues within Relevance Theory. First, it identifies the distinctive properties of partial interpretations, which distinguish them from both inclusive and exclusive disjunctions, through the analysis of naturally occurring data. Second, it proposes a generalisation that predicts the distribution of conjunctive, disjunctive, and partial interpretations, as well as non-exhaustive implications. Finally, it develops a unified account at the semantics–pragmatics interface, reconceptualising the generalisation in terms of procedural meaning and demonstrating that this procedure provides a single semantic basis for the pragmatic inferences that yield conjunctive, disjunctive, and partial interpretations in diverse contexts. One broader implication of the present research is its contribution to the cross-linguistic study of coordination.