The Japanese markers tte and nante. A qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Compared to other Japanese adverbial particles, the literature concerning the use of tte and nante (along with its almost-synonym nanka) is scarce. In previous studies it has been maintained that the core function of tte is that of quotation, while for nante it is either that of negative attitude signaling or inappropriateness. This study aims to determine what are in fact the core functions of the aforementioned particles. Moreover, it investigates more generally what are the syntactic and semantic functions and nuances of the particles along with the number of times each occurs in the first season of a TV show used as an exemplary corpus. To quantitatively verify the occurrences of these particles, the first season of the TV show “Good Morning Call” has been selected and all of the occurrences of tte and nante (along with nanka) have been annotated. Despite the fact that the results have confirmed that tte is mostly employed as a quotation marker and nante as a marker of negative attitude, it has been argued that the use of nante derives prototypically from unexpectedness rather than inappropriateness or negative attitude signaling itself. On this basis, a diagram has been provided to visually illustrate the semantic nuances of nante according to the scheme that is ultimately being proposed in this study.