35 "Wa" is a topic marker The < Information structure > of sentences in Japanese Let's compare (2) and (3) to make this clear. (2)Tanakasan wa ocha o nomimashita. (Tanaka drank tea.)(3)Ocha wa Tanakasan ga nomimashita. (Tanaka drank tea.)The difference between the above two sentences is that (2) is talking about "Tanakasan" and (3) is talking about "ocha". In another words, (2) is answering the question "What did Tanaka drink?" (or "What did Tanaka do?") and (3) "Who drank tea?". Neither sentence does not necessarily need a question, but the main interest is "Tanakasan" in (2), and "ocha" in (3). In cases such as (2), sometimes "Tanakasan" and "Suzukisan" might be contrasted, and in (3) "tea" and "coffee" might be contrasted, but whether it is a contrast or not, the essential difference between (2) and (3) is the topic. The topic in (2) is "tanakasan", and "tea" in (3).The expression "X wa..." indicates that X is the topic, so the speaker is talking about or making questions about X, and this is the function of "wa". You can let the listener know that you are talking about X by saying "X wa...", and this function is called the topic marker in the field of linguistics. There are languages that have a topic marker and those that do not. Some of you may want to know what is the difference between the topic and the subject. "Tanakasan" is both a subject and a topic in (2). On the other hand, "ocha" is the topic but not the subject in (3). It is an object, isn't it? Topic and subject could be either the same or different. Even if it is the same, the idea is different. As a matter of fact, it is often the case that the same word is used as a subject and also as a topic in any language, but you can find the individual characteristics of each language in the cases where the subject and topic are different. Some languages put weight on the subject but others on the topic, when constructing a sentence. For example, English is a language that puts the subject at the beginning of a sentence normally. On the other hand, Japanese puts more weight on the topic. It first presents the topic, and then talks about it. This is the < information structure > of the Japanese language. This is why "ocha" is placed at the beginning of the sentence when one talks about "ocha" even though it is an object. Further. one uses "wa" to indicate that it is the topic, and constructs the sentence as in (3). In such a language, the role of the topic marker is important. "Wa" is a topic marker that is very much related to the Japanese sentence structure or < information structure >.
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