Page 279 - Makino,Tsutusi.DictionaryOfIntermediateJGrammar

-nai koto mo/wa nai 205
question. So, the phrase cannot be used as a discourse-initial sentence.
In other words, one cannot start conversation with this phrase. So, for
example, in a drinking party situation one cannot utter (1) out of the
blue.

Someone must say something like (2) right before (1).
(2) BCi@k3t:b1?iLe&!13-@/v;3'o
(I heard that you don't drink sake.)
4. The difference between -nai koto mo nai and -nai koto wa nai is that the
former is weaker in assertion than the latter. In KS, yomanai koto wa nai
asserts "I do read it" much more strongly than yomanai koto mo nai.
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e elated ~x~ression] =
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i
sNp
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_3
The predicate phrase -nai koto mo nai and koto wa share the same charac-
teristics of not giving an unconditional statement. But the former is used in
response to a negative question, whereas the latter is used in response to an
affirmative question. Compare [lA] and [2A] with KS(A) and Ex.(a),
respectively.
111 A: EI +mmimima;r a -wO
(Do you read Japanese newspapers?)

[2] A: Z o)ZCSZ% L~/\/uT.fd.~
(Is it cool around here during the summer?)
B: ?iTT;ta, IZLL\ZtldZLL\Tt /*SL< &t\ZtS&
L\ATbl $, @hvr<g<t:!la-$,
(It is cool, but sometimes it gets terribly hot.)
(+ koto wa (DBJG: 206-08))