Page 37 - Makino,Tsutusi.DictionaryOfIntermediateJGrammar

SPECIAL TOPICS IN INTERMEDIATE JAPANESE GRAMMAR
even so, we have no other place than ourselves in which we can
live. So, shall we value this irreplaceable self in this life that we
have but once?) (Isaku Yanaihara "On Self')
The speaker of both (2a) and (2b) is talking to a person in the rather formal
situation of a round-table discussion. This is a situation where a formal style
is required, but instead of using a formal style all the way, he has switched his
style from formal to informal style as indicated by the double underlines.
The writer of (2c) employs formal style all the way with intermittent infor-
mal style. In (2c) there are two double-underlined predicates in which formal-
ity switching has taken place. In both cases the writer expresses something
appendixed to what follows either in a coordinated or subordinated way. In
fact, in both cases, the sentences that are in -an informal style can turn into a
coordinate clause or a subordinate clause like (3a) and (3b), respectively.
Whatever is expressed in an appendix to the major clause is usually distanced
from the hearertreader, and therefore tends to be expressed usually in informal
style. Also to be noted here is the statistical tendency for formality switching
to occur when the sentence is a negative sentence.
(3) a. &3 & Z k.h.'M%2a)C2, m$4K&3 97:: kTCitSb10tbj9
T, 8&b, A&bi, $2 < k S,tkLQ3 L~+5C:%Cf$rr.;,f:Ab:k
-
9-cC2, b39 S,%L'?hb:R%f:$ Of?9f:C:B'd>bj !J 3*ho
Lf:%C2
b. L&L, ??&I; kb\.;,T, Za)A&, Za)[l3~~~C~;hf:
&b b%FrCi2b>a)7'?&b9 -B[IdC!J On&, &bf.h.'iia)tSbaBz
%kWC: Ldr j Ti26 9 3-t?&2ao
An extreme case of formality switching is instanced by the following
example.

(4) ~i'l$l2:h&b~>r'z-9~77a).ljlf$~~3-if, 3T, =I;/~'L-
9 F .;, 7a>k&$T-if.h.', (A bee stings the speaker's head) 6 , {$
CJ
b1/ *%b>T-f} !
(Today I am going to give a talk on computer chips. First of all,
regarding the structure of the chip, ouch!)

The speaker of (4) is giving a public talk in which he is required to use for-
mal speech. However, at the point when he is stung by a bee, he automatically
switches his style from formal to informal, because his expression is an excla-
mation which is a most straightforward expression of his physiological feeling.