Page 422 - Makino,Tsutusi.DictionaryOfIntermediateJGrammar

348 reino
Thus, rei no has the "force" to make the hearer recall the referent of the
following noun phrase.
3. If there is strong situational and 1 or contextual support to indicate the
referent of the following noun phrase, rei no can be omitted, as in (1)
and (2). (See Related Expression.)
(1) L$- b d;lr&%Z Lfii51.
(Have you finished the report?)
(2) 2 F-fl&%b L?:Lo
(The copy is ready.)

However, if rei no in KS(B) is omitted, for example, ch0karyBri-ya does
not refer to a definite Chinese restaurant, as in (3).

(3) ++az+&d2 b 7: FHtBEf?? 5 7?o
(I heard that this year's year-end party is going to be at a Chi-
nese restaurant again.)

e elated Expression]
The topic marker wa marks known information. Thus, wa and rei no have
some commonality. As a matter of fact, both X wa and rei no X are used
when X is definite and known to the hearer. However, wa alone does not
have the force that rei no has, a force to make the hearer recall the referent
of X. Therefore, [I] might be too abrupt in some situations where KS(A) is
perfectly acceptable.

[I] ;P~Yr9bI;fF5~9ZLl:&,
(What happened to the project?)
Note also that the referent of X wa can be generic while that of rei no X is
always definite. Compare [2a] and [2b].
[21 a. $i2$41:&3,
(Books are useful.)
b. @Jol$ik%%:230
(The book (you mentioned) is useful.)

In addition, X wa is a topic phrase, while rei no X is a simple noun phrase