“I don't get it.” That's what a student of Japanese said one day after reading a Japanese essay. “So, what's the point?” Another agreed. Reading Japanese can be frustrating. Even after thoroughly learning most of the basic Japanese sentence structure, one may find it difficult to understand how sentences “make sense” when arranged in discourse. Difficulty in grasping the meaning of sustained Japanese writing – such as units of paragraphs, let alone a lengthy article – is not uncommon among intermediate and advanced students of Japanese.

In reality, to appreciate even the simplest Japanese phrase, one must have a sense of the bigger picture, the discourse framework, and must be able to understand how surrounding sentences and paragraphs hang together as they forward the writer's thoughts. We are aware that even the briefest communication act contains abundant psychological, social and cultural information, some of which cannot be decoded simply by examining the language. Still, much information is expressed through language. Language provides the mechanism not only to communicate meaning but also, and as importantly, to mark connection and, in fact, to signal the very organization of discourse. Larger structural units build discourse further so as to create a cohesive whole. In order to “get it,” one must understand how the interlocking strands of a text are tied together and where the critical information appears.

This book is written to provide students of Japanese a useful introduction to the principles of Japanese discourse. It is designed to illustrate how discourse comes together and how such organizational structure is signaled by using an array of strategies.