Information Structure and Bare Nominals in Colloquial Japanese

In formal Japanese, an argument nominal must be accompanied by a particle (ga, wa, etc.). In colloquial Japanese, on the other hand, an argument nominal may be bare, or ZERO-marked. While in many cases ZERO may alternate with (i) nominative-marking ga or accusative marking o, or (ii) the information-structural particle wa, under certain configurations ZERO is preferred to ga/o or wa, and vice versa. This work discusses information-structural conditions licensing and motivating wa- and ZERO-marking on argument nominals in colloquial Japanese. Additionally, it makes a proposal as to how wa-marking on adjuncts is regulated in both colloquial and formal registers.