I know that this kanji is associated with writing and text, and can mean "sentence." When using it to mean "sentence", is it only a written sentence? I can't find any examples that unambiguously demonstrate that it can be a spoken sentence as well.
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1Just being curious, what kind of examples do you think unambiguously demonstrate English "sentence" stands for a spoken sentence as well?– broccoli facemaskMay 22, 2015 at 22:31
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1"She always raises her voice at the end of a sentence, like she's asking a question." Pretty much any sentence that mentions someone saying a sentence, rather than writing/reading one.– duggulousMay 23, 2015 at 1:20
1 Answer
文 refers to a sentence, regardless of whether it's written or spoken. I find no significant discrepancy in usage between Japanese '文' and English 'sentence' here.
For example you can say something like 命令文のイントネーション (intonation of an imperative sentence), which unequivocally refers to a spoken sentence.