Japanese Linguistics: 日本語学

303 Pages·2019·19.348 MB·The Japanese Language

by  Mark Irwin, Matthew Zisk

Japanese Linguistics

First published in Japan in 2019
by Asakura Publishing Company, Ltd.
6-29, Shin’ogawa-machi, Shinjuku-ku,
Tokyo 162-8707, Japan
Copyright © 2019 by Mark Irwin and Matthew Zisk
ISBN 978-4-254-51681-4
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission.
Table of Contents　　v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables and Figures viii
List of Abbreviations xi
Glossing Labels xiii
Preface xiv
Chapter 1　Introduction 1
1.1 Origins and Affiliation　　1
1.2 Typology　　4
1.3 A Brief History of Japanese　　7
1.4 The Modern Language　　10
Chapter 2　Phonology and Phonetics 13
2.1 Fundamentals of Japanese Phonology　　13
2.2 Consonants　　15
2.3 Vowels　　17
2.4 Mora and Syllable　　19
2.5 Phonotactics　　20
2.6 Pitch Accent　　23
2.7 Pitch Accent in Compounds　　25
2.8 Phonological Play　　27
2.9 Phonology through Time　　29
Chapter 3　Grammar and Syntax 33
3.1 Parts of Speech and Word Order　　33
3.2 Nouns, Pronouns and Formal Nouns　　38
3.3 Verbs: Morphophonology　　42
3.4 Verbs: Transitivity, Volition and Aspect　　45
3.5 Adjectives, Adverbs and Adnouns　　50
3.6 Predication and Copulas　　53
3.7 Verbal Suffixes I: Final Suffixes　　56
3.8 Verbal Suffixes II: Non-final Suffixes　　65
3.9 Auxiliaries　　69
vi　　Table of Contents
3.10 Verbs of Giving and Receiving and Benefactive Auxiliaries　　73
3.11 Conjunctions　　77
3.12 Particles　　79
3.13 Derivational Particles　　88
3.14 The Notion of Topic and wa versus ga　　91
3.15 Grammar through Time　　94
Chapter 4　Orthography and Writing 99
4.1 Writing Systems　　99
4.2 Chinese Characters: Origins　　101
4.3 Chinese Characters: Writing　　103
4.4 Chinese Characters: Reading　　106
4.5 Chinese Characters: Kokuji　　109
4.6 Hiragana and Katakana　　111
4.7 The Roman Alphabet　　115
4.8 Chinese and Arabic Numerals　　117
4.9 Punctuation　　119
4.10 Script Mixing　　121
4.11 Braille　　123
4.12 Orthographic Licence and Orthographic Play　　126
4.13 Writing Styles　　129
4.14 Public Signage　　131
Chapter 5　Lexicon and Word Formation 134
5.1 Vocabulary Strata　　134
5.2 Mimetics　　136
5.3 Derivation and Affixation　　138
5.4 Compounding　　140
5.5 Rendaku　　142
5.6 Truncation　　145
5.7 Personal Pronouns　　147
5.8 Numerals and Classifiers　　150
5.9 Homonymy, Polysemy and Heteronomy　　153
5.10 Slang and Jargon　　155
5.11 Discriminatory Vocabulary　　157
Chapter 6　Language and Society 159
6.1 Gender, Age and Social Class　　159
6.2 Register and Role Language　　162
6.3 Honorifics　　165
6.4 Anti-Honorifics　　169
6.5 Language in Subculture　　172
Table of Contents　　vii
6.6 Greetings and Partings　　175
6.7 Non-Verbal Communication　　177
6.8 Attitudes to Language　　179
6.9 Names　　181
Chapter 7　Language Contact and Dialects 185
7.1 Sino-Japanese　　185
7.2 Foreign Borrowings　　188
7.3 English Borrowings　　190
7.4 Japanese Pidgins and Creoles　　192
7.5 Language Murder　　195
7.6 Japanese Words in Foreign Languages　　197
7.7 Japanese Dialects and Dialect Divisions　　199
7.8 Dialect Diffusion　　201
7.9 Eastern and Western Dialects　　205
7.10 Tōhoku Dialects　　207
7.11 Kyūshū Dialects　　211
Chapter 8　Education, Research and Policy 216
8.1 Government Language Policy　　216
8.2 Kanji and Kana Reform　　218
8.3 Loanword Reform　　220
8.4 Loanword Prohibition　　222
8.5 The Kokugo Curriculum　　224
8.6 Prescriptive Grammar in Education　　227
8.7 Classical Japanese and Kanbun Education　　231
8.8 Japanese as a Second Language Education　　233
8.9 Language Tests and Examinations　　235
8.10 Dictionaries and Lexicography　　237
8.11 Language Software　　241
8.12 Japanese Research on the Japanese Language　　243
8.13 Non-Japanese Research on the Japanese Language　　246
Further Reading 249
Bibliography 258
List of URLs 271
English-Japanese Glossary 272
Index 280
viii　　List of Tables and Figures
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Fig. 1.1 Genealogical tree of Japonic languages
Table 1.1 Possible numeral cognates between Japanese and Goguryeo
Fig. 1.3 The linguistic periodization of Japanese
Table 2.2 The Japanese consonant phonemes
Fig. 2.3 The Japanese vowel phonemes
Table 2.4 Examples of Japanese syllables
Table 2.5.1 Possible moras
Table 2.5.2 Phonotactics by vocabulary stratum
Table 2.7 Major compound accent types
Fig. 2.8 A pentagonal iyokan
Table 2.8 Number mnemonics
Table 2.9.1 Old and Middle Japanese consonant phonemes
Table 2.9.2 Semi-vowel sound changes
Fig. 3.1 Major and minor parts of speech
Table 3.2.1 Commonly used kosoado demonstratives and interrogatives
Table 3.2.2 Commonly used formal nouns
Table 3.3 Verb classes
Table 3.4 Intransitive-transitive verb pairs
Fig. 3.7 Japanese verbal suffix string structure
Table 3.7.1 Commonly used final suffixes across verbs, adjectives and copulas
Table 3.7.2 Onbin forms of consonant-stem verbs
Table 3.8 Non-final verbal suffixes
Table 3.9 Commonly used auxiliaries
Fig. 3.10 Core verbs of giving and recieving
Table 3.10 Verbs of giving and receiving/benefactive auxiliaries
Table 3.11 Commonly used conjunctions
Table 3.12.1 Commonly used syntactic particles
Table 3.12.2 Commonly used thematic particles
Table 3.12.3 Commonly used restrictive particles
Table 3.12.4 Commonly used discourse particles
Table 3.13.1 Syntactic properties of case marker and derivational no
Table 3.13.2 Commonly used derivational particles
Table 3.15.1 Old and Middle Japanese verb suffix groups
Table 3.15.2 Old and Middle Japanese verb classes
Table 3.15.3 Some examples of archaisms in fossilized expressions
Table 4.1 Conventional script domains
List of Tables and Figures　　ix
Fig. 4.2 The character 樂 yuè, lè ‘music, fun’ across seven scripts
Fig. 4.3.1 A fresh bottle of Tetsu saké
Fig. 4.3.2 Script styles used in personal seals
Fig. 4.3.3 Some of the many variants of 邊 in Konjaku mojikyō
Table 4.4 The multi-strata system of on-yomi
Fig. 4.4 Chinese manuscript with Japanese glosses
Table 4.6 Hiragana and katakana with their respective kanji etyma
Table 4.7 Major differences between romanizations
Fig. 4.7.1 Ministry of Construction road sign
Fig. 4.7.2 Elementary school romanization chart
Fig. 4.8 Japanese postcard with both Chinese and Arabic numerals
Fig. 4.10 Extract from the Penal Code of Japan prior to its 1995 revision
Fig. 4.11 Braille on a Washlet control panel
Table 4.11 Japanese braille cells
Fig. 4.12 Henohenomoheji
Table 4.13 Copulas across media in BCCWJ
Fig. 4.14.1 Global standard Japanese electronic toilet icons for ‘bidet’ and ‘rear’
Fig. 4.14.2 Road sign icons in Japan
Fig. 4.14.3 Multilingual sign at railway station
Fig. 4.14.4 Amusing mistranslation
Fig. 4.14.5 Multilingual emergency exit sign
Fig. 5.1.1 Japanese vocabulary strata through time
Table 5.1 Hybrid compounds
Fig. 5.1.2 Vocabulary strata proportions in two magazine surveys
Table 5.2 Sound symbolism
Table 5.3 Major derivational affixes by vocabulary stratum
Table 5.6 Truncation types
Table 5.7 Personal pronouns
Table 5.9 Homonyms, polysemes and heteronyms
Table 6.1 Examples of gender differences
Table 6.2 Register in conversation
Fig. 6.2.1 Ramu-chan’s use of the made-up particle Qča
Fig. 6.2.2 Funasshi’s use of the made-up particle naQšii
Table 6.4 Verbs with separate honorific and anti-honorific counterparts
Fig. 6.5 Katakana in graphics pattern table of Dragon Quest
Table 6.6 Japanese greetings
Fig. 6.7.1 ‘Female lover’ gesture
Fig. 6.7.2 ‘Come here’ gesture
Fig. 6.7.3 Apology gesture
Fig. 6.7.4 Tegatana gesture
Fig. 6.8 A dialect tag
x　　List of Tables and Figures
Table 7.1 Phonotactics of SJ morphemes
Fig. 7.2 Borrowing by donor language across time
Fig. 7.5 Objectification of the Ainu
Fig. 7.7 Tōjō’s dialect divisions
Fig. 7.8.1 kao~cura (ABA diffusion)
Fig. 7.8.2 fusuma~karakami (ABAB diffusion)
Fig. 7.8.3 uroko~koke (East vs. West + flying sparks AB diffusion)
Fig. 7.8.4 šimoyake~yukiyake (North vs. South AB diffusion)
Fig. 7.9.1 Isoglosses along the Itoigawa-Hamanako line
Fig. 7.9.2 Accent types across dialects
Table 7.9 Accent patterns of 2-mora nouns in Tokyo and Keihan n+1 type dialects
Fig. 7.10.1 Tōhoku dialects
Fig. 7.10.2 Yappe Taisō on NHK Sendai
Fig. 7.10.3 T-shirt with gaNbaQ-pe miyaŋgi slogan
Fig. 7.11.1 Kyūshū dialects
Table 7.11.1 Sato dialect case/topic marking system
Table 7.11.2 Sato dialect verb classes not found in Standard Japanese
Fig. 7.11.2 Kyūshū dialect stickers found on LINE
Table 8.3 The 20 least comprehended loanwords
Fig. 8.4 De-anglicization of cigarette brands
Fig. 8.6.1 Standard classification of parts of speech in school grammar
Table 8.6 Conjugational classes and forms in school grammar
Fig. 8.6.2 Role of the 50-sounds table in conjugational class names
Table 8.7 Spelling versus pronunciation in historical kana usage
Fig. 8.9.1 Notoriously difficult questions from the Level 1 kanken
Fig. 8.9.2 More practical questions from the Level 1 JT
Fig. 8.10 Ruijumyōgishō, Kanchiin manuscript
Table 8.10 Antiquated slang expressions from a Japanese-English dictionary