The Application of Thesaurus to Linguistic Research

Research Project

Project/Area Number	01450062
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	国語学
Research Institution	National Language Research Institute (NLRI)
Principal Investigator	MIYAZIMA Tatuo NLRI, Center for Teaching of Japanese as a Foreign Language, Director, 日本語教育センター, センター長 (30099915)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	ONUMA Etu NLRI, Dept. of Language Systems, Member of the Second Research Section, 言語体系研究部, 第2研究室研究員 ISII Hisao NLRI, Dept. of Language Systems, Head of the Third Research Section, 言語体系研究部, 第3研究室長 (70124188) NOMURA Masaaki Waseda University, Center for Japanese Language, Professor, 日本語研究教育センター, 教授 (60000428) HAYASI Ooki NLRI, Emeritus Member, 名誉所員 (20000002) NAKANO Hirosi NLRI, Dept. of Language Systems, Director (40000426)
Project Period (FY)	1989 – 1990
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1990)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000) Fiscal Year 1990: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000) Fiscal Year 1989: ¥2,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,000,000)
Keywords	thesaurus / linguistic study / Bunrui Goihyoo / semantic field / 反対語 / 言語研究 / 文献調査 / 同類語 / 慣用句 / 語彙調査 / 漢語動詞 / 複合動詞
Research Abstract	Thesauri are often used in linguistic data processing where they mainly deal with the relationship of concepts of a specific field in science. Most of thesaurus of general terms are utilized as handbooks to find a suitable expression. However, thesaurus of general terms deserve to have their own ro le in linguistic study. As The National Language Research Institute's 'Word List by Semantic Principles' ('Bunrui Goihyoo') has an established reputation as such a thesaurus, we collected examples of its application to linguistic study. As well, We added new items to it, because the number of words listed (32,000) was rather small. The main results are given as follows : (1) We found nearly one hundred articles that used Bunrui Goihyoo in the study of the Japanese language. Their main purpose was to see how the difference in semantic fields of words influences their grammatical, lexicological or stylistic character. These studies were not limited to the study of modern Japanese but were also found in many fields, such as linguistic history, dialectology and linguistic education. (2) We increased the words in 'Brnrui Goihyoo' to about 60,000, utilizing the results of lexical research at The National Language Research Institute and dictionaries of different types, e. g. general terms, synonyms, antonyms and idioms. These results will be published by The National Language Research Institute in book form and on floppy disk.