Selection and Description of Basic Vocabulary for Semantic Description in Japanese Language Teaching

1990 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 01510300
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: 言語学(含音声学)
• Research Institution: The National Language Research Institute (NLRI)
• Principal Investigator: NAKAMICHI Makio NLRI, Center for Teaching of Japanese as a Foreign Language Section for Development of Language Teaching Materials, 日本語教育センター・日本語教育教材開発室, 室長 (70150034)
• Project Period (FY): 1989 – 1990
• Keywords: Semantic Description / Metalanguage / Basic Educational Vocabulary / Adjective

Research Abstract

The following are the work involved in this study and the resultant findings :
1. Study of terms used for semantic description in existing dictionaries.
The study was focused on adjectives classified in Bunrui-goihyo (Word List by Semantic Principles) (NLRI) as denoting "Mental State and Activity". The result shows that, in existing dictionaries, the semantic description of a word is hardly distinguished from various information on the word, such as grammatical and stylistic characteristics, etymology, writing form, etc., and that terms used for the semantic description considerably vary among dictionaries, which may be attributed to description styles adopted to make an easy-to-read dictionary.
2. Comparison with the list of basic educational vocabulary.
A list of words included in existing vocabulary lists was examined in the light of the above result with the aim of identifying description terms to be added to the educational vocabulary. Since the work led to a conclusion that it would be essential to restrict the usages of those polysemous words first, an attempt was made to collect and classify all the usages of each word, the results of which are yet to be put together.
3. Perspective of selection and description of the basic vocabulary for semantic description.
As a result of the above study, the following can be pointed out : (]SY.encircled1.[) terms for objective semantic description and those used to explain word meanings to foreign students of Japanese should be clearly distinguished ; (]SY.encircled2.[) the vocabulary of the latter kind should be and can be limited to a fairly narrow scope, although some adjustment will be needed according to the background of students ; and (]SY.encircled3.[) the meaning must be made clear for each word of the vocabulary for explanation, which requires identification and classification of word usages as well as limitation of them.