A General Theory of Borrowing from the Perspective of Word Classes and Compound Words in Japanese and English

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K00575
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02060:Linguistics-related
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: IMAI Shinobu 大阪大学, 日本語日本文化教育センター, 教授 (20294176)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 語種 / 複合語 / 動詞 / 借用語

Outline of Final Research Achievements

I focused on the types of verbs (native Japanese, Sino-Japanese, and foreign loanwords) and examined their grammatical characteristics. It was found that compound verbs comprised of native Japanese morphemes, such as "yomikaki suru" (to read and write) and "ikiki suru" (to come and go), possess the same characteristics as Sino-Japanese verbs like "kaihei suru" (to open and close) and "o:rai suru" (to come and go), as well as foreign loanwords like "kopi: suru" (to copy) and "chekku suru" (to check). This similarity between compound words and loanwords (Sino-Japanese or foreign) is due to their nature of expressing new complex concepts that were not previously present in the Japanese language.

Free Research Field

言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

サ変動詞の文法的特徴については、従来数多くの研究がなされてきたが、それに語種がどのように関わるかについては体系的な研究はなされていなかった。本研究は、単純語から複合に至る複数の形式について意味的な特徴も考慮しながら、そのパターンを明らかにした点で学術的な意義がある。また、この成果は日本語教育への応用も期待される。日本語学習者は漢語や外来語の習得に困難を感じることが多いが、日本語教育においては語種を体系的に扱うことはほとんどない。本研究の結果は、そのような状況を改善する一助となることが期待される。