The Correlation of Morphology and Semantics of Japanese Sensitive Onomatopoeia

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00725
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02090:Japanese language education-related
• Research Institution: Sonoda Women's College
• Principal Investigator: YOSHINAGA NAO 園田学園女子大学短期大学部, その他部局等, 教授 (70330438)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 杉村 泰 名古屋大学, 人文学研究科, 教授 (60324373)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 介護の現場で用いられるオノマトペ / オノマトペの形態と意味の関与 / 促音終止型 撥音終止型 畳語型 / オノマトペの日中対照 / 体感を表すオノ マトぺの教育

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Mimetic words in the Japanese language, which serve to describe, for example, one’s mental or physical condition, have several different patterns of formation. Some of them are derived verbs or adjective-verbs (e.g., na-adjectives) that combine with verbalizing words, such as suru or da, as seen in phrases like iraira-suru ‘irritated’ or pekopeko-da ‘starving’, while others are used in their base form to adverbially modify following verbs, as in phrases like gussuri-nemuru ‘sleep soundly’. They constitute a group of words with diverse morphological characteristics, and there have been few studies of their functional properties. Here, mimetic words describing mental and physical conditions were first categorized into three groups by structure, namely, those to which suru is added, those to which da, is added, and those without formative elements, and the characteristics of each group were investigated.

Free Research Field

日本語教育

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

研究データが僅少である心身状態を表す擬態語オノマトペの語形と意味の相関について考察を加えた。従来の語形と意味の関与に関する論考は研究者自身の直感的判断に基づくが、日本語母語話者に言語調査を実施し関係性を実証した。また、中国人日本語学習者においてオノマトペの習得が困難であることの原因として擬態語に対応する語彙が存在せず痛覚など心身の状況を細かく表現する習慣がないことによる母語干渉と判断した。初期段階で指導内容に形態的な意味特徴を導入することによりオノマトペの理解・定着が促進されることを同一レベルのクラスで実証し、喫緊の課題である医療福祉人材教育において効率的な指導法となりうることを提唱した。