Basic Research on Constructing a Contrastive Corpus of Vulgarism for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language

• Project/Area Number: 15520338
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Japanese language education
• Research Institution: University of the Ryukyus
• Principal Investigator: KINJOH Naomi University of the Ryukyus, International Student Center, Professor, 留学生センター, 教授 (60253928)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KATOH Kiyokata Tokyo Gaugei University, Faculty of Education, Professor, 教育学部, 教授 (20185838)
• Project Period (FY): 2003 – 2004
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2004)
• Budget Amount: ¥2,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000); Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000); Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000)
• Keywords: teaching Japanese as a foreign Language / taboo / searwords / social linguistics / contrastive linguistics / intercultural communication / corpus / 誤解

Research Abstract

In this study, we investigated vulgar words used in daily life by Japanese people, by means of questionnaire. In addition to that, we conducted an investigation about vulgar words and related expression in Dairen, France, Garman, Hong Kong, Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan and Thailand to collect data of Chinese, French, German, Korean, and Thai.
As a result, a total of 3551 vulgar words and expressions (744 different words) were collected from Japanese. And data of 735 vulgar words and expressions in Chinese, 968 in Cantonese(Chinese), 2929 in Taiwanese(Chinese), 1373 in Thai, 325 in French, 1530 in German were collected. These data were classified into 14 categories ; 01 person/a name of relatives/a name of place, 02 a part of body, 03 an animal, 04 a plant/a germ,05 a sexual or violent act, 06 dirt/rejections, 07 build/shape, 08 psychological condition/an inclination,09 sickness/disorder, 10 life and death, 11 the spirit, 12 a pronoun, 13 onomatopoeia and mimetic words, 14 others.
The basic database of vulgarism relating to 6 language was constructed. The database is consisted of 6 kinds of information ; vocabulary entry, connotation, meaning of dictionary, sex, age, birthplace of examinees.
The database of vulgarism is very useful corpus for teaching Japanese as a foreign language.