Research and study for understanding the dynamics of loanword notation in modern Japanese and solving its problems

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00633
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02070:Japanese linguistics-related
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: Sasahara Hiroyuki 早稲田大学, 社会科学総合学術院, 教授 (80269505)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 外来語 / 外国語 / カタカナ表記 / 漢字表記

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The research results in this research project include descriptions of the actual situation and background of the notation of foreign words. Among them, the papers, books, oral presentations, and other widely published materials during the research period show that, with regard to the notation of foreign words in kanji, katakana, hiragana, and other script types, in addition to "lemon," "virus," and other words from English, the Vietnamese words "ba", which mean "silk fabric," are also written in katakana, hiragana, and other scripts in Vietnamese ,"tin" supposed to be from Portuguese "tutanaga", and "ton", "pound", "yard", "mile", "foot", "inch" from British units of weight and length, etc., as well as about foreign place names.

Free Research Field

日本語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

外来語の表記法は、公用文のほかマスメディア、民間団体、WEBサイトなどで各種の規則が定められ、独自の使用習慣が形成され、多様な位相が存在する。教育現場においても混乱を引き起こし、規範意識を個々に構築させていた。当研究は、社会における外来語のあり方と背景を多角的に調査研究し、諸問題に対する素材と成果の公開を行う。表記感と呼びうる意識が定位されることも明らかにした。
手書きに加え、電子機器を通じた文字入力による表記に関して、語と文字を立体的に関係づけ、捉えようとした点でも、先駆的な意義が認められるであろう。文字・表記論へ寄与するところがあり、教育や政策、各種辞典、マスメディアにも参照されうる。