The Languages of JapanThis book surveys the two main indigenous languages of Japan, Japanese and Ainu. No genetic relationship has been established between them, and structurally they differ significantly. Shibatani has therefore divided his study into two independent parts. The first is the most comprehensive study of the polysynthetic Ainu language yet to appear in English. The second part deals extensively with Japanese. It discusses topics from the evolution of the writing system and the differences between men's and women's speech, to issues of greater theoretical complexity, such as phonology, the lexicon and word formation, and the syntax of agglutinative morphology. As an American trained scholar in Japan, the author is in a unique position that affords him a dual perspective on language deriving from Western linguistic scholarship and the Japanese grammatical tradition. |
Contents
I | 3 |
II | 4 |
III | 5 |
IV | 8 |
V | 11 |
VIII | 12 |
X | 13 |
XI | 17 |
XLVIII | 147 |
XLIX | 153 |
L | 158 |
LII | 160 |
LIII | 163 |
LV | 167 |
LVI | 171 |
LVII | 173 |
XII | 18 |
XIII | 21 |
XIV | 22 |
XV | 25 |
XVI | 30 |
XVIII | 31 |
XIX | 32 |
XX | 34 |
XXI | 38 |
XXII | 39 |
XXIII | 44 |
XXIV | 45 |
XXV | 50 |
XXVI | 54 |
XXVII | 55 |
XXVIII | 60 |
XXIX | 75 |
XXX | 76 |
XXXI | 77 |
XXXII | 79 |
XXXIII | 80 |
XXXIV | 81 |
XXXV | 83 |
XXXVI | 85 |
XXXVIII | 87 |
XXXIX | 89 |
XL | 94 |
XLI | 119 |
XLII | 120 |
XLIII | 125 |
XLIV | 131 |
XLV | 140 |
XLVI | 142 |
XLVII | 145 |
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Common terms and phrases
accent adjectives adverbial particles Ainu language Altaic languages analysis applicative formation attributive Austronesian auxiliary basic Boku Classical Ainu colloquial consonants contrast copula correspondences derived direct object discussion distinction elements English example expression fact first-person focus nominal foreign words function grammatical Hanako Heian period honorific form indicate indirect passive inflectional categories inflectional endings intransitive involving irrealis Ishikari Itadori Japan Japanese language Kakehi sensei Kindaichi Korean Kyōto Kyūshū large number lexical linguistic loan words marker marking meaning Miyakonojō Modern Japanese mora morpheme morphological Murayama nominalized clause noun incorporation occurs Old Japanese Ōsaka pattern personal affixes phonetic phonological phrase pitch predicate prefix Prof pronouns reading referent Ryukyuan Ryukyuan dialects S-J words Sakhalin semantic sentence Shibatani speaker speech structure subject honorific suffix syllable Table Taro Taroo ga Hanako Tōkyō topic construction traditional transitive verbs typically verbal voicing vowel harmony vowels word formation yukar zibun Ziroo