Paper short abstract

As for Shikashi that is uttered suddenly without a preceding context like Shikashi atsuina, the author considers that before saying such Shikashi, a speaker already has an unconscious idea. Contrary to the speaker's expectation, it presents a contradictory conjunction.

Paper long abstract

Shikashi is generally known as a contradictory conjunction but some researchers have different opinions. (Iwasawa, 1985; Hamada, 1995) claimed that Shikashi changes a topic. (Tamon, 1990) pointed out that Shikashi is a trigger of the start of speaking. (Morita, 2018) mentioned that Shikashi is used when adding a different opinion or a fact to a preceding sentence. In addition, regarding Shikashi that is uttered suddenly without a preceding context like Shikashi atsuina, (Tamon, 1990) argued that the Shikashi is used when presenting new topic. (Koike, 1997) said that the Shikashi is an interjection. (Katou, 2001) mentioned that the Shikashi is used when a speaker says an information the speaker already knows. The author did research on how Shikashi was used in the past. Then, we found the meaning and the usage of Shikashi. As originally Shikashi was Shikaarinagara in the past, the core meaning of Shikashi is not a contrast but adding a different opinion or a fact to a preceding sentence. However, at present, Shikashi is also used like as a contradictory conjunction. This is because Shikashi was used with conjunctive particles after the Meiji era. As for Shikashi that is uttered suddenly without a preceding context like Shikashi atsuina, we consider that before saying Shikashi atsuina, a speaker already has an unconscious idea like the speaker never imagined that it would be too hot. Contrary to the speaker's expectation, it presents a contradictory conjunction. In other words, Shikashi atsuina shows that it is too hot that I never imagined. This type of Shikashi is taught from intermediate level, also used often for conversation. However, as far as I know, it is not explained on textbooks for intermediate level or grammar books. Even Nihongo bunkei jiten (A handbook of Japanese gramma patterns), it is only written that Shikashi changes a topic. In this research, we will also show an effective way of teaching this Shikashi.

Paper short abstract

This paper will show that learners understand Japanese grammar better in reflection of their own language or foreign languages they have learned before.

Paper long abstract

The Council of Europe promotes lifelong language learning due to the linguistic and cultural diversity all over Europe. This is similarly important for teachers of Japanese as a foreign language facing various students of different mother tongues. Obviously, these teachers would understand their students' mistakes and difficulties better relying on a vast knowledge about languages of the world.

Descriptions of Japanese grammar as a foreign language have developed further in the last decades resulting in a considerable number of handbooks and sentence pattern dictionaries. However, these books are conceived and written by native researchers of Japanese, thus, comparative approaches are hardly found. Many learners feel limited in their understanding when confronted with a language of different nature.

This paper intends to provide a new perspective for teaching grammar based on own teaching experience in Europe and observations in teacher training institutions. Many learners have troubles in understanding particular grammar and using natural expressions. This paper will show paradoxically that learners understand Japanese grammar better in reflection of their own language or foreign languages they have learned before.

In practice, the following cases were successful: For differentiation of the locative particles ni and de, the idea of verbal valency of European languages, which is difficult for native Japanese to understand, was introduced. The second example refers to the awareness of their own systematic use of intonation and word order to express a certain information structure in languages which have no morphological differentiation such as wa and ga. These outcomes stem from the following fact: before, the learners only noticed how their own language works, now they understand the functional equivalence, a unique phenomenon in Japanese can now be grasped as naturally as they do this within their mother tongues.

Systematizing these findings to compile teaching units will shed new light on teaching grammar of Japanese as a foreign language.

Paper short abstract

Japanese retellings of two short, wordless comic strips by learners of various linguistic backgrounds are compared with those of native speakers, with attention to differences in benefactive expressions between the two comic strips, in speaking versus writing, and between natives and learners.

Paper long abstract

Verbal auxiliaries of "giving" and "receiving" (benefactive expressions) in Japanese are built from three verbs "ageru", "kureru", and "morau", a structure rarely seen in other languages (Yamada 2004). Previous studies on storytelling in the International Corpus of Japanese as a Second Language (I-JAS) have compared differences in vocabulary and grammar between native speakers and learners (Okuno & Dianni 2015, Konishi 2017, Mitani et al. 2017), but none has analyzed benefactive expressions at the level of discourse, relying instead on fill-in-the-blank, multiple-choice, and sentence completion tests (Sakamoto & Okada 1996, Han 2005, Takemura 2011), not storytelling, and the subjects' native languages are also limited. Using I-JAS, I compare Japanese-language retellings of two short, wordless comic strips, by learners who are native speakers of English, Chinese, Korean, and French (50 subjects per languag e: 200 total) with those of native Japanese speakers (50 subjects). I examine differences in usage of benefactive expressions (1) between the two comic strips, (2) in oral versus written storytelling, and (3) between native speakers and learners. Benefactive expressions were rarely used to tell the first story, even by native speakers, whereas for story two they were used in approximately half of native speakers' discourse. More benefactive expressions were used in writing than in speaking by both learners and native speakers. Native speakers of English and French both used benefactive expressions 10% as often as native speakers of Japanese, compared to Korean natives' 30% and Chinese natives' 35%. Native speakers often used "-te-kureru" on the verbs "okiru" and "kizuku", but learners rarely did so. Similarly, "-te-morau" was often added to "akeru" by native speakers, but seldom by learners. Meanwhile, some learners used "-te-ageru", which was not used by native speakers here at all. Accordingly, even advanced learners (JLPT N1) seem, with interesting national differences, not to be learning to use benefactive expressions in discourse the way native speakers do.