Paper short abstract:

Analyzing the formation and growth of Kokkai jargon(words/expressions used by National Diet representatives), we will demonstrate that they are used with hedge expressions, then extend their grammatical environments, showing how a jargon becomes a complete item within the representatives' lexicon.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper we will explore the linguistic aspects of the formation and growth of Kokkai jargon. As such, Kokkai jargon is not understandable even to native speakers of Japanese, unless they are specialists in domestic politics.

Through the four cases of such jargon presented in this paper (terebi-iri "televized", okyoo-yomi "sutra-chanting", misin-me "perforation" and nikuzure "load-shifting"), that were extracted from the Minutes of the National Diet, I will show that they are used with hedge expressions (iwayuru, to iimasuka, etc.) first, and then extend to the grammatical environments in which they occur.

Such steps can be interpreted as a process by which Kokkai jargon grow into fully-fledged lexical items within the representatives' lexicon. That is, even though they were first formed as one of the numerous nonce lexical items in the utterances of representatives (including those made inside and outside of the session), some of them were found to be useful, filling the gaps in expressing a complex concept, and come to be used repeatedly in their speeches. At first, as they expect that these words may not be part of their audience's lexicon, the representatives introduce them with hedge expressions. They are also used without any grammatical extensions. As they are used frequently throughout the sessions, however, these words begin to appear in various grammatical environments. For example, they may be used as a verb root (e.g. okyoo-yomi-suru), or as a part of a compound noun (e.g. terebi-iri-situgi). At this stage, what used to be a nonce formed new word can be deemed a part of the permanent lexicon of the representatives, as they show regular grammatical behavior in the same way that common words do.

Our result demonstrates that there is a linguistic path along which a Kokkai jargon develops. Moreover, it shows the usefulness of the Minutes of the Diet as linguistic data, in that it enables us to observe language change in a detailed manner.