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Paper short abstract

This study re-examines linguistic motivation in Japanese and Hungarian onomatopoeia from a holistic, sound-schema-based perspective. It identifies language-specific sound schemata, the semantic domains they encode, and links the two systems by constructing a Combined sound-schema map.

Paper long abstract

Linguistic motivation and sound symbolism can be approached and researched in multifarious ways. Whether considered a cross-linguistic phenomenon or one specific to a particular language, the linguistically motivated link can be grasped from the level of phonemes or phonesthemes up to the holistic sound patterns of words. Onomatopoeia is informative because its meanings rely on recurring, functionally loaded patterns, but these cannot always be clearly analyzed using classical morphological methods, highlighting the need for a new perspective.

The study aims to re-examine linguistic motivation in Japanese and Hungarian onomatopoeia from a sound-schema-based (word-level) perspective, rather than by correlating meanings with individual sounds or by searching for direct cross-linguistic form–meaning pairs. It investigates (i) which sound schemata characterize Japanese and Hungarian onomatopoeia, (ii) which semantic dimensions these schemata recurrently encode, and (iii) how the two systems can be systematically linked via shared semantic domains.

The approach is grounded in a holistic, dynamic, analogy-based view of linguistic structure (Szilágyi 2013, 2015) and is supported by usage-based evidence for holistic storage and analogical organization in the mental lexicon (MacWhinney 2003).

In a first step we identify the sound schemata (linguistic patterns) characteristic of Japanese and Hungarian onomatopoeia and the semantic domains (functions) these patterns encode. Building on these attributes, we first develop two separate language-specific maps (Map I. – Japanese; Map II. – Hungarian), organized around distinctive sound schemata and their associated meaning domains (e.g., durativity, momentariness) (Research Level I.). These maps provide a methodological framework in which Japanese and Hungarian onomatopoeia can be analyzed within their own systems while also being compared to each other. In a second step, we construct a Combined Map based on the semantic domains represented in the two language-specific maps, designed to align Japanese and Hungarian sound schemata that encode the same meaning domains (Research Level II.). Through this shared semantic-domain-based map, we aim to link the Japanese and Hungarian onomatopoeic lexicons, highlight systematic correspondences between them, and make their similarities explicit.

The study offers insights for teaching Japanese as a foreign language by focusing on native-speaker-sensitive meanings encoded in holistic onomatopoeic patterns.

onomatopoeia, sound-schemata, contrastive linguistic

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Paper short abstract

Recently, some studies have proposed an evidential view of the Japanese -teiru form, arguing that it does not primarily express aspectual meanings but indicates information observable to the speaker. Focusing on visual expressions with mieru/mie-teiru, this study argues that this view is plausible.

Paper long abstract

Traditionally, the semantic function of the Japanese -teiru form has been analyzed primarily as expressing aspectual meanings. In contrast to this dominant view, several recent studies, including Sadanobu (2006), argue that the core meaning of -teiru lies in indicating that the information at issue in a given utterance is observed by the experiencer. From this perspective, -teiru can be regarded as expressing evidentiality in the sense that it specifies observation as the source of information.

While there may be room for discussion as to whether expressions describing information observed at the time of speech should fully count as evidential markers, adopting this observation-based interpretation of -teiru offers a promising way to provide a unified account of the wide range of meanings associated with this form. To illustrate this point, the present study focuses on visual expressions involving the mieru and mie-teiru forms, including the examples in (1)–(4), and examines in detail the contexts in which these expressions are appropriately used and the meanings they convey. Through this, the study investigates how the -teiru contributes to meaning in different types of visual expressions.

(1) a. Konya wa ama-no-gawa ga mieru. ‘The Milky Way is visible tonight.’

  b. Konya wa ama-no-gawa ga mie-teiru. ‘Tonight, (I can) see the Milky Way.’

(2) a. Natsu ni wa ama-no-gawa ga yoku mieru. ‘The Milky Way is clearly visible in summer.’

  b. *Natsu ni wa ama-no-gawa ga yoku mie-teiru.

(3) a. *Ano bokusā wa aite no panchi ga mieru.

b. Ano bokusā wa aite no panchi ga mie-teiru. ‘That boxer is reading his opponent’s punches.’

(4) a. Aite no panchi ga mieru. ‘(I) can read the opponent’s punches.’

  b. Watashi wa aite no panchi ga mie-teiru. ‘(I realize that) I can read the opponent’s punches.’

The analysis shows that, at least in visual expressions, the observability of the relevant information plays an important role in shaping the meanings conveyed by the sentence in the -teiru form. In conclusion, the study claims that approaches which view -teiru as an evidential expression may be effective in deepening our understanding of the semantics of -teiru.

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Paper short abstract

The paper examines comparative correlative constructions in Japanese and Korean from a typological perspective, comparing them with other Asian languages. It analyzes their morphosyntactic strategies, diachronic development, and possible effects of language contact.

Paper long abstract

Keywords: comparative correlative; Asian languages; language contact; morphosyntax; linguistic typology

This paper focuses on the strategies employed by Japanese and Korean in the so-called comparative correlative constructions and their diachronic development. This analysis is informed by preceding typological research. Comparative correlative constructions express situations where a change in degree in one phenomenon leads to a change in another. In English these are expressed using the ‘the…the’ construction, as in ‘the more the merrier’, ‘the bigger they are, the harder they fall’, etc. Different languages code these constructions in different ways, even though there are frequent similarities in the structure on the syntactic level (den Dikken, 2005).

East (and Central) Asian languages exhibit a wide variety of strategies of marking such constructions which will be briefly discussed and compared in this paper. These do often differ from patterns seen in most Indo-European languages, where the first clause starts with a relative pronoun, and the second with a demonstrative pronoun as in the Czech ‘Čím víc gólů dáme, tím víc bodů máme.’ This variability makes them interesting also from the typological point of view. Some Asian languages use rather straightforward strategies using double particles of degree, such as Manchu/Sibe, or Chinese, as in (1). Some outliers, such as Ewenki, employ comparative suffixes.

(1) Eli yawe-m(e) eli saxurum

PTC go-CVB PTC cold

‘It gets colder the further we go.’ (Sibe)

Others, such as Japanese, employ a rather more unusual construction where the verb/adjective first appears in a conditional converbal form, and then the same verb/adjective appears again in an adnominal form (in Japanese identical to the finite verb form) modifying a particle of degree (2). This can be followed by a different adjective or a whole clause. A surprisingly similar construction can be observed in Korean.

(2) Tabere-ba tabe-ru hodo oishii.

Eat-COND eat-NPST measure tasty

‘The more you eat the tastier it gets.’ (Japanese)

However, neither Japanese nor Korean appear to have used this type of construction consistently throughout their diachronic development. Extant data from different stages of these languages will be analyzed, and the possible influence of language contact will be discussed.

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Paper short abstract

The paper analyses how the first travel stories about Japan were mediating Japanese words and phrases in the 19th c Estonian newspapers written by the Estonian seamen. The sample consists of three narratives between 1867-1900 and the language examples are divided according to their type and context.

Paper long abstract

The first travel writings about Japan were published in the Estonian language newspapers during the second half of the 19th century. At the time the Estonian seamen were the only mediators of personal and first-hand accounts of foreign countries in Estonian printed word to the readers.

The paper analyses the Japanese words and phrases used in the narratives by the sample of three travel stories: 1) from 1867-1869 by Jüri Jürison in the newspaper “Eesti Postimees”; 2) from 1888-1889 by the seaman from the warship Dmitry Donskoy in the newspaper “Virmaline” and 3) from 1896 and 1900 by Mihkel Michelson in the newspaper “Olewik”.

The Japanese language examples are divided and examined according to the different word types and phrases according to the usage contexts. For example, nouns (e.g. musume, samurai) and interjections (e.g. ohayō, sayonara) or phrases of everyday life (e.g. eppi yokka) or historical topics (e.g. katakiuchi). One of the central research questions is why the Japanese words were conveyed to the Estonian readers and what were they aimed to communicate.