Japanese Linguistics

Author: Zhai Dongna
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: This textbook consists of two parts and adopts a chapter-based organization.
Part 1 is the Introduction to Japanese Language, comprising 8 chapters: Japanese Phonetics, Japanese Semantics, Japanese Vocabulary, Japanese Grammar, Japanese Discourse, Japanese Register, Japanese Writing System, and Brief History of Japanese. Each chapter is structured as follows: Content Summary, Main Text, Thinking and Practice Questions, Mini-Columns, and References for the Chapter. The content scope of the Introduction part ranges from (narrow linguistic studies) to (broad linguistic activity fields), aiming to provide learners with fundamental knowledge of the Japanese language and its application, helping them understand the general outline of the Japanese language, improve their linguistic competence, and build a relatively comprehensive knowledge system of the Japanese language.
Part 2 is the Research on Japanese Language, comprising 11 chapters: Japanese Vocabulary Research, Japanese Grammar Research, Japanese Grammar and Semantics Research, Japanese Pragmatics Research, Contrastive Linguistics Research, Sociolinguistics Research, Historical Linguistics and Dialect Geography, Transformational-Generative Grammar Research, Cognitive Linguistics Research, Psycholinguistics Research, and Computational Linguistics Research. Each chapter is structured as follows: Content Summary, Main Text, Thinking and Analysis Questions, Mini-Columns, Recommended Reading List, and References for the Chapter. The content scope of the Research part covers traditional Japanese language studies, modern linguistic theories, and related fields of research. Regarding traditional Japanese language studies, this book primarily introduces key research achievements and methods. For modern linguistic theories and related fields, the book mainly introduces basic concepts and theoretical knowledge through research examples. The Research part aims to provide learners with a higher starting point and a more contemporary perspective for conducting Japanese language research, enabling them to gain an initial understanding of the general outline of related research fields while learning how previous researchers have conducted their work in these fields, as well as important research achievements and ongoing research topics.
Six appendices are arranged at the end of the book. Appendix 1 includes representative research achievements from different periods in various fields of Japanese language studies for reference. Appendices 2 and 3 provide reference answers or approaches to the thinking and practice questions and thinking and analysis questions for each chapter of the Introduction and Research parts, respectively. Appendices 4, 5, and 6 are main terminology indexes, listing key terms from each chapter in Chinese, Japanese, and English, with different page numbers where they appear in the book for easy reference.
This book follows the mainline of general linguistic theory, highlights the characteristics of the Japanese language, and is written from the perspective of Chinese learners and users of Japanese, integrating systematicity and practicality. It strives to objectively reflect the latest research achievements in Japanese studies both domestically and internationally. This book is part of the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" National-Level Planning Textbook.