Pragmatics, Cognition, and Japanese Learning (I)

Author: Xu Changhua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: This book is a work that applies the theoretical research of pragmatics and cognitive linguistics to the study of modern Japanese. Both fields hold significant positions in contemporary linguistics. Applying this theory to Japanese research yields highly explanatory results. The pragmatics section of the book includes speech acts and discourse comprehension. The former conducts an in-depth examination of three types of speech acts—blaming, belittling, and persuasion—and analyzes the pragmatic functions of speech acts in the Japanese translation of Fortress Besieged. The latter introduces the author's insights into understanding Japanese discourse, providing examples of words and sentence patterns and explaining their semantics and usage in detail. The cognitive linguistics section covers external world cognition and cognitive studies on several Japanese linguistic phenomena. The former explores issues such as spatial/locative cognition, temporal cognition, interpersonal cognition, and verbs. The latter investigates the cognitive patterns of Japanese, examining topics like the cognitive perspective on intransitive verbs, passive sentences, the expressive functions and modes of adjectives, and more. Renowned Japanese linguist and honorary professor of Tokyo Metropolitan University, Mr. Keiichiro Okazaki, praises the book in the preface, stating, "This book covers many linguistic phenomena in Japanese and presents outstanding descriptions. I believe Professor Xu's work will make significant contributions to the development of Chinese Japanese studies."