What is this course about? ...see also course flyer (PDF)
In this course, we will examine the Japanese language from the perspective of linguistic analysis, and consider the influence of evidence from Japanese on the development of linguistic theory. Coursework includes overview readings, readings from the primary linguistics research literature, and hands-on problem solving and analysis of Japanese data — some of which you will collect yourself from online materials and other sources.
The course is designed for two kinds of students:
- Students with background in linguistics, who would like an opportunity to explore the structure of a language with typological features quite different from those of many familiar Indo-European languages. For these students, no Japanese language ability is required.
- Students with background in the Japanese language, who would like to know more about the structural patterns of Japanese in order to gain a new perspective on learning or teaching the language. For these students, prior background in linguistics is helpful but not required (linguistic concepts will be explained in readings and class discussion as they are introduced).
What topics will be covered?
Course topics will include many of the following:
- Language sounds and patterns: Phonetics, phonology
- Description of the consonants and vowels that appear in Japanese
- Phoneme inventory: What are the cognitively relevant sound categories? What contextual alternations do they undergo?
- Prosodic organization: How are consonants and vowels organized into larger constituents such as moras or syllables?
- Pitch accent and intonation
- Loanwords
- Word structure: Morphology
- Word classes and word formation
- Rendaku ('sequential voicing'): How and why does pronunciation change in some compound words?
- Sentence structure: Syntax
- Constituency and phrase structure: How are phrases and sentences formed?
- Word order: How do we account for the flexibility of word order?
- Language meaning and use: Semantics and discourse
- Tense and aspect: How are concepts related to time and completion expressed?
- The "particle" -wa: It's not a subject marker...what is it?
- Sociolinguistics
- Polite and honorific language: When and how is politeness expressed in Japanese?
- Gender-based differences in language form and use
- Historical language change
- How can we determine what the Japanese language was like in the past?
- Are there relationships between Japanese and other languages?
- How is the Japanese language changing now?
- Dialect differences
- How do various dialects of Japanese differ with respect to language form and use?
Course requirements
- Class attendance and active participation in discussion
- Readings
- Homework assignments
- Midterm exam
- Final project and presentation
Textbooks and readings
- Required —
Required readings will be available online
and/or placed on reserve. (There is no assigned textbook.)
- Recommended —
Students may wish to have on hand
an introductory linguistics textbook
to use as a background reference for linguistics terms and
concepts. Textbooks that might be useful include the following:
- Contemporary Linguistics, O'Grady et al. (on permanent reserve at the Undergraduate Library)
- Language Files, edited by the OSU Dept of Linguistics