Startseite Linguistic multi-competence in the community: the case of a Japanese plural suffix -tachi for individuation
Artikel
Lizenziert
Nicht lizenziert Erfordert eine Authentifizierung

Linguistic multi-competence in the community: the case of a Japanese plural suffix -tachi for individuation

  • Goro Murahata EMAIL logo und Yoshiko Murahata
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 14. Juli 2021
Veröffentlichen auch Sie bei De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

Applied linguists have investigated the nature of linguistic multi-competence (LMC) as a consequence of languages in contact in the minds of individuals and have observed that our first language is more amenable to change than once thought. However, LMC can manifest itself in not only an individual language user but also a linguistic community. This study explores the manifestation of LMC at the community level from historical and socio-cognitive perspectives with special focus on the use of a Japanese plural marker -tachi. It is a suffix usually attached to humans, but is frequently observed with animals and even inanimate nouns such as hon-tachi ‘books,’ which is conventionally considered unacceptable. This study analyzes over 100 -tachi cases collected from narrations and commentaries in public broadcasts. The analysis investigates the type of nouns to which -tachi is attached and the contexts where -tachi is used. The findings suggest that while retaining its original plural system, Japanese has accomplished the integration of a certain grammatical feature of English into Japanese. We argue that this innovative expressive means embedded in LMC as an integrated system in the community enables Japanese users, when necessary, to realize discrete objects, irrespective of whether they are living things or not, as individuated entities in the cognitive foreground with conceptually characteristic profiles.


Corresponding author: Goro Murahata, University of Miyazaki, 1-1 Gakuen Kibanadai Nishi, Miyazaki 889-2192 Japan, E-mail:

References

Allan, Keith. 1977. Classifiers. Language 53(2). 285–311. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1977.0043.Suche in Google Scholar

Araki, Hiroyuki. 1984. Nihongo niha naze fukusukei-ga naika [Why no plurals in Japanese]. Yuriika shi to shiron [Heureka: poetry and poetry criticism 16(12). 110–117.Suche in Google Scholar

Becker, Alton L. 1995. Beyond translation: Essays toward a modern philosophy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.10.3998/mpub.13805Suche in Google Scholar

Brinkley, Francis, Fumio Nanjo & Yukichika Iwasaki. 1896. Waei dai jiten [An unabridged Japanese-English dictionary]. Tokyo: Sanseido.Suche in Google Scholar

Brown, Amanda & Marianne Gullberg. 2012. Multi-competence and native speaker variation in clausal packaging in Japanese. Second Language Research 28(4). 415–442. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658312455822.Suche in Google Scholar

Bybee, Joan. 2015. Language change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Cook, Vivian J. (ed.). 2003. Effects of the second on the first. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Suche in Google Scholar

Cook, Vivian J. 2012. Multi-competence. In C. A. Chapelle (ed.), The Encyclopedia of applied linguistics, 3768–3774. London: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0778.Suche in Google Scholar

Cook, Vivian J. 2015. Discussing the language and thought of motion in second language speakers. The Modern Language Journal 99(S1). 154–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2015.12184.x.Suche in Google Scholar

Cook, Vivian J. & Wei Li. (eds.). 2016. The Cambridge handbook of linguistic multi-competence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781107425965Suche in Google Scholar

Corbett, Greville G. 2000. Number. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Croft, William. 1990. Typology and universals. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Downes, William. 1998. Language and society, 2nd ed. London: Fontana.10.1017/CBO9781139163781Suche in Google Scholar

Downing, Pamela A. 1996. Numeral classifier systems: The case of Japanese. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/sidag.4Suche in Google Scholar

Gove, Phillip B. (ed.). 1993. Webster’s third new international dictionary of the English language, unabridged. Springfield, Mass., USA: Merriam-Webster.Suche in Google Scholar

Hayashi, Ooki. (ed.). 1986. Gensen [The fountain of words]. Tokyo: Shogakukan.Suche in Google Scholar

Hepburn, James Curtis. 1867. A Japanese and English dictionary with an English and Japanese index. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Huddleston, Rodney & Geoffrey K. Pullum. 2002. Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781316423530Suche in Google Scholar

Ichikawa, Sanki. 1928. English influence on Japanese. Eibungaku-Kenkyu [studies in English literature]. The Imperial University of Tokyo 8(2). 165–208.Suche in Google Scholar

Ichikawa, Sanki & Phonetics Society. 1931. Gairaigo nitsuite [On foreign words] Kotoba no Koza [Lectures on Language], vol. 1, 94–120. Tokyo: Kenkyusha.Suche in Google Scholar

Ikegami, Yoshihiko. 1993. What does it mean for a language to have no singular-plural distinction? Noun-verb homology and its typological implication. In Richard A. Geiger & Bygida Rudzka-Ostyn (eds.), Conceptualizations and mental processing in language, 801–814. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110857108.801.Suche in Google Scholar

Imai, Mutsumi & Dedre Gentner. 1997. A cross-linguistic study of early word meaning: Universal ontology and linguistic influence. Cognition 62. 169–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0010-0277(96)00784-6.Suche in Google Scholar

Inui, Ryoichi. 1958. Kokugo-no hyogen-ni oyoboshita eigo-no eikyo [English effects on Japanese expressions]. In Fukkoku bunkacho kokugo shiriizu V: Gaikokugo to nihongo [Agency of cultural affairs’ Japanese language series republished V: Foreign language and Japanese], 7–59.Suche in Google Scholar

Jarvis, Scot & Anita Pavlenko. 2008. Crosslinguistic influence in language and cognition. New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203935927Suche in Google Scholar

Jesuit Japan. 1603. Vocabvlario da lingoa de Iapam com a declaração em Portugues [The Japanese dictionary with explanations in Portuguese]. Nagasaki: Jesuit Japan.Suche in Google Scholar

Kato, Shigehiro. 2006. Nihongo-no fukusu-kei: Futatsu-no fukusu to shugo ninchi [the plural form in Japanese: Two plurals and collective cognition]. Japanese linguistics and literature 130. 48–62.Suche in Google Scholar

Kindaichi, Kyosuke. (ed.). 1952. Jikai [The sea of words]. Tokyo: Sanseido.Suche in Google Scholar

Labov, William. 1972. Language in the inner city. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Langacker, Ronald W. 2008. Cognitive grammar: A basic introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331967.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar

Lee, David. 2001. Cognitive linguistics: An introduction. Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Li, Ping. 2013. Successful language acquisition. In Francois Grosjean & Ping Li (eds.), The psycholinguistics of bilingualism, 45–167. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.Suche in Google Scholar

Li, Wei. 2016. Epilogue: Multi-competence and the translanguaging instinct. In Vivian J. Cook & Wei Li (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic multi-competence, 533–543. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781107425965.026Suche in Google Scholar

Li, Wei. 2018. Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics 39(1). 9–30.10.1093/applin/amx039Suche in Google Scholar

Li, Wei. 2020. Multilingual English users’ linguistic innovation. World Englishes 39. 236–248.10.1111/weng.12457Suche in Google Scholar

Lucy, John A. 1992. Grammatical categories and cognition: A case study of the linguistic relativity hypothesis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511620713Suche in Google Scholar

Matsumura, Akira. (ed.). 2012. Daigensen [The enlarged fountain of words], 2nd edn. Tokyo: Shogakukan.Suche in Google Scholar

Matsuoka, Shizuo. 1937. Nihon kogo jiten [A dictionary of old Japanese]. Shinpen [New Edition]. Tokyo: Toukou Shoin.Suche in Google Scholar

Mizutani, Osamu & Nobuko Mizutani. 1977. An introduction to modern Japanese. Tokyo: The Japan Times.Suche in Google Scholar

Murahata, Goro & Yoshiko Murahata. 2016. Daini gengo yuza no kotoba to kokoro [The language and mind of L2 users]. Tokyo: Kaitakusha.Suche in Google Scholar

Murahata, Goro, Yoshiko Murahata & Vivian J Cook. 2016. Research questions and methodology of multi-competence. In Vivian J. Cook & Wei Li (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic multi-competence, 26–49. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781107425965.002Suche in Google Scholar

NHK Anaunsusitu. 2019. NHK kininaru kotoba [NHK words that matter]. Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki.Suche in Google Scholar

Nishio, Minoru, Etsutaro Iwabuchi & Shizuo Mizutani. 2009. Iwanami kokugo jiten [Iwanami Japanese dictionary]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.Suche in Google Scholar

Otsuki, Fumihiko. 1890. Genkai [The sea of language]. Tokyo: Fuzanbo.Suche in Google Scholar

Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech & Svartvik Jan. 1985. A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.Suche in Google Scholar

Reid, Wallis. 1991. Verb & noun number in English: A functional explanation. Singapore: Longman.Suche in Google Scholar

Shinmura, Izuru. 2018. Kojien [The wide garden of words]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.Suche in Google Scholar

Tsujimura, Natsuko. 2006. An introduction to Japanese linguistics. Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell.Suche in Google Scholar

Yamanashi, Masa-aki. 1995. Ninchi bunpo ron [Theories of cognitive grammar]. Tokyo: Hitsuji Shobo.Suche in Google Scholar

Yamanashi, Masa-aki. 2009. Ninchi kobun ron [Theories of cognitive constructions]. Tokyo: Taishukan.Suche in Google Scholar

Received: 2020-08-31
Accepted: 2021-06-06
Published Online: 2021-07-14
Published in Print: 2023-07-26

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Workplace communication in flux: from discrete languages, text genres and conversations to complex communicative situations
  3. Orienting to the language learner role in multilingual workplace meetings
  4. Negotiating belonging in multilingual work environments: church professionals’ engagement with migrants
  5. Changing participation in web conferencing: the shared computer screen as an online sales interaction resource
  6. Policing language in the world of new work: the commodification of workplace communication in organizational consulting
  7. “It’s not the same thing as last time I wrote a report”: Digital text sharing in changing organizations
  8. Regular Articles
  9. “It sounds like elves talking” – Polish migrants in Aberystwyth (Wales) and their impressions of the Welsh language
  10. Exploring lexical bundles in low proficiency level L2 learners’ English writing: an ETS corpus study
  11. Kingdom of heaven versus nirvana: a comparative study of conceptual metaphors for Christian and Buddhist ideals of life
  12. Linguistic multi-competence in the community: the case of a Japanese plural suffix -tachi for individuation
  13. Accent or not? Language attitudes towards regional variation in British Sign Language
  14. Validating young learners’ plurilingual repertoires as legitimate linguistic and cultural resources in the EFL classroom
  15. A corpus-based study of LGBT-related news discourse in Thailand’s and international English-language newspapers
  16. Academic emotions in giving genre-based peer feedback: an emotional intelligence perspective
  17. Detecting concealed language knowledge via response times
Heruntergeladen am 27.11.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/applirev-2020-0099/html
Button zum nach oben scrollen