Repeating a word in Japanese
Repeating a word in Japanese | Maria Leedham | March 3rd, 2004
Dominic wrote:
Another aspect of the Japanese phenomena is that, when speaking Japanese, if I don't know a word said to me and I ask the Japanese speaker for an explanation in Japanese they will almost always attempt an English translation, even if I explicitly ask for paraphrase in Japanese (!)
This is - sort of - related to Dominic's translation query. I teach Japanese students in the UK and have lived in Japan too. I wondered if it's more acceptable in Japanese to repeat the same word, especially in written language. For example, my Japanese students write: I like the architecture of the buildings in Oxford. The buildings are... Where NSs might try to use a pronoun, or alternative noun for "buildings". When I asked this, ss said they think it IS more acceptable to repeat the noun as it's "clearer". So not just due to a lack of alternative words in their vocabulary.
Any people fluent in Japanese and English who can comment??
Maria
Oxford, UK
Re: Repeating a word in Japanese | Simon Humphries | March 4th, 2004
Hi Maria,
That is a really interesting question, especially because living in Japan, I'd noticed how Japanese usually just drop the known information from the beginning of a sentence - for example "watashi" for the subject "I". When I say "known information" I mean the speaker/writer assumes that this information is known and it sometimes causes confusion.
I've spoken to a Japanese colleague about why Japanese do often repeat nouns though instead of using pronouns, there are two main reasons: pronouns aren't really used, and there is no pressure in Japanese to change the noun.
On the first point for example, the pronouns "kare" for "he" and "kanajo" for "she" are more often used as the nouns "boyfriend" and "girlfriend". Family members can never be replaced by pronouns, grammatically possible - but just never done.
On the second point, in English we are under pressure to change nouns rather than repeat them. If writing an essay about the Queen, we have to find synonyms like "Her Royal Majesty, Royal Highness, the Crown ... etc..." Japanese don't have to do this and can just repeat the word. I don't think thesauruses sell well in Japan - if they exist!
In this way (if you ignore the problem of having to learn thousands of characters that have different pronunciations when put together in different ways) Japanese is an easier language to learn than English. This is because there are far fewer adjectives used to describe things, and when reading a passage in Japanese or listening to it, the repetition of the same words cause them to stick in your mind more easily.
Hope this helps,
Simon
Re: Repeating a word in Japanese | Michael McDonald | March 4th, 2004
I've spoken to a Japanese colleague about why Japanese do often repeat nouns though instead of using pronouns, there are two main reasons: pronouns aren't really used, and there is no pressure in Japanese to change the noun.
This looks like a fertile area for a LEX assignment or dissertation.
Mike McDonald
Re: Repeating a word in Japanese | Robert Haines | March 4th, 2004
The discussions on this list so far have possibly raised my awareness of linguistic terminology. It's fun to tinker with language that way.
As for Japanese students repeating nouns, I think it is clearer, actually. I've heard noun repetition used as a stylistic device in English, e.g. I like the architecture of the buildings in New York. The buildings there stand like the walls of a stone canyon.
I think the English we teach is often a coursebook English that doesn't necessarily reflect the English we actually use outside the classroom when our "guard is down". The English used among folks who have not inherited English is often another English as well.
Below is a blurb and an article on the subject of coursebook English.
Rob
Free
the world from coursebook English
Not all English teachers are native speakers, says Luke Meddings - so by
encouraging conversation-driven teaching, we can allow other models of the
language to thrive...
Re: Repeating a word in Japanese | Simon Humphries | March 4th, 2004
Hi Mike,
It does look like an interesting area doesn't it. Another area could also be the way that Japanese adjectives tend to have quite a few meanings; whereas it is the opposite in the English language - one meaning can have quite a few alternative words to describe it.
Simon
Re: Repeating a word in Japanese | Sharell | March 4th, 2004
Just as a short aside to a part of what Mike said about the use of pronouns in Japanese, recently there has been a jump in students who use translation software in their written homework assignments. Because of the avoidance of pronouns in Japanese, one way they are immediately recognizable is the excessive use of the pronoun it . Instead of a sentence such as: I live in Nagoya with my family. We get: It lives in Nagoya with its family.
Sharell
Japan
Re: Repeating a word in Japanese | Michael McDonald | March 7th, 2004
I'm afraid this message may be too late to be of any practical help to Maria, but I noticed today while reading Steve Mann's article in the MET module (Articles folder unit 8) that he mentions this very point on pages 10 and 11, with an additional reference to an article by Locastro on aizuchi:
Locastro, V (1987). Aizuchi: A Japanese conversational routine. In Smith, L. (ed.) Discourse across Cultures: Strategies in World Englishes. London: Prentice Hall.
Mike McDonald
with 
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