Colloquial Kansai Japanese

Author: D. C. Palter
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462901689
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Book Description
This is a compact and convenient guide to learning the Kansai dialect of the Japanese language Maido, maido and welcome to the Kansai region of western Japan. Whether visiting or living in this area, you will quickly notice the locals aren't speaking standard Japanese taught in textbooks and classrooms. The language on the streets is Kansai-ben: a dialect said to be earthier and more direct, but with its own polite language. With clear explanations of grammar, a Kansai-ben dictionary, and a helpful index, Colloquial Kansai Japanese is an indispensable guide to the rich speech of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe. Hundreds of sample phrases, sentences and conversations show how the dialect works in everyday situations, ranging from shopping to dealing with the boss. And while you're leaning about the nuances of Kansai-ben, you will have fun reading about Kansai cuisine, sports and specialties. So open your mouth when you speak, roll your r's, and try out this colorful dialect. With your copy of Colloquial Kansai Japanese, you will soon be among friends in Kansai.

Kansai Japanese

Author: Peter Tse
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462918077
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 153

Book Description
Finally, a systematic approach to learning the language of Kansai's boardrooms, shops, bars, a and boudoirs."—Kansai time Out Kansai Japanese contains everything you need to know about Kansai-ben, the most important dialect of the Japanese language. Spoken in the Kansai region, which includes the well-known cities of Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe, Kansai-ben has long been considered a cryptic dialect even by Japanese. Thus it is no wonder that foreigners who speak only standard Japanese are baffled when they find themselves surrounded by the 21 million Japanese speaking the Kansai dialect. Kansai-ben is said to be earthier and more direct than standard Japanese, but it has its own system of polite language that is not taught in books or schools. In fact, Kansai-ben is rarely taught anywhere, and until now there has been no English text that explains the workings of this colorful dialect. Entertaining and very practical, Kansai Japanese has hundreds of sample sentences and dialogues with both English and standard-Japanese equivalents, covering topics like: Traditional Kyoto dialectMale and female speechLovers' languageKansai honorifics land insultsTV and movie samurai languageAnd much more!

The Social Life of the Japanese Language

Author: Shigeko Okamoto
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316720616
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
Why are different varieties of the Japanese language used differently in social interaction, and how are they perceived? How do honorifics operate to express diverse affective stances, such as politeness? Why have issues of gendered speech been so central in public discourse, and how are they reflected and refracted in language use as social practice? This book examines Japanese sociolinguistic phenomena from a fascinating new perspective, focusing on the historical construction of language norms and its relationship to actual language use in contemporary Japan. This socio-historically sensitive account stresses the different choices which have shaped Japanese and Western sociolinguistics and how varieties of Japanese, honorifics and politeness, and gendered language have emerged in response to the socio-political landscape in which a modernizing Japan found itself.

An Introduction to Japanese - Syntax, Grammar & Language

Author: Michiel Kamermans
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789081507110
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 402

Book Description
Starting at the very basics and working its way up to important language constructions, "An introduction to Japanese" offers beginning students, as well as those doing self-study, a comprehensive grammar for the Japanese language. Oriented towards the serious learner, there are no shortcuts in this book: no romanised Japanese for ease of reading beyond the introduction, no pretending that Japanese grammar maps perfectly to English grammar, and no simplified terminology. In return, this book explains Japanese the way one may find it taught at universities, covering everything from basic to intermediary Japanese, and even touching on some of the more advanced constructions.

The Cambridge Handbook of Japanese Linguistics

Author: Yoko Hasegawa
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316946525
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 1146

Book Description
The linguistic study of Japanese, with its rich syntactic and phonological structure, complex writing system, and diverse sociohistorical context, is a rapidly growing research area. This book, designed to serve as a concise reference for researchers interested in the Japanese language and in typological studies of language in general, explores diverse characteristics of Japanese that are particularly intriguing when compared with English and other European languages. It pays equal attention to the theoretical aspects and empirical phenomena from theory-neutral perspectives, and presents necessary theoretical terms in clear and easy language. It consists of five thematic parts including sound system and lexicon, grammatical foundation and constructions, and pragmatics/sociolinguistics topics, with chapters that survey critical discussions arising in Japanese linguistics. The Cambridge Handbook of Japanese Linguistics will be welcomed by general linguists, and students and scholars working in linguistic typology, Japanese language, Japanese linguistics and Asian Studies.

Unbeaten Tracks in Japan

Author: Isabella Lucy Bird
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Japan
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Book Description

The Japanese Sentence-Final Particles in Talk-in-Interaction

Author: Hideki Saigo
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Book Description
The Japanese sentence-final particles, ne, yo and yone have proved notoriously difficult to explain and are especially challenging for second language users. This book investigates the role of the particles in talk-in-interaction with the aim of providing a comprehensive understanding that accounts for their pragmatic properties and sequential functions and that provides a sound basis for second language pedagogy. This study starts by setting up an original particle function hypothesis based on the figure/ground gestalt, and then tests its validity empirically with unmarked, marked and native/non-native talk-in-interaction data. The analysis illustrates not only expectable but also unexpected or strategic use of particles, as well as the problems posed for native speakers by non-native speakers whose use of particles is idiosyncratic. The study demonstrates that the proposed hypothesis is capable of accounting for all the uses of particles in the extensive and varied data set examined. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in pragmatics and CA and to teachers of Japanese as a foreign language.

The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature

Author: Haruo Shirane
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316368289
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature provides, for the first time, a history of Japanese literature with comprehensive coverage of the premodern and modern eras in a single volume. The book is arranged topically in a series of short, accessible chapters for easy access and reference, giving insight into both canonical texts and many lesser known, popular genres, from centuries-old folk literature to the detective fiction of modern times. The various period introductions provide an overview of recurrent issues that span many decades, if not centuries. The book also places Japanese literature in a wider East Asian tradition of Sinitic writing and provides comprehensive coverage of women's literature as well as new popular literary forms, including manga (comic books). An extensive bibliography of works in English enables readers to continue to explore this rich tradition through translations and secondary reading.

Tuttle Concise Japanese Dictionary

Author: Samuel E. Martin
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462910416
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 1080

Book Description
Every serious student of Japanese needs a reliable and user-friendly dictionary in their collection. Tuttle Concise Japanese Dictionary, now with 30% more content, is a completely updated dictionary designed for students and business people who are living in Japan and using the Japanese language on a daily basis. Its greatest advantage is that it contains recent idiomatic expressions which have become popular in the past several years and which are not found in other competing dictionaries. The dictionary has been fully updated with the addition of recent vocabulary relating to computers, mobile phones, social media and the Internet. Other special features that set this dictionary apart include: Over 25,000 words and expressions including idioms and slang. User-friendly layout with main entries in color. Complete Japanese-English and English-Japanese sections. Romanized forms and the Japanese script are given for all Japanese words. A guide to pronunciation helps the user to pronounce Japanese words correctly. Different senses of each word are distinguished by multiple definitions.

Genre in a Changing World

Author: Charles Bazerman
Publisher: Parlor Press LLC
ISBN: 1643170015
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 486

Book Description
Genre studies and genre approaches to literacy instruction continue to develop in many regions and from a widening variety of approaches. Genre has provided a key to understanding the varying literacy cultures of regions, disciplines, professions, and educational settings. GENRE IN A CHANGING WORLD provides a wide-ranging sampler of the remarkable variety of current work. The twenty-four chapters in this volume, reflecting the work of scholars in Europe, Australasia, and North and South America, were selected from the over 400 presentations at SIGET IV (the Fourth International Symposium on Genre Studies) held on the campus of UNISUL in Tubarão, Santa Catarina, Brazil in August 2007—the largest gathering on genre to that date. The chapters also represent a wide variety of approaches, including rhetoric, Systemic Functional Linguistics, media and critical cultural studies, sociology, phenomenology, enunciation theory, the Geneva school of educational sequences, cognitive psychology, relevance theory, sociocultural psychology, activity theory, Gestalt psychology, and schema theory. Sections are devoted to theoretical issues, studies of genres in the professions, studies of genre and media, teaching and learning genre, and writing across the curriculum. The broad selection of material in this volume displays the full range of contemporary genre studies and sets the ground for a next generation of work.