著者

高野 恵美子 Takano Emiko

出版者

昭和女子大学近代文化研究所

雑誌

學苑 = GAKUEN (ISSN:13480103)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.846, pp.28-39, 2011-04-01

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Abstract As B.L.Whorf(1956)pointed out, each language has "fashions of speaking," Japanese speakers tend to like subjective construal, while English speakers tend to like objective construal. This paper explores how differences between English and Japanese construal affect the usage of motion verbs COME and GO in both languages. Analyzing English and Japanese COME and GO, we learned that Japanese speakers usually take the speaker's viewpoint. Thus, in Japanese, when the motion is directed towards the speaker as the goal, the verb COME(kuru)is used, and when the motion is directed away from the speaker's location, the verb GO(iku)is used. In English, however, a speaker often shifts his/her viewpoint to the hearer and takes the hearer's viewpoint perhaps because of empathy and respect for the hearer. We concluded that Japanese is a speaker-centered monologue-type language, while English is a hearer-centered dialogue-type language.