著者

李 春喜

出版者

関西大学外国語学部

雑誌

関西大学外国語学部紀要 = Journal of foreign language studies (ISSN:18839355)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.10, pp.99-105, 2014-03

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These research notes are about "Englishness" and "Japaneseness." This theme has been explored by many researchers, and this research notes are also based on work by the Japanese linguist, Yoshihiko Ikegami. These research notes are divided into four sections. The first section deals with the "mono" language and the "koto" language. English focuses on "things [mono in Japanese]," whereas Japanese focuses on "events [koto in Japanese]." The second section discusses the "HAVE" language and the "BE" language. English is likely to use "have," the verb of possession, in occasions in which Japanese uses "be," the verb of existence or a copula. The third section, by focusing on verbs, points out how strong the subject of the English language controls the rest of the sentence. The last section discusses the language of "suru["do" in English]" and the language of "naru ["become" in English]." In Japanese, "suru" means that "somebody does something," whereas "naru" implies that "an event occurs as if of its own initiative." In conclusion, those notes indicate that the differences between English and Japanese reflect cultural differences inherent to the English speaking and the Japanese speaking people's attitudes toward life.