著者
川村 明日香 Kawamura Asuka カワムラ アスカ
出版者
大阪大学言語文化学会
雑誌
大阪大学言語文化学 = Journal of language and culture (ISSN:09181504)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.27, pp.55-68, 2018

The story of the Broadway musical The Lion King is set in a fictional country in Africa. This image is a fantasy; however, audiences feel the reality of Africa represented in it. The present study is undertaken to reveal the mechanisms employed in making the fantasy seem Africa-like. If we regard the whole musical The Lion King as a text, the advertisements and pamphlets included in the production can be defined as paratexts which surround the main text and influence the readers' understanding of the main text. The main text can be classified into two parts; the story and the expression. In the storyline, the only things to make us imagine Africa are the main characters who are African animals. However, in the expression, we can find many things that suggest Africa, for example, the sound of African languages in songs and dialogue, the make-up inspired by African tradition, and the clothing's patterns and colors. These things create a synergy that makes us feel that the stage is an African-like space. However, most of the audience does not know which African language is spoken, and which African tradition is applied to the stage design. Further, although after the translation from English into Japanese the African images of the main text were almost unchanged, there is a substantial difference between the pamphlet of the Broadway production and that of the Japanese production. The former has explanations about the African cultures that are applied to the stage design, makeup, and costumes. In the Broadway production, the pamphlet writer insists that African images in The Lion King have roots to the real Africa. The latter mentions that the Japanese production of The Lion King promotes friendship between Japan and South Africa, but there is not much information about African culture. In the Japanese pamphlet, Africa is presented as a "vast" place with "unique" percussion instruments, and the phrase "a language unfamiliar to audiences" is used to describe as "the African language," Zulu. Thus, many in the Japanese audience imagie Africa as an entity that has a single "African culture." Therefore, at each level of the storyline, the expression and the paratexts different African images are represented. Moreover, in the paratexts, African images in The Lion King are affected by the translation from English to Japanese.
著者
板垣 浩正 Itagaki Hiromasa イタガキ ヒロマサ
出版者
大阪大学言語文化学会
雑誌
大阪大学言語文化学 = Journal of language and culture (ISSN:09181504)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.27, pp.41-53, 2018

In Japanese writing, some expressions occur with a parenthesis like the form "X(Y),"as shown in the phrase "Tokyo Daigaku(To-dai)." This paper investigates an expression that does not contain Y and is used as Internet slang like "Tensai( )," and shows its semantic and functional characteristics(hereafter Null-Parenthesis). First, I introduce some previous research on parenthesis sentences. Research on these expressions began in the field of natural language processing, and has been carried on by theoretical linguistics, such as Relevance Theory or Cognitive Linguistics. This paper empirically shows that schematic descriptions in previous studies are not semantically adequate because of the idiosyncratic features of Null-Parenthesis. This suggests that semantic characteristics of some parenthetical expressions need a lowerlevel(individual)description, rather than an abstract description. This paper observes some behaviors of the Null-Parenthesis associated with several grammatical phenomena. It examines:(i)comparison of the Null-Parenthesis usage with a square-bracket expression;(ii)the acceptability in the interrogative sentence; and(iii) the occurrence position of the usage of the Null-Parenthesis. This examination indicates that the Null-Parenthesis conveys the cynical attitude of the writer on the word(or phrase)immediately before the parenthesis. Further, this paper points out that(iv)the Null-Parenthesis cannot appear in the specific event or action, and(v)when the verb that occurs with the Null-Parenthesis is taken as a possible form [-(rar)eru], the Null- Parenthesis can only be accepted in the attributive possible meaning of the verb. This means that the Null-Parenthesis has a constraint that it cannot express the cynical attitude toward a specific event, but instead toward a property of the thing. Based on that consideration mentioned above, this paper argues that the Null-Parenthesis can be generalized as follows; it conveys the cynical attitude of the writer to the property designated by the preceding word. In addition, this paper looks into the semantic extension of the Null-Parenthesis, such as "Mou shukudai akirameta( )." It presents that this type of usage can also be explained by assuming the semantic generalization mentioned in this paper, and Intersubjectivity proposed by Traugott(2003). In conclusion, even though the Null-Parenthesis is a type of Japanese Internet slang, often regarded as a peripheral expression, this paper argues that this usage is not a vague expression, but rather a "linguistic" phenomenon.