An Introduction to The National Language Research Institute: A Sketch of its Achievements
Third Edition(1988)/ HTML Version(1997)

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II.3.4 A Study of the Vocabulary in a Newspaper in the Early Years of the Meizi Period (1877-1878)

(Report 15, 1959. 319 pages)
This is the report of a survey undertaken as part of the project, "Research on the Language in the Meizi Period." The aims are to make clear the historical background of present-day Japanese, to ascertain what problems had already arisen or existed in those days, and to propose data for the solution of language problems of today. First and foremost, we planned to survey the vocabulary of the newspaper "Yu~bin Ho~ti," from November 1, 1877, to October 31, 1878, by using a sample with the sampling ratio of 1/12. The number of running words in the sample was about one hundred thousand a-units, where some 23,000 different words were found. Report 15 contains two sorts of word lists. One is a list of all the different words actually found in the sample, with their frequencies. The other list is a collection of words used in the newspaper but which did not occur in the above-mentioned sample; they were selected subjectively. By this selection some 8,600 words are added. On the basis of these data, the following descriptions are presented: 1) Writing forms- On okurigana, i.e., kana added to Chinese characters mainly to show Japanese inflection; kana-spellings; words written only in kana; and hurigana, i.e., kana letters printed at the side of ideographs. 2) Word-construction- On constructions composed of three Chinese characters. 3) Relation between the style and vocabulary- What synonymous pairs are found in contexts of the hard style (originating from the Japanese fashion of reading Chinese) and the soft style (the colloquial style)? What are some characteristic words of each style? The survey was carried out cooperatively by YAMADA Iwao, KENBO Hidetosi, HIROHAMA Humio, ITIKAWA Takasi, and SINDO Sakiko. Concerning vocabulary in the Meizi Period, the following studies have been published in the Annual Reports: An outline of zyosi and zyodosi (X, 1959). The vocabulary of literary essays (XI, 1960). The vocabulary of the so-called "small papers," 1878-1879 (XII, 1961). A study in word origin and style (XIII-XV, 1962-4). Examples of some interesting words and a survey of hurigana (XV, 1964).

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