An Introduction to The National Language Research Institute:
A Sketch of its Achievements
Third Edition(1988)/
HTML Version(1997)
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II.2.9 Japanese Synonymy and its Problems
(Report 28, 1965. 336 pages)
The Japanese language has so many words of foreign origin,
especially kango (Chinese borrowings), that almost every day we
face problems of synonyms. We tried in this study to
consider various phases of synonyms and to make a general
survey of synonymic problems.
In the former part, we laid a stress on the meanings
and feelings of the words, and surveyed the following
points through opinionnaires:
1. Differences in objective meaning between synonymous
words(e.g., mori/hayasi, 'woody place'), and degrees of
agreement among people with regard to the differences.
2. Differences of emotive meaning between close
synonyms(e.g., zyosei/huzin, 'woman'), and degrees of agreement
among people with regard to the differences. Which word do
they select from among synonyms in a given situation, and what
are the factors affecting the selection? What are the
differences between young and old people concerning commonly used
words within synonym sets(e.g., sekken/syabon. 'soap')?
As a result of the survey, we found that the proper use of
synonyms is common, but that there are inevitably some
divergencies among individuals about the meanings of
words; as for emotive meaning, however, we found larger
degrees of agreement among people with respect to the differences
between synonyms than we had expected.
For the latter part of the paper, about the problems of
synonyms, we took up cases causing discussion in
mass-communication circles today, and examined why they have come
into question. We made sure, by questionnaires of some
important points of the problems caused by the flood of loan words
and the ambiguity of homonymic synonyms. We found that
importation of loan words, often ambiguous in meaning,
through diverse channels, causes Japanese to possess many
synonyms, and that homonymic synonyms are used properly in some
points, with a clear consciousness of their meanings, and at
other points, not. This information may be considered as basic
for a rearrangement of the Japanese vocabulary.
The book has a list of homonymic synonyms containing
1,422 items.
This study was carried out by MATUO Osamu, NISIO Toraya
and TANAKA Akio.
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