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

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II Summary of Publications

1. Regional and Social Varieties of Japanese
2. Structure and System of Modern Japanese
3. Statistical Studies on Modern Japanese
4. Language Development and Language Education
5. Teaching of Japanese as a Foreign Language
6. Papers, Year-books, Annual Reports, and other Publications
The following is an outline of each type of publication which the Institute has published up to the present. These publications include printed materials: research reports, sources, occasional papers, annual reports, year-books, and teacher's reference guides for teaching Japanese as a foreign language, as well as edited collections of Japanese dialect maps, and film materials for teaching Japanese as a foreign language. We have divided the publications into the following five research areas and listed them according to area in order of year of publication. However, serial publications and reports on surveys carried out successively in the same area on the same topic are not always given in this order. At the end of this volume, we list the publications collected here. We also indicate a code letter which describes the nature of the data studied for each publication and related research areas as a reference for the reader. 1 Regional and Social Varieties of Japanese 2 Structure and System of Modern Japanese 3 Statistical Studies on Vocabulary and Writing 4 Language Development and Language Education 5 Teaching of Japanese as a Foreign Language 6 Papers, Year-books, Annual Reports, and Other publications

II-1 Regional and Social Varieties of Japanese

We have conducted research on the regional and social varieties of Japanese related to the following three main topics. 1. The actual condition of the use of the common language in regional societies. 2. The actual condition of the use of honorific and polite language in regional societies. 3. Changes in the language of regional societies and factors related to these changes. For the third topic, we have carried out analyses of the factors related to apparent time generational differences and at present have conducted longitudinal surveys over real time in three locations after periods of 20 and 30 years. In addition, recently we have conducted sociolinguistic survey research in the large cities of Tokyo, Osaka, etc. and contrastive research of Japanese and German linguistic behaviour. As part of our research on dialectology we have carried out surveys in the field in 2,400 locations around the country, primarily giving a systematic description of the dialect of each area, and have created the 300-page Linguistic Atlas of Japan, which contains maps of phonetic and word form varieties. Creation of the Grammar Atlas of Japanese Dialects, which focuses primarily on gramatical categories, is presently underway.

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II-2 Structure and System of Modern Japanese

Research on the structure and system of modern Japanese at the Institute has concentrated primarily on lexicology and semantics and has also included research on vowels, grammar and figurative expression. In addition, at a relatively early stage in the history of the Institute, we conducted research on the actual condition of and sentence patterns in the Japanese language. The above consisted of empirical research based on quality data of a substantial quantity.

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II-3 Statistical Studies on Vocabulary and Writing

We have conducted quantitative survey research based on a large quantity of data for the purpose of obtaining basic data on vocabulary and writing forms in modern Japanese. Data for this survey research was obtained from magazines, newspapers, and junior and senior high school textbooks, in that order. The introduction of the computer, starting with the vocabulary survey of newspapers, has played a leading role in computational linguistics in Japan.

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II-4 Language Development and Language Education

The Institute has conducted survey research related to language development since its establishment. From 1953 to 1961, we carried out sequential surveys and analyzed the language development during the six years of elementary school. Since then, we have conducted research on language education based on survey research of the language development not only of elementary school children but also of pre-school children and students in junior and senior high school.

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II-5 Teaching of Japanese as a Foreign Language

The Centre for Teaching of Japanese as a Foreign Language was established in 1976 to replace the former Department of Teaching of Japanese as a Foreign Language which was created in 1974. Due to the recent establishment of the Centre, the history of research on teaching of Japanese as a foreign language at the Institute is short and results are few in comparison with other research areas. The main research results consist of research reports and sources related to fundamental vocabulary, and film materials and supplementary publications for teaching of Japanese as a foreign language. In addition, we have published a series of reference guides for teachers involved in teaching of Japanese as a foreign language and the Institute has played an active role in the training teachers in teaching of Japanese as a foreign language.

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II-6 Papers, Year-books, Annual Reports, and Other Publications

We present publications which were not included in the research fields outlined above: occasional papers written by the Institute staff based on survey research, a bibliography for research on the Japanese language, research information such as the Institute's Year-book, and the Annual Report, the Institute's official report which is published annually.
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