DOCSLIB.ORG

What Do Kanji Graphs Represent in the Current Japanese Writing System? Towards a Unified Model of Kanji As Written Signs

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
What Do Kanji Graphs Represent in the Current Japanese Writing System? Towards a Unified Model of Kanji As Written Signs What Do Kanji Graphs Represent in the Current Japanese Writing system? Towards a Unified Model of Kanji as Written Signs Keisuke Honda Abstract. In the current Japanese writing system, kanji graphs constitute a ma­ jor subpart of its signary. There are two opposing views on how to characterise them in linguistic terms, making different claims about the type of linguistic unit they represent. The first view claims that kanji graphs are based primarily on the morpheme because a majority of currently used graphs represent indi­ vidual morphemes. The second view maintains that they are based primarily on the sound and only secondarily on the morpheme because all graphs represent sounds that may or may not correspond to individual morphemes. The present paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of both views and sketches out a new, unified model of how kanji graphs function as written signs. In this model, kanji graphs are seen as the formal building blocks of simplex or complex written signs representing the phonological exponents of individual morphemes. Introduction This paper discusses the type of linguistic unit represented by the graphs of the kanji (漢字) script in the present­day Japanese writing system. The starting point of the present article is a practice widely observed in graphemics, in which individual writing systems are referred to as being ‘phonemic,’ ‘syllabic,’ ‘morphemic’ and so on (Section 1). More specifically, each writing system is characterised in terms of apartic­ ular type of linguistic unit (e.g., phoneme) if all or most of its written signs represent the individual instances of that unit (e.g., /i/, /a/, /o/, /p/, /t/, /k/, …). A prerequisite for such a characterisation is a linguistic analysis of the signary, that is, the set of written signs employed in the given writing system. The validity of the characterisation, then, depends on the adequacy of the signary analysis. Keisuke Honda 0000-0003-4228-5406 Imperial College London, Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom University of Oxford, Oxford University Language Centre 12 Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HT, United Kingdom E­mail: [email protected] Y. Haralambous (Ed.), Graphemics in the 21st Century. Brest, June 13­15, 2018. Proceedings Grapholinguistics and Its Applications (ISSN: 2534­5192), Vol. 1. Fluxus Editions, Brest, 2019, p. 185–208. https://doi.org/10.36824/2018-graf-hond ISBN: 978­2­9570549­0­9, e­ISBN: 978­2­9570549­1­6 186 Keisuke Honda In this regard, Japanese kanji graphs deserve special attention (Sec­ tion 2). They are sinographs or ‘Chinese characters’ employed in the Japanese writing system, used alongside the graphs of the kanji­derived hiragana (平仮名) and katakana (片仮名) scripts as well as the Latin script known as rōmaji (ローマ字) (Smith 1996, pp. 209–210; Honda 2012, pp. 39–47; I. Taylor and M. M. Taylor 2014, pp. 271–283).1 De­ spite the persisting belief that kanji graphs represent things and ideas without recourse to language (e.g., Suzuki 1975, p. 178), they are in fact closely related to the phonological, morphological and semantic proper­ ties of the Japanese lexicon (e.g., Unger 1987, pp. 45–49, 1990, pp. 397– 411; Kōno 1994, p. 11; Matsunaga 1996, pp. 2–12). Today kanji graphs are used mainly to write individual content words or their stems in the Sino­ Japanese, native Japanese and hybrid vocabularies. Given the mixed use of kanji and other graphs, kanji graphs constitute what may be seen as a major subpart of the signary of the Japanese writing system. An im­ portant question, then, is whether a single type of linguistic unit should be postulated to account for the functioning of kanji graphs and, if so, what that unit might be. In the literature, it is possible to identify two major schools of thought on this question (Sections 3 and 4). For convenience, the present paper refers to the first one as the morphographic theory and the second one as the morphophonic theory, borrowing the respective terms from Joyce (2011, p. 58) and Matsunaga (1996, p. 17).2 The morpho­ graphic theory claims that kanji should be considered primarily mor­ phemic because there is a one­to­one correspondence between indi­ vidual graphs and morphemes in most kanji­written words (Hill 1967, pp. 93–96; Miller 1967, pp. 92–93; 1986, 15ff; Nomura 1999, pp. 1–3; Sproat 2000, pp. 154–160; Joyce 2001, pp. 12–111; 2011, pp. 63–72; Samp­ son 2015, pp. 208–232). In contrast, the morphophonic theory holds that kanji graphs are primarily phonographic and only secondarily mor­ phemic because all graphs represent sounds that may or may not corre­ spond to individual morphemes (DeFrancis 1989, pp. 138–143; Matsu­ naga 1994, pp. 34–39, 1996, pp. 14–18; also see Unger 1987, pp. 35–49; DeFrancis and Unger 1994; Unger and DeFrancis 1995). To the knowledge of the present author, there has been little attempt to examine the validity of these two theories through direct compari­ son. However, they deserve special consideration because they provide 1. For a comprehensive description of kanji graphs and their use, see Satō (1987– 1989), Satō et al. (1996), and Kōno, Nagata, and Sasahara (2001), among others. 2. DeFrancis (1989, p. 58) first proposed the term ‘morphophonic,’ together with the alternative form ‘morphonic’. The present paper adopts the former, although with a warning not to confuse it with the unrelated term ‘morphophonemic,’ because the latter is conventionally associated with the notion of ‘morphon’ in Stratificational Grammar (Lamb, 1966). What Do Kanji Graphs Represent in the Japanese Writing system? 187 significantly different interpretations of the way kanji graphs function as written signs. According to the morphographic theory, kanji graphs relate directly to the morphological level of linguistic representation. An important implication of this notion is that they function in a funda­ mentally different way from phonographs or phonologically based writ­ ten signs. Contrastively, the morphophonic theory suggests that kanji graphs relate mainly to phonology and only optionally to morphology. This implies that they share a common ground with phonographs, in that sounds play a crucial role in both types of written signs. These con­ siderations motivate a comparative examination of the two existing the­ ories. This paper presents a critical analysis of the morphographic and mor­ phophonic theories and develops a preliminary sketch of a new, unified model of how kanji function as written signs in the current Japanese writing system. Section 1 introduces the notion of linguistic unit under­ lying a writing system. Section 2 provides the necessary background on kanji graphs and kanji­written words. Section 3 takes a closer look at the morphographic theory, with a particular focus on the analysis of two­ kanji compound words presented by Joyce (2001; 2011). Section 4 turns to the morphophonic theory, focusing on Matsunaga’s (1994; 1996) dis­ cussion of what are known as the phonetic elements of kanji graphs. Section 5 proposes an integrated model of kanji as written signs, which draws on the advantages of the existing theories while avoiding their disadvantages. In this proposed model, kanji graphs are viewed as the formal building blocks of structurally simplex or complex written signs representing the phonological exponents of individual morphemes. Sec­ tion 5 summarises the discussion and draws conclusions. 1. Linguistic Unit Underlying a Writing System Writing may be seen as a system of visible and/or tactile marks, by means of which utterances can be encoded into and decoded from par­ ticular graphical representations in a more or less conventional manner (Daniels 1996, p. 3; 2018, pp. 156–157; Coulmas 2003, pp. 1–17). This pa­ per refers to such marks individually as graphs (Sampson, 2015, pp. 10–11) and collectively as a script (Sproat, 2000, p. 25). Graphs may be used in­ dividually (e.g., <p>) or in fixed combinations (e.g., <pp>) to represent distinct sounds (e.g., /p/), sound combinations (e.g., /pa/), or sound­ meaning units (e.g., /papa/ ‘father’). Thus, one may speak of written signs, each formed by an arbitrary association of a graphical form as the signi­ fier (e.g., <p>) and a linguistic value as the signified (e.g., /p/).3 When a 3. This account is based on Saussure’s (1916) dyadic model of signs. It remains an open question whether this model is in any way preferable to Peirce’s (1931–1958) 188 Keisuke Honda set of written signs is used in accordance with a body of conventions to write a particular language, it is common to regard them respectively as the signary and the orthography of a writing system (Daniels and Bright 1996, pp. xliii–xliv; Coulmas 2003, pp. 35–36). The notion of linguistic unit plays a crucial role in graphemics or the linguistic study of writing systems. Firstly, it is commonly assumed that each written sign represents a specific instance of a particular linguis­ tic unit. For example, a written sign is said to represent a phoneme if its graph corresponds to a single vowel or consonant (e.g., ‘Finnish <p> represents /p/’), or a morpheme if the graph has a sound­meaning value (e.g., ‘Chinese 山 represents {mountain} = /shān/ ‘mountain’) (for more examples, see descriptions of the world’s writing systems in Daniels and Bright 1996 and Kōno, Chino, and Nishida 2001). Secondly, as al­ ready mentioned in the introduction to this paper, it is common to characterise a writing system in terms of a particular linguistic unit (e.g., ‘Finnish is a phonemic writing system,’ ‘Chinese writing system is morphemic’) (again, see Daniels and Bright 1996 and Kōno, Chino, and Nishida 2001). The underlying assumption seems to be that every writing system can be—or even should be—described in terms of one single type of linguistic unit that is most relevant to the signary of that system.4 Gelb (1963, pp.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Fungsi Ateji Dalam Lirik Lagu Pada Album Marginal #4 the Best 「Star Cluster 2」 Produksi Rejet
    PARAMASASTRA Vol. 6 No. 1 - Maret 2019 p-ISSN 2355-4126 e-ISSN 2527-8754 http://journal.unesa.ac.id/index.php/paramasastra FUNGSI ATEJI DALAM LIRIK LAGU PADA ALBUM MARGINAL #4 THE BEST 「STAR CLUSTER 2」 PRODUKSI REJET Meisha Putri M.R., Agus Budi Cahyono Universitas Brawijaya, [email protected] Universitas Brawijaya, [email protected] ABSTRACT This article aimed to describe why furigana in Japanese songs often found different furigana actually with kanji below it. Data uses the album MARGINAL # 4 THE BEST 「STAR CLUSTER 2」 REJET Production. This study uses qualitative descriptive to examine the type of ateji based on Lewis's theory (2010) and its function based on the theory of Jakobson (1960). Based on analysis, writer find more contrastive ateji than denotive ateji. Fatigue function is found more than other functions. The metalingual function is found on all data. Keywords: Ateji, Furigana, semantic PENDAHULUAN Huruf bahasa Jepang dibagi menjadi 4 yang digunakan sehari-hari. Adapun huruf tersebut adalah Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana dan Romaji. Pada penulisan huruf Kanji kadang diikuti dengan furigana yang merupakan bantuan cara baca serta memaknai kanji itu sendiri karena huruf kanji kadang mempunyai cara baca yang berbeda. Selain pembubuhan dengan furigana ada juga dengan ateji. Furigana itu murni sebagai cara baca dan makna aslinya, maka ateji adalah bantuan cara baca yang dilekatkan untuk menambahkan lapisan ide maupun makna di dalam kanji itu sendiri. Ateji merupakan penulisan bahasa Jepang yang tidak mengikuti cara baca jion (cara baca kanji China) dan jikun (cara baca kanji Jepang) ataupun jigi (makna asli) bahasa Jepang tersebut (Shirose, 2012: 103).
    [Show full text]
  • Uhm Phd 9506222 R.Pdf
    INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UM! films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent UJWD the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adverselyaffect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-band comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. U·M·I University Microfilms tnternauonat A Bell & Howell tntorrnatron Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. M148106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800:521·0600 Order Number 9506222 The linguistic and psycholinguistic nature of kanji: Do kanji represent and trigger only meanings? Matsunaga, Sachiko, Ph.D. University of Hawaii, 1994 Copyright @1994 by Matsunaga, Sachiko.
    [Show full text]
  • The Interlinear Poetic Gloss of Japanese
    Rubi -The interlinear poetic gloss of Japanese Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology at SOL Lund Centre for Languages and Literature Div of Chinese Studies and Japanese Studies Bachelor thesis: Spring 2016 Edvin Melander Supervisor: Lars Larm © Copyright Edvin Melander The Faculties of Humanities and Theology Lund University Box 201 SE-221 00 Lund Sweden Phone: +46 (0)46 222 32 10 Humanistiska och teologiska fakulteterna vid SOL Lund Lund Universitet Box 201 SE-221 00 Lund Phone: +46 (0)46 222 32 10 Abstract The Japanese language has a complex system containing four different scripts. Through the combined usage of these scripts into something sometimes referred to as interlinear glossing, it is possible for the writer to express a wide range of poetic styles in a way that is quite unique to the Japanese language. Ranging from metonymical relations between words and sentences, to synecdoche, word play and visual rhymes. This thesis reviews some of the more recent research that has been conducted surrounding the combining of these different scripts to form poetical nuances and functions in written text, to try and find out just what functions and nuances these provide for written text and dialogue. The usage of five distinct but often overlapping categories of interlinear gloss will also be examined. This is done through the use of a questionnaire, where native Japanese speakers have been asked about these five different styles of usage separately in order to gain more sociolinguistic data regarding what nuances, implications, societal implications, functions etc, that these provide. Keywords: Ateji, Furigana, Interlinear gloss, Playful gloss, Rubi Foreword First, I would like to thank my teacher and thesis supervisor Lars Larm for his enthusiastic and tireless guidance, for the many hours spent after class discussing all kinds of matters relating to both language and writing, and especially for his many encouraging words along the way.
    [Show full text]
  • Assessment of Options for Handling Full Unicode Character Encodings in MARC21 a Study for the Library of Congress
    1 Assessment of Options for Handling Full Unicode Character Encodings in MARC21 A Study for the Library of Congress Part 1: New Scripts Jack Cain Senior Consultant Trylus Computing, Toronto 1 Purpose This assessment intends to study the issues and make recommendations on the possible expansion of the character set repertoire for bibliographic records in MARC21 format. 1.1 “Encoding Scheme” vs. “Repertoire” An encoding scheme contains codes by which characters are represented in computer memory. These codes are organized according to a certain methodology called an encoding scheme. The list of all characters so encoded is referred to as the “repertoire” of characters in the given encoding schemes. For example, ASCII is one encoding scheme, perhaps the one best known to the average non-technical person in North America. “A”, “B”, & “C” are three characters in the repertoire of this encoding scheme. These three characters are assigned encodings 41, 42 & 43 in ASCII (expressed here in hexadecimal). 1.2 MARC8 "MARC8" is the term commonly used to refer both to the encoding scheme and its repertoire as used in MARC records up to 1998. The ‘8’ refers to the fact that, unlike Unicode which is a multi-byte per character code set, the MARC8 encoding scheme is principally made up of multiple one byte tables in which each character is encoded using a single 8 bit byte. (It also includes the EACC set which actually uses fixed length 3 bytes per character.) (For details on MARC8 and its specifications see: http://www.loc.gov/marc/.) MARC8 was introduced around 1968 and was initially limited to essentially Latin script only.
    [Show full text]
  • The Japanese Writing Systems, Script Reforms and the Eradication of the Kanji Writing System: Native Speakers’ Views Lovisa Österman
    The Japanese writing systems, script reforms and the eradication of the Kanji writing system: native speakers’ views Lovisa Österman Lund University, Centre for Languages and Literature Bachelor’s Thesis Japanese B.A. Course (JAPK11 Spring term 2018) Supervisor: Shinichiro Ishihara Abstract This study aims to deduce what Japanese native speakers think of the Japanese writing systems, and in particular what native speakers’ opinions are concerning Kanji, the logographic writing system which consists of Chinese characters. The Japanese written language has something that most languages do not; namely a total of ​ ​ three writing systems. First, there is the Kana writing system, which consists of the two syllabaries: Hiragana and Katakana. The two syllabaries essentially figure the same way, but are used for different purposes. Secondly, there is the Rōmaji writing system, which is Japanese written using latin letters. And finally, there is the Kanji writing system. Learning this is often at first an exhausting task, because not only must one learn the two phonematic writing systems (Hiragana and Katakana), but to be able to properly read and write in Japanese, one should also learn how to read and write a great amount of logographic signs; namely the Kanji. For example, to be able to read and understand books or newspaper without using any aiding tools such as dictionaries, one would need to have learned the 2136 Jōyō Kanji (regular-use Chinese characters). With the twentieth century’s progress in technology, comparing with twenty years ago, in this day and age one could probably theoretically get by alright without knowing how to write Kanji by hand, seeing as we are writing less and less by hand and more by technological devices.
    [Show full text]
  • Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms Range: FF00–FFEF
    Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms Range: FF00–FFEF This file contains an excerpt from the character code tables and list of character names for The Unicode Standard, Version 14.0 This file may be changed at any time without notice to reflect errata or other updates to the Unicode Standard. See https://www.unicode.org/errata/ for an up-to-date list of errata. See https://www.unicode.org/charts/ for access to a complete list of the latest character code charts. See https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/Unicode-14.0/ for charts showing only the characters added in Unicode 14.0. See https://www.unicode.org/Public/14.0.0/charts/ for a complete archived file of character code charts for Unicode 14.0. Disclaimer These charts are provided as the online reference to the character contents of the Unicode Standard, Version 14.0 but do not provide all the information needed to fully support individual scripts using the Unicode Standard. For a complete understanding of the use of the characters contained in this file, please consult the appropriate sections of The Unicode Standard, Version 14.0, online at https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode14.0.0/, as well as Unicode Standard Annexes #9, #11, #14, #15, #24, #29, #31, #34, #38, #41, #42, #44, #45, and #50, the other Unicode Technical Reports and Standards, and the Unicode Character Database, which are available online. See https://www.unicode.org/ucd/ and https://www.unicode.org/reports/ A thorough understanding of the information contained in these additional sources is required for a successful implementation.
    [Show full text]
  • Unconscious Gairaigo Bias in EFL: a Case Study of Japanese Teachers of English
    Unconscious Gairaigo Bias in EFL: A Case Study of Japanese Teachers of English Mark Spring Keywords: gairaigo, loanwords, cross-linguistic transfer, bias, traditional teaching 1. Introduction 'Japanese and English speakers find each other's languages hard to learn' (Swan and Smith, 2001: 296). This is probably due in no small part to the many linguistic differences between the seemingly unrelated languages. Huge levels of word borrowing, though, have led to an abundance of loanwords in the current Japanese lexicon, many originating from English. These are known locally in Japan as gairaigo. Indeed, around half of the three thousand most common words in English and around a quarter of those on The Academic Word List (see Coxhead, 2000) correspond in some form to gairaigo (Daulton: 2008: 86). Thus, to some degree we can say that the two languages are 'lexically wed' (ibid: 40). With increasing recognition among researchers of the positive role that the first language plays in the learning of a second, and a growing number of empirical studies indicating gairaigo knowledge can facilitate English acquisition, there have been calls to exploit these loanwords for the benefit of Japanese learners of English. But despite research supporting a role for them in learning English, it is said that 'many or most Japanese teachers of English avoid using gairaigo in the classroom' (Daulton: 2011: 8) due to a 'gairaigo bias' (ibid.). This may stem from unfavourable social attitudes towards loanwords themselves in the Japanese language, and pedagogical concerns over their negative influences on learning. Should this be true, it would represent a position incongruous with the idea of exploiting cross-linguistic lexical similarities.
    [Show full text]
  • 601D 13Spring Syllabus
    Course Syllabus JPN601D First-Year Japanese I Spring 2013 Classes JOSHU section Tu & Th M, W, & F #32315 (green) 8 12:30 - 2:00 ENS 126 1:00 - 2:00 RLM 5.112 #32320 (yellow) 9 12:30 - 2:00 ENS 126 2:00 - 3:00 RLM 6.114 Instructor Office Tel E-mail Office Hours Midori Tanaka WCH 4.114 475-6033 [email protected] TBA Please do not leave voice message on my tel. I. Course Objectives 1) To acquire four skills in the Japanese language: •Listening: Ability to understand simple every day conversation. •Speaking: Ability to handle some survival situations through circumlocutions and repetitions. •Reading: Ability to read simple, short reading materials including semi-authentic materials. •Writing: Ability to write simple sentences learned in class using the appropriate hiragana, katakana, and kanji. 2) To acquire a fundamental knowledge of Japanese grammatical structures. 3) To acquire some knowledge of the Japanese culture. II. Required Course Materials 1) Textbook: "Yookoso! An Invitation to Contemporary Japanese," By Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku, 3rd edition 2) Workbook/Laboratory Manual for Yookoso! An Invitation to Contemporary Japanese, 3rd edition •You should be able to access both textbook and workbook at the PCL reserve desk. 3) Audio CDs: An Invitation to Contemporary Japanese," By Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku, 3rd edition •You can also listen to the CDs through “Real Player.” Log on to http://www.laits.utexas.edu/itsaud/ Password is hamasaki. Call 471-0407 if a different password is requested. • You can also listen to the audios through McGraw-Hill website http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072408154/student_view0/ 4) Handouts including homework assignments etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Kuronet: Pre-Modern Japanese Kuzushiji Character Recognition with Deep Learning
    KuroNet: Pre-Modern Japanese Kuzushiji Character Recognition with Deep Learning Tarin Clanuwat* Alex Lamb* Asanobu Kitamoto Center for Open Data in the Humanities MILA Center for Open Data in the Humanities National Institute of Informatics Universite´ de Montreal´ National Institute of Informatics Tokyo, Japan Montreal, Canada Tokyo, Japan [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract—Kuzushiji, a cursive writing style, had been used in documents is even larger when one considers non-book his- Japan for over a thousand years starting from the 8th century. torical records, such as personal diaries. Despite ongoing Over 3 millions books on a diverse array of topics, such as efforts to create digital copies of these documents, most of the literature, science, mathematics and even cooking are preserved. However, following a change to the Japanese writing system knowledge, history, and culture contained within these texts in 1900, Kuzushiji has not been included in regular school remain inaccessible to the general public. One book can take curricula. Therefore, most Japanese natives nowadays cannot years to transcribe into modern Japanese characters. Even for read books written or printed just 150 years ago. Museums and researchers who are educated in reading Kuzushiji, the need libraries have invested a great deal of effort into creating digital to look up information (such as rare words) while transcribing copies of these historical documents as a safeguard against fires, earthquakes and tsunamis. The result has been datasets with as well as variations in writing styles can make the process hundreds of millions of photographs of historical documents of reading texts time consuming.
    [Show full text]
  • A Flick-Based Japanese Tablet Keyboard Using Direct Kanji Input
    A Flick-based Japanese Tablet Keyboard using Direct Kanji Input Yuya Nakamura1 and Hiroshi Hosobe2 1Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences, Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan 2Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences, Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan Keywords: Text Entry Touch Screen, Touch Typing, Software Keyboard. Abstract: Tablets, as well as smartphones and personal computers, are popular as Internet clients. A split keyboard is a software keyboard suitable for tablets with large screens. However, unlike other methods, the split keyboard has space in the center of the screen, which makes the part of the screen for displaying suggestions small and inconvenient. This paper proposes a Japanese input software keyboard that enables direct kanji input on a split flick keyboard. Once the user has mastered this keyboard, it allows the user to efficiently input Japanese text while holding a tablet with both hands. The paper presents an implementation of the keyboard on Android and reports the result of an experiment on its performance compared with existing methods. In addition, since direct kanji input generally takes time for users to learn, one of the authors by himself has conducted a long- term experiment to confirm the possibility of its mastery. For 12 months, both the input speed and the error rate have gradually improved. 1 INTRODUCTION makes the part of the screen for displaying conversion suggestions small and inconvenient. Japanese text is composed of Chinese-originated In Japan, there are about as many users of “flick” “kanji” characters and Japanese “kana” characters keyboards as QWERTY keyboard users. Flick is a (Tamaoka, 2014). While a kanji character typi- gesture operation especially used for character input cally has a meaning, a kana character does not; in- on touch-screen devices such as tablets and smart- stead, a kana character is associated with a speech phones.
    [Show full text]
  • Section 18.1, Han
    The Unicode® Standard Version 13.0 – Core Specification To learn about the latest version of the Unicode Standard, see http://www.unicode.org/versions/latest/. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trade- mark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters or in all capitals. Unicode and the Unicode Logo are registered trademarks of Unicode, Inc., in the United States and other countries. The authors and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this specification, but make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information or programs contained herein. The Unicode Character Database and other files are provided as-is by Unicode, Inc. No claims are made as to fitness for any particular purpose. No warranties of any kind are expressed or implied. The recipient agrees to determine applicability of information provided. © 2020 Unicode, Inc. All rights reserved. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction. For information regarding permissions, inquire at http://www.unicode.org/reporting.html. For information about the Unicode terms of use, please see http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html. The Unicode Standard / the Unicode Consortium; edited by the Unicode Consortium. — Version 13.0. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-936213-26-9 (http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode13.0.0/) 1.
    [Show full text]
  • General Explanations Nihon Kokugo Daijiten Editorial Policy 1
    General Explanations Nihon kokugo daijiten Editorial Policy 1. This dictionary attempts to offer a historical account of the meanings and usages of the Japanese language through reference to various written materials. 2. Entry items include the vocabulary of modern Japanese as well as items from historical texts. Proper nouns, including names of places and people, and technical and specialized terms are also included. 3. Definitions of a given word are generally arranged in historical order; usage citations are accompanied by the name of the text in which they appear. 4. Sources for citations are taken from a broad spectrum of texts including literary, historical, religious, and other works of various periods. 5. Citation sources range from works of antiquity to works of the Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa periods. Chinese texts are also used for Sino-Japanese words. 6. Citations are taken from the most reliable versions of historical texts; in cases where variant texts are cited, notice is given. 7. Identification of citations is a specific as possible. In order to facilitate comprehension, some citations include the author's name and the field with which the text is associated. 8. Separate subheadings for Dialectal Variants, Etymology, Pronunciation, and Premodern Dictionary Citations are included with commentary where appropriate. 9. Entry headings and definitions are based on modern standards, and are intended to make location and comprehension as easy as possible. Components of the Descriptions The descriptions of words in this dictionary are composed of the following elements: entry heading, historical kana orthography, kanji, part of speech, definitions, examples and sources, supplementary notes, dialectal variants, etymology, pronunciation, and premodern dictionary citations.
    [Show full text]