Note the page numbers are for the textbook, Japanese: A linguistic introduction (Hasegawa, 2015), unless specified. *For daily assignments, please go to the page(s) of the day on Canvas.
UNIT 1 SOUNDS AND SYMBOLS
Week 1a (2/13) Introduction to Japanese Linguistics
Chapter 1 Introduction, focus on 1.1.
descriptivism, prescriptivism, language, dialects, mutual intelligibility, arbitrariness, symbol(s), icon(s), index(es), etc.
Week 1b (2/15) Sounds and Writing, Dialects overview
The writing systems of Japanese ＜あ ア 安 a＞
Japanese Vowels and Consonants preview
hiragana, katakana, kanji, Roma-ji (Cabinet Ordinance system, Hepburn system)
Wk2a (M 2/20) Consonants & Vowels
Chapter 3 – 3.1 Phonetics!
[For consonants] voicing (voiced, voiceless), place of articulation (bilabial, alveolar, etc.), manner of articulation (stops/obstruent(s), fricative(s), affricate(s), etc.);
[For vowels]: tongue hight (high, mid, low); tongue advancement (front, central, back)
Wk2b (W 2/22) Rhythms and Patterns of Japanese Sounds 🎶
Chapter 3 – 3.2 – 3.4 Phonology and Prosody!
Rhythm of haiku, J-pop songs and more; mora & syllable, sound patterns
length, contrastive/non-contrastive
mora(s), syllable(s), distinctive (contrastive)/non-distinctive (non-contrastive), mora-timed, syllable-timed, stress-timed
Events
Wk3a (M 2/27) Dialects and Pitch Accents
Chapter 3 – 3.5-3.7
accents, dialects, pitch-accent, initial-lowering rule
Wk3b (W 3/1) Discussion Session 1
Ch2 2.2 Okinawan Dialects (Hasegawa, 2015) — postponed
Speech Errors and Word Games (Tsujimura, 2013)*
Sequential Voicing (rendaku) (Tsujimura, 2013)*
onset*, nucleus*, coda*, anticipation*, perseveration*, Lyman’s Law, etc.
Unit 2 WORDS AND CHARACTERS
Wk 4a (M 3/6) Writing System and Vocabulary
4.1, 4.2; 5.1, 5.2
[Orthography] hiragana, katakana, kanji, roma-ji;
[Lexicon] word(s), content word(s), function word(s), noun(s), verb(s), adjective(s), adverb(s), case particle(s), sentence-final particle(s), postpositions, idiophone(s)), Sino-Japanese words, Native-Japanese words, Foreign Loanwords, Hybrid words,
Homework 1 DUE (M 3/6 by 11:59PM)
Wk 4b (W 3/8) Discussion Session 2
5.3 (Word frequency); Onometopoeia (Shibatani, 1990)
onomatopoeia(s)*, phonomime (giongo)*, phenomime (gitaigo)*, psychomime (gijoogo)*,
Events hosted by the Linguistics Program
To be updated
Wk5a (M 3/13) Word Structure
6.1-6.4 Inflectional morphology pp. 75-83, 6.5-6.9 Derivational morphology pp. 83-87
morpheme(s), content morpheme(s), function morpheme(s), inflectional morpheme(s), derivational morpheme(s), compounding, compounds, etc.
Journal 1 Due (M 3/13) by 11:59PM
Events
To be updated:
TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 4:15–5:00 p.m. ET
Behind the Scenes at the Tokyo Olympics: The View from the Interpreter’s Booth
Wk 5b (W 3/15) Discussion
Discussion leading
SPECIAL UNIT Various forms of Japanese & linguistic research
Wk 6a (M 3/27) Exploring Research Questions
Loanwords in hiragana (Kunert, 2020)
symbol(s), symbolic, symbolism, icon(s), iconic, indexicality, index(es), semiotics
Wk 6b (W 3/29) Special session – TBA
UNIT 3 SENTENCES & DISCOURSE
Wk 7a (M 4/3) Case markers and word order
Chapter 7 Cases Marking; Word Order (Shibatani, 1990)*
constituents, nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, subject(s), predicate(s), argument(s), adjunct(s), valence, transitivity, head*, dependent*, modifier*, head-initial*, head-final*
Wk7b (W 4/5) Subject and Topics (ga and wa)
Ch8 Subjects and Topics
topic, subject, identifiability, anaphora, antecedent, staging, etc.
Wk 8a (M4/10) How to do things with words
Ch19 Speech Acts
speech act(s), illocutionary force(s), representative(s), expressive(s), declaration(s), commissive(s), directive(s), question(s), etc.
Wk8b (W4/12) Politeness and Honorifics
Ch20 Politeness, Honorifics
referent honorifics, addressee honorifics, honorific forms, humilifics (humble forms), etc.
Wk9a (M4/17) Exploring social meanings
Ch22 Speech Style Shift; Ch23 Sentence final particles; Ch28 Gendered Language
Wk9b (W4/29) Discussion
Apologies in English and Japanese**
UNIT4 LANGUAGE, COGNITION & CULTURE
Wk10a (M4/24 ) How events are described
O’Grady and Archibald (2018) Lexicalization patterns
motion events, path of motion, manner of motion
Wk10b (W4/26) Expression of uncertainty & Demonstratives ‘This” and “That”
Ch24 Modality/Evidentiality; Ch26 Deixis, Demonstratives
modality, deontic modal, epistemic modal, demonstratives
Wk11a (W5/1)
Wk11b (W5/3) Discussions
Deictic expressions, Accessibility of Information (Shibatani 1990)*
APPLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS
Wk12a (M 5/8) Presentations 1
Reading TBA
Reading articles/Working on projects
Wk12b (W 5/10) Presentations 2
Reading TBA
