Monday, October 26, 2009

カタカナanalysis

In class, we learned the main occasions in which to use katakana:
a) loan words/foreign names,
b) onomatopoeic expressions, and
c) to add emphasis (though I think sometimes it is hard to distinguish between the two).

Exhibit A: ローシヨンプル(lotion pool, featured in a Japanese game show)
B and C: ピカチュ!
 
check out all the onomatopoeia.


ピカピカ "Pika Pika" in Japanese means emitting light or brightness, which I found in a japanese adaptation of アカハナのトナカ (Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer). It is said to be onomatopoeic, but it makes more sense to say it's emphatic?

 チュ "chu" is the onomatopoeic expression for the squeaking of a mouse.

My question is why is Reindeer in Katakana if there is a Japanese word for it?
So I searched and multiple online descriptions of Katakana says that it can also be used for:
--> new Japanese words such as カラオケ
--> Scientific words such as ガン (cancer)
--> Fruit and animals, even though they have Kanji, but the kanji is said to be difficult and therefore replaced
--> Manga and anime when someone/something foreign (non-human) is speaking (i.e. alien/robot)
--> in advertisement, to be hip

IN CONCLUSION: I think the textbook sticks to the basics rather than enumerate everything because katakana usage has expanded due to culture/convenience, etc. Possibly too expansive to enumerate everything?

9 comments:

emingusmagnus said...

おはよございます、

ヘインさんのブラグわいいですね。"Humorous"はにほんでなんですか。ポケモンをみました。わたしはポケモンみました、しました、よみました、とかいました。それわかきませんですた。どれガウをしましたか。あおいとあかいポケモンしました。いまポケモンをみません。I appreciate knowing what Pikachu is saying though.

ありがとう、
ジェフリー

villagejin_ian said...

そですか。じゃ、カタカナ kind of seems like internet-acronyms in a way, becoming more standard to simplify formal writing (eg: your ref. to fruits in katakana over kanji). Basically, is katakana a linguistic convention to avoid complex kanji or a symbol of culture-diffusion as new words are added each day? Maybe both?

わかりません、
イアン

Mao said...

ヘインさん、

とてもかわいいブログですね!

I agree with your observation of アカハナのトナカイ. It is true that people prefer to use Katakana if the kanji of the word is very complicated. In fact, I don't even know how to write Tonakai in Japanese!!

In addition to your findings, I thought that in some cases, people might be tempted to express something (like an animal, in this case) if it is rather foreign to them. Tonakai is not a borrowed word, as you mentioned, but it is not a common animal to be seen in Japan either. So maybe this "foreign-ness" in the sense that they are not everywhere like dogs (犬) could be one reason why people prefer to use Katakana as well.

But overall, very nice job!!!

Unknown said...

ヘインさん、
ピカチュはかわいいです!ポケモンがすきです。I always thought their names were just chosen arbitrarily, so the fact that there is actually meaning behind Pikachu's name is funny!
Good observation on the fact that カタカナis sometimes used to replace more complicated かんじ。(I don't understand why we must use kanji at all `-` ! When are we going to analyze that?)
ジェシカ
p.s. ローションプルですか?

beat vox said...

Hi, nice to meet you.
My name is Kota. I'm studying English at Bunkyo university in Japan.
your view point is very interesting. certainly, younger japanese often use katakana. especially, katakana is used word which come from foreign country. for example, american, french, italy words.
in other hands, hiragana is used japanene word.

Anonymous said...

Hi, my name is Megumi. I'm a Japanese student at Iwate-university. I like ピカチュウ in Pokemon. I agree that Katakana usage that you think.
Katakana usage has been changing. For example,"キモイ‐気持ち悪い(this mean is very bad feeling)is that young people makes coinage. Such as coinage, we make our feeling everything recently. Katakana words would be increasing in Japanese world.

Anonymous said...

Hello.I'm a student of university in Japan.
katakana is onomatopoeia and loanwords from foreign languages.
In my case,I think when we use loanwords,writing katakana is more understand than writing hiragana.
And Japanese expression way relative to human's heart.
Example,hiragana is gentle sense and kannji is hard sense.

Anonymous said...

Hello,I am Mai.
I am a student at University in Japan.
I read your analysis about katakana.
Your analysis is very interesting.
I agree with your analysis.
I never think that I use katakana means.
I feel katakana is cooler than hiragana.

Hien said...

こんにちは!ありがとう画材増すfor all your comment and insight!
edit: oops, all your names are in katakana

@マオ:おもしろいいですね!わかりませんでした。I hadn't thought of foreign-ness vs. actually being foreign before. that clears that up.
@ マイ:I guess it's cooler .. ga I prefer writing in hiragana any day!
@メグミ:ありがとう!for adding that phrase to my vocabulary