JAPANESE LINGUISTICS

The course is and introduction to Japanese linguistics and guides student to the study of the theoretical linguistic description of the modern Japanese language.
Students' language competence, acquired during previous language courses, will be sistematized thanks to a metalinguistic analysis and description.

Students will acquire basic knowledge about the Japanese linguistics and analitic tools for different linguistic subfields: phonology, phonetics, sintax and semantics.

It is preferable to have notions of General linguistics and an active competence of modern Japanese language.
In case of students with specific interests in Japanese linguistics it is advisable to have in the curriculum courses dealing with general linguistics.

The course is divided in subfield and will describe phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon (word formation and semantics) of the Japanese language. Some lessons will be dedicated to the geographic variables, approaching dialectology and sociolinguistics.
According to specific interests of the students, and their past studies in general linguistics, ad hoc readings will be assigned in order to cope with the requests of students who show the ability to continue self-studies in some specific subject of the linguistic description of Japanese. The relative bibliography is indicated in Textbooks. Further Suggested Readings are listed as an example, and more readings, in particular in Japanese language, to answer students’ interests, will be indicated during the course.

References:
- Mark Irwin, Matthew Zisk, Japanese Linguistics, Tokyo, Asakura Publishing, 2019.

- Tsujimura Natsuko, An Introduction to Japanese Linguistics, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers, 1996, capp. 4 e 5.

- Shibatani Masayoshi, The Languages of Japan, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, capp. 7, 8,10 e 11.
- Hasegawa Yoko, Japanese. A Linguistics Introduction, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2015, capp. 19-25.

Further readings:

- Patrick Heinrich, Yumiko Ohara (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics, London, Routledge 2019
- 
Kunihiro Tetsuya et al. (eds.), Takesi Sibata. Sociolinguistics in Japanese Contexts, Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter, 1998

- Yamaguchi Toshiko, Japanese Language in Use, London, Continuum, 2007

- Vance, Timothy J., The sounds of Japanese, Cambridge, Cambridge University press, 2008.
- Narrog, Heiko, Modality in Japanese. The Layered Structure of the Clause, Amsterdam, John Benjamins, 2009.

During each class students will be invited to give their comments in order to contribute to the analys and description of the linguistic aspect dealt with during the lesson. The examination consists of an oral interview during which will be discussed different subject covered during the course.

oral

The oral test aims to verify: 1) notions acquired during the course relating to various areas of the linguistic description of Japanese; 2) knowledge of the various theories presented during the course; 3) the ability to relate the various aspects of linguistic description and present one's own hypotheses regarding the various aspects of Japanese linguistics.
As regards the grading of the grade, marks will be awarded according to the following scheme:
A. Scores in the 18-22 range will be awarded in the presence of sufficient knowledge of the notions presented during the course, sufficient ability to describe one or more aspects of the Japanese language and sufficient ability to analyse the proposed textual examples from a metalinguistic point of view;
B. Scores in the 23-26 range will be awarded for a relatively good knowledge of the concepts presented during the course, a relatively good ability to describe one or more aspects of the Japanese language and a relatively good ability to analyse the proposed textual examples from a metalinguistic point of view;
C. Scores in the 27-30 range will be awarded for good or very good knowledge of the concepts presented during the course, good or very good ability to describe one or more aspects of the Japanese language and good or very good ability to metalinguistically analyse the proposed textual examples;
D. Honours will be awarded for excellent knowledge of the concepts presented during the course, excellent ability to describe one or more aspects of the Japanese language and excellent ability to metalinguistically analyse the proposed textual examples. Account will be taken of activity during the year in individual or group work on linguistic issues proposed and addressed by the student.

Lessons will present exaples of linguistic description about different aspects of the Japanese language. Student will be invited to take part exposing their analysis and comments about the proposed exempla.
Corpora analysis will be introduced using online software in particular for morpho-syntax description.