Japanese Linguistics: Introduction, An

Description:
This introduction to Japanese linguistics is designed to introduce students to all of the main areas of the subject. What makes this book distinct from other textbooks on Japanese linguistics is that linguistics is introduced by means of authentic texts which students might encounter in contemporary Japan. The book covers: speech sounds and sound structures; Japanese vocabulary; writing in Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana and Roman letters; word structures, ideograms, morphemes and compounding; sentence structure; and, word meaning. Each chapter contains an explanation of the key concepts of Japanese linguistics, followed by activities, which are designed to promote the students' active understanding of the forms and fucntions of the language in authentic texts. This textbook will be an essential introduction to Japanese linguistics for advanced undergraduates, and postgraduates, studying either Japanese language, or linguistics.

Review:
''Dr Yamaguchi has done a very good job in advancing an innovative approach to the study of Japanese linguistics, and the manuscript is well-formatted, clear to read, and genuinely informative.... it has the potential to become an excellent introduction to linguistics - a work for which there is definitely a great need.' Dr Emi Morita, University of Singapore.'

Table of Contents:
Introduction; 1. Speech Sounds; 2. Sound Structure; 3. Vocabulary; 4. Writing Systems; 5. Word Structure; 6. Sentence Structure; 7. Word Meaning; Glossary.

Author Biography:
Dr Toshiko Yamaguchi is Lecturer in the Department of Asian and European Languages, University of Malaya and visiting Lecturer at the University of Singapore.