Two of Katakana words I found from my research are ドッカーン (Totkan) and カレーライス(Curry Rice)
Though both words are written in Katakana, it seems to me that the purpose of the words' usages are
somewhat different from each other.
(1) ドッカーン does not carry any specific meaning, but to represent a sound effect or Onomatopoeia.
(2) カレーライス, unlike ドッカーン, surely contains a physical meaning which indicates "Curry Rice"
It seems to me that Japanese tries to distinguish an actual writing from Onomatopoeia or even newly imported words
(Loan words). With my little Japanese knowledge, these words when written in hiragana or Kanji become pretty formal
which can not fully carry out their meanings.
The reason why many textbooks have a different definition for Katakana is that there really is no formal definition
for Katakana. Unlike math or science, a lot of languages structures in a way that a logic can not explain. It seems to me
that it is an useless effort to capture the truly meaning and usage of Katakana in a simple sentence or two.
5. Think about katakana use and write your analysis on your blog. (15 min)
にほんのだいがくせい and TAs at Columbia will read your analysis and make comments on your analysis.
- Choose at least 2 katakana words/expressions that you found and think about what kinds of effects / purposes there may be in these words/expressions writing in katakana instead of hiragana or kanji.
- Also, think why there are such effects/purposes.
- Think about why each textbook is different in explaining katakana, and why the textbooks explained katakana in the manners that they did.
ケンサン,
ReplyDeleteI wonder why the Japanese use Katakana for Onomatopoeias. I agree, that it may be because some of the meaning, or emphasis might be lost if they were written in hiragana or kanji. But I wonder if there are more reasons.
こんにちは ケンサン。
ReplyDeleteAn obvious note on all of the above.
A further reason, which I figure you are aware of, but felt it was too obvious to mention, is that while many words such as curry rice may be written in Katakana because it is both a title of a dish, and a foreign dish, a reason that a foreign dish, or object, would be expressed in Katakana (aside from simply just being from a different country, language) is because the meaning could not be readily translated/represented with the Kanji character system.
すいようび（水曜日）あいましょ。
although i agree with acopian's comment it seems important to further question with "curry rice" was not simply written in hiragana...
ReplyDeleteit's quite arbitrary...
こんにちは。
ReplyDeleteＴＡののぐちです。
そうですね。
Katakana helps us recognize the loanword embedded in the prose. What's funny about all the new imported words is that A LOT of native speakers of Japanese have difficulty in catching up with all new words. These are something we have to learn too, and most of the time, the Japanese meaning is different from the original language, so it's tricky.
Lubeen san: I can't think of any more reason at this point. There could be more, but I will slowly get to know it as I know more about Japanese.
ReplyDeleteAcopian san: That seems to be a good intuition. I wonder the use of Kanji as well.
Esther san: Right, I don't think there is a strict rule for the use.
Heromi san: I am glad to know that even Japanese people have a hard time learning Katakana