Thursday, November 4, 2010

Katakana Analysis Draft

The uses of katakana are many and varied, a fact that I was not aware of until my Japanese class began to discuss this subject. Here are some of my thoughts and findings:

On a bag of Haruya kani chips, the katakana expression “カニチップ “ is used. “カニ” is the Japanese equivalent for “crab”.  “チップ” reads as “chip”, an English loan word directly converted into katakana. According to various sources, katakana is often used on things such as signs or advertisements in order to place emphasis on a word or phrase – similar to the Western use of italics (“Katakana”). As emphasis, using katakana in this setting makes sense. The simpler, sharper strokes of katakana are much easier to pick out, and make more of an impression to the eye, than the more complicated kanji or rounded hiragana. Since katakana is also generally used for foreign words, the use of katakana here can also boost the company’s reputation among consumers by emphasizing its status as a product that is internationally traded.



Another popular katakana expression is “カラオケ” or “karaoke”. It can be found on signs all over downtown Manhattan (for a more specific example, look to the sign for Duet 48, a karaoke bar in Midtown East, NYC). According to one source, “karaoke” is commonly written in katakana because it is a relatively new word whose kanji form has not yet been formed (Timmermeyer). This makes sense, because karaoke was only introduced around the 1980s (“karaoke”).  The word “karaoke” is actually a combination of the Japanese word “kara” meaning empty, and “oke”, a shortened form of the katakana for “orchestra” (“karaoke). Basically, it seems as though “karaoke” was created as a fad, and as it grew more popular, it took on the name meaning “empty orchestra” because it was the easiest way to describe or name it at the time. As of yet, it is written wholly in katakana because a proper kanji character has not yet been assigned to it. I also venture to guess that its worldwide appeal leads it to stick to katakana because of its foreign audience.

Textbook differences:
In class, we were given excerpts from four different textbooks explaining the different writing systems and their uses. They were all fairly short and very general in their descriptions of katakana in particular. They differed slightly in their presentation of the material, mostly due to the amount of lines devoted to katakana.
The shortest descriptions – the most minimal – made sure to mention that katakana employs more angular, simple characters generally used for foreign names and loan words. The more detailed descriptions also mentioned katakana usage for onomatopoeia and emphasis.
I think the short description was the most simplified definition of katakana, meant for the slower beginner language learners. It introduces one use of katakana that can be easily understood, and leaves the more complex usages to be learned as the student advances in his/her language studies. This is comparable to my Japanese class where we learn one use of a hiragana particle at a time, instead of all its purposes at once. The longer descriptions that included onomatopoeia and emphasis usages were more geared towards the advanced language learner, presenting as much information as possible in a general format – perhaps to serve as a reminder for someone who has previously studied the language.

Sources:
"Karaoke." Dictionary.com. < http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/karaoke>
"Katakana." n.d. Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana>.
Timmermeyer, Kyle. "Writing Japanese Katakana: Characters that Emphasize New and Foreign Words." 23 September 2008. suite101. 1 November 2010 <http://www.suite101.com/content/writing-japanese-katakana-a69894>.

5 comments:

  1. Eyo. Look at me posting a comment. Such an いいがくせい。
    カラオケは the awesomesauce です。わたしたちのクラスはカラオケえ往きましょう、ね?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes the textbooks do tend to give a vary general answer for Katakana use that is easy for the first time user to understand. It seems that textbooks don't go beyond this as other forms/uses of katakana are not clearly recognized by everyone and is an ongoing process in usage.

    ReplyDelete
  3. へええええ、I never really took notice of the use of katakana for emphasis, but now that you mention it, I'm getting this "Oh yeah that's right" feeling. It certainly does look a lot cooler when I see カニチップ instead of かにちっぷ or worse 蟹ちっぷ. This is very clever marketing. I also recall seeing a lot of signs in Japan that used katakana for words I was used to seeing in hiragana. Aside from its strokes, katakana is used less frequently than hiragana/kanji, which may also play a role in why katakana creates more emphasis when viewed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. そうですね。I think you're right that using katakana does help to emphasize a particular phrase. I always used to think this was because the default written script is usually kanji or hiragana, so when katakana is suddenly used somewhere, it stands out just because it's different and unexpected. But now that you've mentioned it the very shape of the katakana characters also seems to make a difference, because katakana's more angular. Although it just occurred to me that カ and ニ could also be kanji characters (meaning "power" and "two" respectively) but I think put together they don't actually mean anything in kanji.

    I also didn't know about the origins of karaoke. おもしろいですね! Do you think they will eventually assign a kanji to the word? I think they might not, because part of the word ("oke") comes from a foreign loanword...anyway, this was an interesting piece! Good luck with the final paper!

    ReplyDelete
  5. こんにちは. I totally agree with you that katakana appeals more to the international audience due to its higher recognizability and greater visual emphasis. Regarding the textbook differences on the description of katakana, I think these differences are mainly due to the different intended readers. I did not know the usages of katakana other than that in borrowed words when I was a first year student either. The sophistication with using katakana in onomatopoeia is probably only required for more advanced learners in Japanese and therefore there is really no need to include an exhaustive list of uses for katakana in beginners' textbooks.

    ReplyDelete