Abstract
The paper is devoted to the analysis of lexical, grammatical and stylistic destructive phenomena typical for the language of mass culture, based on the material of the Japanese fashion magazine "Cosmopolitan Japan". In the field of the vocabulary of the language of fashion magazines, we observe a proliferation of unmotivated English borrowings, which mostly duplicate the meaning of genuine Japanese words, and therefore do not enrich the lexicon. A considerable number of such words are incomprehensible to Japanese readers, and therefore play not an informative, but an emotional role, decorating the text and making it "fashionable" and "stylish". The number of English borrowings in a fashion magazine may even exceed the number of Japanese words. In the field of morphology, a characteristic feature of the language of mass culture is the presence of hybrid units as the result of hybrid word formation and are mostly formed according to the "English borrowing + Japanese suffix" model. This method is the most common in creating verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The created morphological hybrids do not correspond to either Japanese or English word formation norms, and therefore are a destructive phenomenon that negatively affects the language. In the field of syntax, we observe an overuse of syntactic expressive figures, in particular those based on missing speech components (ellipsis, nominative sentences). The predicate (or its verb part) usually undergoes reduction, which makes such sentences fragmentary, similar to spontaneous speech of a colloquial and everyday nature. Excessive use of ellipsis and nominative sentences interferes with the established syntactic norms of the Japanese language. The overuse of parcellation as a phenomenon that destroys the traditional syntactic structure of the Japanese sentence (which is characterized by a fixed order of words) seems to be equally destructive. A negative stylistic phenomenon is also the mixing of expressive styles and the indistinction of speech registers, which is also critical for the Japanese language, that is characterized by a category of politeness and a clear distinction between "high" and "low" styles. The above-mentioned phenomena are destructive, interfering with the recipient's "sense of language" and language norms, which can lead to a significant decline in language culture among young people being the main consumers of mass culture.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
More From: Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Oriental Languages and Literatures
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.