Econolinguistic aspects of multilingual signs in Japan

Abstract

In this paper recent trends of multilingual usage in Japan will be treated from the standpoint of the economy of language. Four different stages of language use are characterized on the basis of observation. The basic underlying idea is that general attitudes to language use in Japan can be categorized into four main types, if the notation or writing system (kanji, katakana and alphabetic notation) is taken into consideration. These four types can be applied not only to the Japanese notation system, but also to language use and dialect use. Various sociolinguistic phenomena seem to have the same social background. However, because of limitations of space, I will concentrate on the use of kanji, katakana and alphabetic notations in Japanese. The four types are (1) the kanji-dominant type, (2) the katakana-dominant type, (3) the alphabet-dominant type, and (4) the alphabet-plus type. They will be discussed one by one in this order. The kanji dominant type is associated with the cognitive use of British English, the katakana dominant type with the affective use of American English, the alphabet dominant type with the symbolic use of international English, and the alphabet-plus type with the practical use of various indigenous systems of writing. The first three types coincide with three kinds of social attitudes towards dialects in Japan: from ‘‘dialect eradication’’ through ‘‘dialect description’’ to ‘‘dialects for pleasure’’. The basic underlying mechanism of language attitude is probably common to all types. These attitudes can be understood as an integrated process of the modernization of Japanese, as discussed by Neustupný in this issue.