Japanese Compound Research Articles

Morphological variation in Japanese compounds: The case of hoodai and the notion of “compound-specific submeaning”

This paper investigates morphological variation in Japanese compounds by focusing on the Sino-Japanese expression hoodai (‘at will’) as used in contemporary Japanese and tries to relate the interesting properties of hoodai to its historical development. This expression cannot be used as an independent word in a sentence, nor can it be used as the left-hand element of a compound. In other words, it is used productively like a suffix in contemporary Japanese. In older Japanese, however, this form was used as a noun. This paper explicates the properties of hoodai and presents the following findings: (i) hoodai strongly prefers a native Japanese word as the word directly preceding it in contemporary Japanese, although it is a Sino-Japanese expression; (ii) hoodai was a noun in the fifteenth century, but it seems to have lost its word status and to have come to be used like a suffix in the latter half of the 19th century; (iii) hoodai can be considered to be still a word in contemporary Japanese on the basis of the notion of “compound-specific submeaning,” and expressions of the form X-hoodai are compounds rather than derivatives; (iv) hoodai is an example of grammaticalization involving a cline with respect to compounds; (v) the notion of “compound-specific submeaning” plays a role in making a finer distinction between hoodai and itiryuu, etc., and in showing that hoodai is more grammaticalized than the latter words.

Variation in N-V compound verbs in Japanese

This paper shows that in Japanese there is a compounding of a verb with its argument that results in a verbal compound (VC) with a [+V] feature, contrary to the prediction made by Sugioka (2002). Based on the hypothesis of modularity in word formation (cf. Kageyama, 1993). Sugioka (2002) shows that there are two types of N-V compounds in Japanese: N-V compounds with a [−V] feature, which are formed through the incorporation of the internal argument of the verb, while those involving an adjunct are formed at the level of LCS and can be regarded as complex predicates with a [+V] feature. In this paper, I argue that the motivation of forming another type of N-V compounds, namely the VC with a [+V] feature involving the argument, is different from either of these types and lies in the foregrounding of a certain participant in the event. I propose an analysis for N-V compounding in the framework of Generative Lexicon, which assumes that the qualia structure of the nonhead can provide the compound with an argument which is not selected by the head verb. This supports the assumption that the qualia structure should be taken as a reservoir of semantic information which can contribute to determining the lexical semantic feature of the coinage.

Speaking analysis of Japanese Compound accent by seoul director and daegu director

Speaking analysis of Japanese Compound accent by seoul director and daegu director

Actual words of Japanese compound verb in the『Kotentaisyougoihyou』

Actual words of Japanese compound verb in the『Kotentaisyougoihyou』

Concerning The Usage of Japanese Compound Particles

Concerning The Usage of Japanese Compound Particles

Recursive compounds

I propose a structure for recursive compounds in Japanese, English and Mainland Scandinavian within the frameworks of the Minimalist Program ( Chomsky 1995 , 2000 , 2001 ) and Distributed Morphology ( Halle and Marantz 1993 ). Within the proposed theory, Collins’ (2002) definition of head is used: a head is a category which has one or more unsaturated features. Secondly, it is assumed that discharging a theta-feature from a simple nominal is also possible, since nouns are predicates ( Higginbotham 1985 ) and an undischarged theta-feature counts as an unsaturated feature. In addition, the non-head of a compound is argued to be a root without word class features.

Secondary reactions of lignin-derived primary tar components

Secondary reactions of lignin-derived primary tar components were studied with a closed ampoule reactor under the conditions of N 2/600 °C/40–120 s. The tar fractions from Japanese cedar milled wood lignin and model compounds were characterized with the GPC, 1H NMR and GC/MS analyses. Changes in the tar composition indicated the following pathways; unsaturated side-chain (>C C<) and phenolic aromatic ring, both of which are the major structures of the primary tar fraction, are the most reactive structure and would be converted to the condensation products; Then, the side-chains are cracked to form the low MW aromatics with saturated alkyl groups or –H; decarbonylation of the aldehyde groups and change in the substitution pattern of the aromatic ring also occur along with this cracking reaction; the guaiacyl (4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-type aromatic ring in the primary tar fraction is converted to the catechol-, o-cresol- and phenol-type aromatic rings. Although the pure catechol-type compounds were stable, these compounds became reactive in the presence of the guaiacol-type compounds. Radical chain reaction through the H-abstraction from the phenolic hydroxyl groups would activate the catechol-type compounds.

On the Type-wise Productivity of Lexical V-V Compounds in Japanese: A Thematic Proto-role Approach

On the Type-wise Productivity of Lexical V-V Compounds in Japanese: A Thematic Proto-role Approach

The combinatory possibilities in Japanese V-V lexical compounds

The combinatory possibies in V-V lexical compounds in Japanese are examined. The previous account of Kageyama (1993), who proposed that members of V-V lexical compounds must match in argument structure type, is shown to embody two problems. One concerns his criteria for distinguishing between unergative and unaccusative verbs, and the other is the existence of counterexamples to his claim (e.g., yomi-tsukareru (read-be.tired) ‘be tired from reading’). An alternative account of the constraints on possible lexical compounding is proposed. It is shown that the combinatory possibilities of lexical compounds are constrained by 1) the principle of subject sharing (Yumoto 1996) and 2) the conditions on the semantic structures of verbs (Matsumoto 1996), both of which are stated at the level of the semantic structure.

A Study of Japanese Compound Verbs

A Study of Japanese Compound Verbs

Pattern Dictionary Development based on Non-Compositional Language Model for Japanese Compound and Complex Sentences

A large-scale sentence pattern dictionary (SP-dictionary) for Japanese compound and complex sentences has been developed. The dictionary has been compiled based on the non-compositional language model. Sentences with 2 or 3 predicates are extracted from a Japanese-to-English parallel corpus of 1 million sentences, and the compositional constituents contained within them are generalized to produce a SP-dictionary containing a total of 215,000 pattern pairs. In evaluation tests, the SP-dictionary achieved a syntactic coverage of 92% and a semantic coverage of 70%.

Rebounding activation caused by lexical homophony in the processing of Japanese two-kanji compound words

The present study investigated the effects of lexical homophony on the pro- cessing of Japanese two-kanji compound words. Experiment 1 showed that participants took longer to perform lexical decisions for words with a high degree of lexical homophony than those with no homophony. Interestingly, the same inhibitory trend was found in the naming task of Experiment 2. Participants took longer to name words with a high degree of lexical homophony than those with no homophony. The consis- tency of an inhibitory effect through the two experiments suggests that during naming and lexical decisions for Japanese two-kanji compound words, an orthographic repre- sentation activates the phonological representation, which then leads to a rebounding activation of orthographic representations of homophonic forms.

The Semantic and Cohesion of Japanese Compound Verbs

The Semantic and Cohesion of Japanese Compound Verbs

Activation processes of neighbors for Japanese two-kanji compound words in progressive demasking task(&lt;Special Edition&gt; Recognition and Comprehension in High-Level Vision)

Activation processes of neighbors for Japanese two-kanji compound words in progressive demasking task(&lt;Special Edition&gt; Recognition and Comprehension in High-Level Vision)

The use of alternative medicine for the treatment of insomnia in the elderly

AbstractInsomnia is a frequent problem among the elderly, for which patients often self‐medicate. The use of alternative medicine by individuals worldwide, including the elderly, is increasing and insomnia is a common reason for its use. Conventional treatments do not benefit all, and there is uncertainty about the effects of their long‐term use. Many alternative therapies have been considered for the treatment of sleep disorders in published medical reports. These consist of pharmacological therapies, including melatonin, valerian, lavender, hops, kava, Chinese and Japanese herbal compounds, pyridoxine, St John's wort and German chamomile, and non‐pharmacological therapies, including massage, acupuncture, music therapy, tai chi, magnetism and white noise. Comparison of these treatments, either with each other or with conventional therapies, is difficult because many studies inadequately define insomnia, have few subjects or lack randomization or controls. Many have not been tested specifically on elderly subjects. As a result of the problems in the trials of these treatments, drawing a definitive conclusion about the effectiveness of these therapies is difficult. Melatonin appears to be the most promising. It has been shown to produce some limited benefit by studies to date, although it has not been investigated in enough appropriate subjects to definitively conclude that there is a benefit at a sufficiently low risk. A promising role for melatonin might be in the treatment of elderly people with sleep‐phase disorders. Other pharmacological treatments with potential await well‐designed studies on the elderly. There are many non‐pharmacological therapies that offer the potential advantages of a low side‐effect profile, but the investigations of these have been even less rigorous.

Translation of Japanese Noun Compounds at Super-Function Based MT System

Noun compounds are frequently encountered construction in nature language processing (NLP), consisting of a sequence of two or more nouns which functions syntactically as one noun. The translation of noun compounds has become a major issue in Machine Translation (MT) due to their frequency of occurrence and high productivity. In our previous studies on Super-Function Based Machine Translation (SFBMT), we have found that noun compounds are very frequently used and difficult to be translated correctly, the overgeneration of noun compounds can be dangerous as it may introduce ambiguity in the translation. In this paper, we discuss the challenges in handling Japanese noun compounds in an SFBMT system, we present a shallow method for translating noun compounds by using a word level translation dictionary and target language monolingual corpus.

A computational treatment of V-V compounds in Japanese

We examine how a large-scale computational grammar can account for the complex nature of Japanese verbal compounds. Previous computational Japanese grammars have tried to avoid the problem by simple solutions such as enumerating as many verbal compounds in the lexicon as possible. In contrast, we develop the analysis that is linguistically adequate and computationally tractable and thus meets the requirement of a syntactically and semantically precise natural language processing of Japanese like Bond et al. (2005). Our analysis distinguishes between two kinds of verbal compounds: syntactic compounds, which are fully productive; and lexical compounds, which are of varying productivity.

Lexical V-V Compounds in Japanese: Lexicon vs. Syntax

One of the central issues in morphology/morphosyntax has been the locus of the mechanisms responsible for word formation. LEXICALISM claims that the mechanisms employed forwor d formation are distinct from those found in other domains (e.g. syntax). I examine in this article so-called 'lexical' V-V compound formation in Japanese from a lexicalist point of view and show that it is indeed LEXICAL (some claim that it is syntactic). Though Japanese V-V compounds have been studied extensively, a principled and unified account has not been proposed due to their complexities, especially one that deals with the question of how arguments of component verbs are to be synthesized into a single argument structure. The current proposal embodies the notion of THEMATIC PROTO-ROLE and devises semantically driven argument matching giving rise to an argument structure of a V-V compound as a whole. In such a process, syntactic apparatuses or grammatical relations per se play no central role.

The Effect of Morphemic Homophony on the Processing of Japanese Two-kanji Compound Words

Two experiments investigated the effect of kanji morphemic homophony on lexical decision and naming. Effects were examined from both the left-hand and right-hand positions of Japanese two-kanji compound words. The number of homophones affected the processing of compound words in the same way for both tasks. For left-hand kanji, fewer morphemic homophones led to faster lexical decision and whole-word naming. For right-hand kanji, the number of morphemic homophones did not affect either lexical decision or naming. This effect of homophonic density suggested that, when a kanji-compound word is to be processed, phonological information of its kanji constituents is automatically activated and reverberates back to generate a series of orthographic representations of kanji morphemic homophones, but not in a completely parallel fashion.

Disambiguating Japanese compound verbs

The purpose of this study is to disambiguate Japanese compound verbs (JCVs) using two methods: (1) a statistical sense discrimination method based on verb-combinatoric information, which feeds into a first-sense statistical sense disambiguation method and (2) a manual rule-based sense disambiguation method which draws on argument structure and verb semantics. In evaluation, we found that the rule-based method outperformed the statistical method at 94.6% token-level accuracy, suggesting that fine-grained semantic analysis is an important component of JCV disambiguation. At the same time, the performance of the fully automated statistical method was found to be surprisingly good at 82.6%, without making use of syntactic or lexical semantic knowledge.