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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Japanese, English, conceptualization, verb, adjectives

College

Humanities

Department

Asian and Near Eastern Languages

Abstract

The main focus of this project was to highlight, explain, and reconcile differences between Japanese and English conceptualization as it pertains to verbs and adjectives. Verbs are arguably the most troublesome element of Japanese for the foreign student. Whereas most textbooks deal with the syntactic aspect of verb conjugation, or form, and leave it at that, my research illuminated some of the more subtle, yet equally important grammatical differences between the way verbs are used, or function, and more importantly, the conceptualization underlying this function. This area has been of special interest to Dr. Masakazu Watabe since he began teaching Japanese. My aim was to explore these concepts under his guidance and explain them clearly and accurately so that students can begin to conceptualize in the same way Japanese do. The eventual goal of this research is that it will be used in a beginning level textbook for Japanese learners. Surprisingly, as elementary and vital as these concepts are to Japanese speaking ability, they are generally not even discussed until very advanced stages in learning the language, and when such discussions do appear, they are found almost exclusively in linguistic journals and highly academic grammar treatises which are targeted at the expert rather than the beginning student.

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