An Introduction to Japanese Linguistics - Natsuko Tsujimura

An Introduction to Japanese Linguistics gives a comprehensive account of Japanese linguistics, covering phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, language variation including dialectal variation and gender differences, and language acquisition. The author introduces linguistic notions and terminology and discusses theoretical analyses of linguistic phenomena in the language. This text serves as a descriptive source and a theoretical foundation for students and scholars in linguistics as well as those interested in the Japanese language more generally. It is also intended to be used as a pedagogical tool to provide basic notions and terminology in linguistics, and to introduce students to linguistic argumentation.

This new edition offers an entirely new chapter on language acquisition which includes experimental research and its implications for phonological, syntactic, and semantic issues. The coverage of morphology has been expanded to include new sections on nominalization and compounding, and a new discussion of pragmatics and discourse analysis is incorporated into coverage of semantics. Each chapter is also supported by exercises exploring descriptive and theoretical issues, and by updated reading lists which introduce students to the research literature.

Natsuko Tsujimura is Professor of Japanese Linguistics at Indiana University. Her publications includeThe Handbook of Japanese Linguistics (Blackwell, 1999), and she has published extensively on various aspects of lexical semantics.