CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The language contact between English and Japanese has contributed to development of Japanese vocabulary (e.g. dakku ‘duck’, mappu ‘map’, and wain ‘wine’). Those vocabularies are called Gairaigo (Japanese loanword). Based on Sugimoto (1998) Japanese language is divided into three parts: Wago, Kango, and Gairaigo. Wago is authentic vocabulary of Japanese that exists before Kango. Wago consists of one or two morphemes and its sound changed if it is clustered, for instance the word ame (rain) becomes amegasa (umbrella). Kango is Japanese word derived from Chinese and the written form of Kango is kanji. Gairaigo is Japanese vocabulary derived from foreign language such as hoteru ‘hotel’ and botan ‘button’.
Gairaigo is called Japanese loanword because based on the history, since the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century, western culture has begun to exert influences on Japan; including the use of “foreign language (Gairaigo)” since Chinese characters were established and considered as “native” Japanese. At first, Japanese borrowed English languages by translating them into Japanese characters, and then they mainly employed katakana to write foreign loanwords. Throughout the last three decades, now Japanese has adopted many loanwords from English because borrowing English words has been a global phenomenon and this process has been steadily accelerated in recent years.
According to Crystal In the past century, English has become the strongest international lingua franca; probably the only “world language” today in terms of politics, entertainment, and technology (Brumfit, 1982). Current political pressures and modern technological advances make interaction between these two giant linguistic communities. Nowadays, English loanword in Japanese language come with a same way using media and tecnology. The developments of Gairaigo or Japanese loanwords are very fast (Tsujimura, 1996). In many cases, Gairaigo first appeared in fields of new technology, advertisement, and is also used by young people where it then diffused to the rest of the society. Young japanese people think utilizing Japanese loanword from English in their way to speak are cool. Thus, now we can find a new Japanese loanword from English. Another factor, the development of Japanese loanword can not be separated from the development of media. Japanese loanword is usually used in many media in Japan, such as in newspapers and magazines, particularly in a media that is addressed to foreign people or new Japanese language learner because Gairaigo abridges foreign people to understand the news in that newspaper or magazine. Foreign people and Japanese language learner can relate the Japanese loanword to the original word, if they want to know the meaning (e.g hoteru from hotel). Considering the reason above, the writer uses nipponia magazine as the object of his research.
English words that come into Japanese form a part of the borrowing process and ussualy called as Loanword. Loanword itself is a word or phrase which has been taken from one language and used in another language. Through borrowing process many countries have loanword in their national language. According to Nash, “Borrowing” a words from other languages is one of the most common processes of forming and adding new words (Nash, 1988). Borrowing process not only enriches the vocabulary stock of the loanword in one of language and makes up for its lexical gap, but also helps people of different nations to better understand each other, especially about their cultures.
In Japanese, English language follows the rule of Japanese language and Japanese style. Taking human beings as an example, foreign people are naturalized in Japan by being made to follow Japanese laws or life style. In the same way, Gairaigo is made to be Japanese English (Janglish), which naturally follows the laws of the Japanese language and that process is one of examples of borrowing process in a country (Tsujimura, 1996). Sometimes English word is borrowed by Japanese and is changed to Japanese English or katakana character. The meaning will be different from the original meaning because of the borrowing process. According to Tsujimura (1996), when borrowing takes place, some changes in semantic contents of the original words seem to be usual. It also seems that the different origins of loan words contribute to a certain orientation that the words carry (Tsujimura, 1996). The change of meaning of Japanese loanwords naturally follow the Japanese linguistic rules. Due to the reasons above, this research is intended to examine the semantic changes that occur in Japanese loanwords.
This research examines the Japanese loanwords in the “Nipponia” magazine. Nipponia magazine is the only official magazine for Japanese tourism. Based on official website of Nipponia magazine (http://web-japan.org), Nipponia magazine is a quarterly magazine that introduces modern Japan to people all over the world. Nipponia magazine contains information about japan (e.g Life, Culture Food, Customs, Entertainment Traditional Performing Arts, Sports, Anime, Manga, Events, History Japan, Nature, Science and Technology). This magazine is not only addressed to Japanese people but also to the people from all over the world. Because of the reasons above, the writer found many Japanese loanwords in nipponia magazine.
The writer uses semantic changes theory proposed by David Crystal. Crystal stated that words can go through six types of semantic changes, namely broadening, Narrowing, Amelioration, Pejoration, Weakening, and Semantic Shift (Crystal (1998). In Nipponia magazine, the writter looks for Japanese loanwords, which undergo semantic change processes proposed by Crystal. The writer applies Crystal’s theory because many English loanwords in Japanese language undergo semantic changes compared to their original meaning. For example the English word hotel becomes hoteru in Japanese. The meaning of the word ‘hoteru’ undergoes a narrowing process. The original word “hotel” means a place to stay no matter the type of the building. “hoteru” in Japanese is a place to stay where the type of the building is western style. Whereas the building is in a Japanese style, the name becomes “ryokan”. The word undergoes a semantic change, narrowing, as proposed by Crystal theory. Finally, this research is intended to examine the semantic changes that occur in Japanese loanwords and used Crystal semantic change theory.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Based on the explanation above, the writer would like to study the Gairaigo, find semantic changes and analize dominant semantic change of Japanese loanword found in Nipponia magazine. Therefore, the writer wants to answer the following questions:
A. How do the semantic changes of Japanese loanword (gairaigo) occur in Nipponia magazine?
B. What is the dominant semantic change of Japanese loanword found in Nipponia magazine?
1.3 Objective of the Study
Based on the statement of the problems above, the objectives of the study are as follow:
A. Finding out how the semantic changes of Japanese loanword (gairaigo) occur in Nipponia magazine
B. Finding out the dominant semantic change of Japanese loanword found in Nipponia magazine.
1.4 Significance of the Study
Through this study, the writer expects that the findings maybe useful to enrich our knowledge about semantic of English language in “Gairaigo” (Japanese loanword). Moreover, the result of this study is generally intended to be used as reference and comparison to another study in order to make better analysis for further research in semantic change (broadening, Narrowing, Amelioration, Pejoration, Weakening, and Semantic Shift) in other Loanword from other language and of course in other media.
1.5 Scope and Limitation
The writer conducts this study on the scope of English loanword in Japanese language, especially in semantic changes (broadening, Narrowing, Amelioration, Pejoration, Weakening, and Semantic Shift) in media, in this case is Niponnia magazine, November 2006 edition. Due to availability and restrictiveness of the magazine, the writer only chooses the edition as the newest edition in the library of Japanese Deparment of Faculty of Humanities.
Gairaigo (Japanese loanword) have many semantic changes compared to their original meaning because when borrowing takes place, some change in semantic contents of the original words seems to be usual. It also seems that the different origins of loan words contribute to a certain orientation that the words carry (Tsujimura, 1996).
The study, then, is limited to the purpose of analyzing the semantic changes (broadening, Narrowing, Amelioration, Pejoration, Weakening, and Semantic Shift) in “Gairaigo” (Japanese loanword) in Nipponia magazine. In addition, this research only focuses on English loanword in Japanese language.
1.6 Definition of the Key Terms
• Semantics: A branch of linguistics dealing with the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. However, contrary to pragmatics, it does not analyze the intended speaker meaning, or what words denote on a given occasion, but the objective, conventional meaning. (Crystal (1998)
• Semantic Changes: A change in one of the meanings of a word. Describes the evolution of word usage, usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. (Crystal (1998)
• Gairaigo: A Japanese vocabulary derived from foreign language. Gairaigo is usually called Japanese loanword. (Sugimoto (1998)
• Nipponia magazine: Nipponia magazine is a quarterly magazine that introduces modern Japan to people all over the world. (Nipponia magazine)
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