『明六雑誌』の語彙構造 : 2 字漢語を中心に(その 1)

概要

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The Vocabulary of Japanese language enriched drastically during the period from late Edo to early Meiji. In order to build a modernized country, Japan needed to prepare new words to translate many books and documents mainly written in English. In this paper I use Meiroku-zasshi magazine (1874-75) as basic data and try to describe some important features of Japanese vocabulary in early Meiji period. On this Meiroku-zasshi magazine Japanese intellectuals of this period published their opinions based on their comprehension of western thought. Many new words of new concept for modernization and westernization come out in this magazine. Production way of these new words can be divided into two kinds. First Japanese themselves made new words. Second Japan got the loan of words from China who had already translated many books of Western countries into Chinese language. Naturally those loan words are compounds of Chinese morphemes, but the new words which Japanese made for themselves are also compounds of Chinese morphemes, not compounds of Japanese morphemes. I divide this paper into two parts. This is the first part and research on two-letter compounds of Chinese morphemes that are added to Japanese vocabulary in this period of early Meiji and used still now.