文化交流に立ちはだかるもの -ことばをめぐる文化の壁

概要

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This paper examines various aspects of cultural barriers that any attempt of international exchange has to encounter in terms of linguistic differences. It starts with fragmentary socio-linguistic observations of the author concerning the position of language in society. It briefly examines the writing system of the Japanese language, which poses great difficulty for those who study Japanese as a foreign language. Other examples are presented to show how complex and idiosyncratic the facts of Japanese appear to foreign learners, whereas they are simply a matter of course for the native speakers. It then tries to decipher cultural implications of color terms, kinship terms, and personal pronouns in a few languages. The notions of ownership and evidentiality are also considered. Other questions to be dealt with are: Are the process of human thinking dependent on the language one uses? How do the linguistic differences affect the work of translation? What does it mean for us to have languages die in various parts of the world? What is freedom in our language use?