A Historical Dictionary of Japanese Words Used in English - Softcover

Hayakawa, Isamu

9784907162313: A Historical Dictionary of Japanese Words Used in English

Softcover

ISBN 10: 4907162316 ISBN 13: 9784907162313

Publisher: Texnai, 2014

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The English, as an international language, has evolved by absorbing a great number of words from almost every speech with which the British and the Americans have come in contact. It has borrowed a variety of words from Japan. The Japanese language has contributed a generous quota, but there seems to have been no systematic influence. Over the years of four hundred, about five hundred of Japanese words have been added to the vocabulary of the English language. The eagerly awaited The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) appeared in 1989, and one of its many features is the addition of many Japanese words admitted as having existed or existing in English. The first edition of this dictionary gave details of about sixty such words, exclusive of their derivatives, which the second edition gave nearly four hundred Japanese words, including these sixty words. However, it is not to be assumed that all the newly-entered words have appeared in English literature since the publication of the first edition. Most of them were overlooked when the original volumes were completed, but in the new edition more were included on account of the shift of interest of the editors. It may be that the economic development of Japan led the editors and contributors to the dictionary to pay more attention to Japanese culture and history. The object I have set myself is to present as vivid a picture as I can of the total vocabulary of Japanese words borrowed into English in the form of a historical dictionary. This vividness is attempted not only by making lists of Japanese words scattered in the literature written in English on Japan but also by providing thousands of illustrative quotations. The main part of this dictionary is the enumeration of quotations from about four hundred books on Japan written by a variety of authors including merchants, historians of science, literary scholars and people who visited Japan especially around the time of Meiji Restoration. From these works we find the first appearances of Japanese words in English, which is put first in the long list of citations and most of which are much earlier than those in the OED. This work also draws together important but scattered contributions to the understanding of words of Japanese origin in the English vocabulary. From Preface by the Author

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About the Author

Isamu Hayakawa is Prof. of Linguistics at Aichi University, Japan. He studied and did researches mainly on English Linguistics in Japan and abroad as follows. 1971 B. A. Degree in English Linguistics awarded by Aichi Prefectural University 1971-72 Research Student in the Department of Linguistics of Nagoya University, Japan 1990 M. A. Degree in English Education awarded by Pacific Lutheran University, USA 1995-97 Doctoral Student in the Department of Lexicography of the University of Exeter, UK 1997 Doctor of Philosophy in Language and Culture awarded by the Graduate School of Language and Culture of Osaka University, Japan 2002- Professor of English at Aichi University, Japan 2006- Professor of Language and Culture at Aichi University’s Graduate School of Literature 2008-09 Research Fellow at the Institute of the English Studies, School of Advanced Study, the University of London Major works in English Methods of Plagiarism - A History of English-Japanese Lexicography, 2001 A Comprehensive Catalogue of Webster’s Dictionaries from 1806 to 2000, 2014

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