| The Languages of Japan Contributor(s): Shibatani, Masayoshi (Author), Anderson, S. R. (Editor), Bresnan, J. (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0521369185 ISBN-13: 9780521369183 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $84.54 Product Type: Paperback Published: May 1990 Annotation: This book is a detailed survey of the two main indigenous languages of Japan: Japanese and Ainu. No genetic relationship has been established between them, and structurally they differ significantly. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Foreign Language Study | Japanese - Language Arts & Disciplines - Literary Criticism | Asian - General |
| Dewey: 495.6 |
| LCCN: 89000993 |
| Series: Cambridge Language Surveys |
| Physical Information: 1.04" H x 6.03" W x 9" (1.49 lbs) 428 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Asian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book surveys the two main indigenous languages of Japan, Japanese and Ainu. No genetic relationship has been established between them, and structurally they differ significantly. Shibatani has therefore divided his study into two independent parts. The first is the most comprehensive study of the polysynthetic Ainu language yet to appear in English. The second part deals extensively with Japanese. It discusses topics from the evolution of the writing system and the differences between men's and women's speech, to issues of greater theoretical complexity, such as phonology, the lexicon and word formation, and the syntax of agglutinative morphology. As an American trained scholar in Japan, the author is in a unique position that affords him a dual perspective on language deriving from Western linguistic scholarship and the Japanese grammatical tradition. |