Why Can a Japanese Unagi-Sentence Be Used in a Request?
The objective of this paper is to reveal why the so-called Unagi-sentence in Japanese can be widely used in the context of request within the framework of cognitive linguistics and cognitive pragmatics. The Unagi-sentence, which is known as a representative sentence of the Japanese language, has been analyzed for years in various manners from various viewpoints. For instance, the sentence "Boku-wa Unagi-da" when literally translated into English reads I am an eel. One of the most influential reasons for this sentence being regarded as characteristic to Japanese seems to be the clear difference in the sense in that the literally translated version in English means the identification between I and an eel, whereas the Unagi-sentence in Japanese indicates who orders the eel dish or sometimes requests the waiter to put a proper dish in a proper place. This thesis discusses the schematic meaning of the "X-wa Y-da" pattern in Japanese; further, it discusses the tendency for the Japanese language, unlike English, to depend more heavily on contextual information when the construed mental images are encoded. Through the discussion, I will reveal that the study of the Unagi-sentence from the viewpoint of cognitive linguistics sheds a new light on the contrastive studies in the field of pragmatics.
References
Duranti, Alessandro. 1997. Linguistic anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511810190Search in Google Scholar
Haiman, John. 1980. "Dictionaries and encyclopedias". Lingua 50 (4): 329-357, doi: 10.1016/0024-3841(80)90089-3.10.1016/0024-3841(80)90089-3Search in Google Scholar
Hall, Edward T. 1976. Beyond culture. New York: Doubleday.Search in Google Scholar
Hinds, John. 1987. "Reader versus writer responsibility: A new typology". In Writing across languages, edited by Ulla Connor and Robert B. Kaplan, 141-152. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Search in Google Scholar
Ikegami, Yoshihiko. 1981. Suru to naru no gengogaku: Gengo to bunka no taiporozi eno shiron (Linguistics of Doing and Becoming: An essay towards a typology of language and culture). Tokyo: Taishukan.Search in Google Scholar
Ikegami, Yoshihiko. 2007. Nihongo to nihongoron (The Japanese Language and the Theory of Japanese). Tokyo: Chikuma Shobou.Search in Google Scholar
Ikegami, Yoshihiko. 2009. "The ego-centric perspective and the speaker/writer's invisible presence in text—"Subjective construal" as a translation problem". Handout for the 5th conference of the Keio Society for English Studies.Search in Google Scholar
Kitahara, Yasuo. 1981. Nihongo no sekai 6 nihongo no bunpou (The World of Japanese 6 and Grammar of Japanese). Tokyo: Chuou-kouron-sha.Search in Google Scholar
Kojima, Yoshirou. 1988. Nihongo no imi eigo no imi (Meaning in Japanese, Meaning in English). Tokyo: Nan'un-do.Search in Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald. W. 1987. Foundations of cognitive grammar, Vol. 1. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald. W. 1990. "Subjectification". Cognitive linguistics 1: 5-38, doi: 10.1515/cogl.1990.1.1.5.10.1515/cogl.1990.1.1.5Search in Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald. W. 1993. "Reference-point constructions'. Cognitive linguistics 4 (1): 1-38, doi: 10.1515/cogl.1993.4.1.1.10.1515/cogl.1993.4.1.1Search in Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald. W. 2008. Cognitive grammar A basic introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331967.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Okutsu, Keiichiro. 1978. "Boku-wa unagi-da" no bunpou-"da" to "no" (Grammar of "boku-wa unagi-da"—"da" and "no"). Tokyo: Kuroshio.Search in Google Scholar
Sato, Yuichi. 1992. "Unagi-bun no kouzou" (Structure of Unagi-Sentence). In Gobun rongyo 20. Chiba: Chiba University.Search in Google Scholar
Schank, Roger C. and Robert P. Abelson. 1977. Scripts, plans, goals and understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Search in Google Scholar
Sugiura, Shigeko. 1991. ‘"da" no imi-Unagi-bun wo megutte’(Meaning of "da"-on unagi-sentence). In Toukyou-daigaku gengogaku ronshu (Tokyo university linguistic papers) 12: 81-95. Tokyo: Department of Linguistics, University of Tokyo.Search in Google Scholar
Tatara, Naohiro. 2008. ‘Supotsu komentari- Media ga tsukuru supotsu toiu monogatari’ (Commentary on sports- The story of sports created by media). In Kaihou-kei gengogaku eno shoutai (Invitation to non-autonomous linguistics), edited by Norimitsu Tosu, 193-210. Tokyo: Keio University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Taylor, John R. 2002. Cognitive grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Taylor, John R. 2003. Linguistic categorization: Prototypes in linguistic theory, 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Toyama, Shigehiko. 1973. Nihongo no ronri (Logic of Japanese). Tokyo: Chuoukouron-sha.Search in Google Scholar
Whorf, Benjamin L. 1956. Language, thought, and reality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar
Yamanashi, Masa-aki. 2000. Ninchi-gengogaku genri (The Principle of Cognitive Linguistics). Tokyo: Kuroshio.Search in Google Scholar
This content is open access.
