Journal | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
Journal issue | 59 | 2023
Research Article | The Japanese Pithecanthropus: Interpreting Japanese Unfamiliar Compounds
The Japanese Pithecanthropus: Interpreting Japanese Unfamiliar Compounds
Takao Suzuki’s Model of Conceptual Combination Through kun-Glossing
- Simone dalla Chiesa - Università degli Studi di Milano La Statale, Italia - email
Abstract
With ‘kun-glossing’, I refer to the method of interpreting unfamiliar compounds proposed by Takao Suzuki (1926-2021), a well-known Japanese scholar. Readers assign a semantic gloss to each constituent kanji, combine those meanings into a new, complex concept and attempt to validate the result(s) encyclopedically. In this essay I verify kun-glossing’s processing power by applying it to eleven compounds, beginning with enjin 猿人 (Pithecanthropus). I conclude that this method is only effective in interpreting words that are structured as descriptions, as the neoclassical compounds of science often are, and cannot be considered a universal method to infer the meaning of novel compounds.
Submitted: May 19, 2023 | Accepted: June 20, 2023 | Published Aug. 29, 2023 | Language: en
Keywords Neoclassical compounds • Japanese compounds • Kanji • Takao Suzuki • Appositive compounds • Onomasiological approach • Ernst Haeckel • Conceptual combination • Binomens • Compounding
Copyright © 2023 Simone dalla Chiesa. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2023/01/023
Articles
-
Zaynab al-Ghazālī al-Ǧabīlī, a Female Activist and Writer in Favour of the Islamic Cause
From the Formative Years to Her Imprisonment Under the Regime of ʿAbd al-Nāṣir (1917-65) - Maria Cristina Paciello
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Against Collectivity and Dictatorship: The Revolution of the Individual in Salīm Barakāt’s Kuhūf Hāydrāhūdāhūs
- Greta Sala
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Travelling Across Cultures: Some Aspects of the Safavid Envoys’ Travels to Venice
- Ahmad Guliyev
- Aug. 29, 2023
- About the ‘Ossetian’ Window
- Paolo Ognibene
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Un’analisi del riutilizzo delle epigrafi urartee in epoca medievale nell’Altopiano Armeno
- Roberto Dan, Onofrio Gasparro, Arthur Petrosyan , Boris Gasparyan
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Colour as a Socio-Cultural Multi-Layered Sign in the ‘Nausicaa’ Episode in J. Joyce’s Ulysses and Its Translation into Armenian
- Diana Hambardzumyan
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Notes on ‘Ḏulfaqār of the Intellect’ and Islamising Manichaeism
- Andrea Piras
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Not Only ravī. The Other Letters of the Rhyme in the Muʿǧam fī maʿāyīr ašʿār al-ʿaǧam by Šams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Qays al-Rāzī
- Alessia Dal Bianco
- Aug. 29, 2023
- The Cult of imām Ḥusayn Among the Khojas of South Asia in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
- Zahir Bhalloo
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Presence, Power, and Agency: Donor Portraits in Early Gandharan Art
- Moizza S. Elahi
- Aug. 29, 2023
-
Before the Revolution
Tradition and Modernity in Two Short Stories by Bao Tianxiao, “Qie ming bo” 妾命薄 and “Yi lü ma” 一縷麻 - Daniele Beltrame
- Aug. 29, 2023
-
The Dialectics of Hope and Despair
Twisting the Biblical Message in Lu Xun’s “Medicine” - Mario De Grandis
- Aug. 29, 2023
-
“Gathering Vetch” by Lu Xun
Renarrating History, Between Orality and Writing - Gaia Perini
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Poetry and Labour(s): Chinese Workers’ Poetry from the Cultural Revolution to the Twenty-First Century
- Matteo Garbelli
- Aug. 29, 2023
-
Elena Ferrante in China
Analysis of the Translation of Cultural References in the First Volume of My Brilliant Friend - Francesca Restucci
- Aug. 29, 2023
-
Poetics of Propensity in Sinophone Fiction
An Analysis of Lai Hsiang-yin and Lee Wai Yi’s Ghost Narrative - Riccardo Moratto, Di-kai Chao
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Xiaolu Guo’s A Lover’s Discourse: Analysis of the Influence of Roland Barthes
- Elisabetta Giuliano
- Aug. 29, 2023
-
Unveiling the Language of Ideology in China’s Environmental Planning
Pilot Ecolinguistic Analysis of an Environmental Impact Assessment - Daniele Brombal, Pui Yiu Szeto, Sergio Conti
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Two Layers’ on New Women in Colonial Korea: The Case of Ch’oe Yŏngsuk (1905‑32)
- Hyojin Lee
- Aug. 29, 2023
-
Navigating Through Kofun Imagery
An Analysis of the Boat Depictions Found in Decorated Tombs in Northern Kyūshū - Claudia Zancan
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Japanese Context of the ‘Good Manners’ of the Legates of the Tensho Embassy in Italy (1585): The Buke Kojitsu, the Ise, and Kyūshū
- Takuya Shimada
- Aug. 29, 2023
-
Morphosyntactic Changes and Sociolinguistic Variation in the Language of Kyōgen
A Corpus-Based Analysis of Toraakirabon (1642) - Giuseppe Pappalardo
- Aug. 29, 2023
-
The Japanese Pithecanthropus: Interpreting Japanese Unfamiliar Compounds
Takao Suzuki’s Model of Conceptual Combination Through kun-Glossing - Simone dalla Chiesa
- Aug. 29, 2023
-
Memories of Extinction and Human Subjectivity
Challenging the Human-Nonhuman Divide Through Technology in Kawakami Hiromi’s Ōkina torini sarawarenaiyō - Giulia Baquè
- Aug. 29, 2023
-
Asian Religions According to Italian Teenagers
Context, Analysis and Reflections on a Trend Towards the ‘Global Market Regime’ - Giovanni Lapis
- Aug. 29, 2023
-
Representing Bodies and Identities in Global Exhibitions
The Case of Female Photography in the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale - Federica Cavazzuti
- Aug. 29, 2023
Reviews
- Élise Franssen. Authors as Readers in the Mamlūk Period and Beyond
- Ingrid Austveg Evans
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Patrick Olivelle. Vacanamālā. A Sub-Commentary on Viśvarūpa’s Commentary Bālakrīḍā on the Yājñavalkya Dharmaśāstra
- Alessandro Giudice
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Antonella Riem Natale. Coleridge and Hinduism: The Unstruck Sound
- Stefano Beggiora
- Aug. 29, 2023
- Michinori Shimoji. An Introduction to Japonic Languages. Grammatical Sketches of Japanese Dialects and Ryukyuan Languages
- Giuseppe Pappalardo
- Aug. 29, 2023
| DC Field | Value |
|---|---|
|
dc.identifier |
ECF_article_13405 |
|
dc.title |
The Japanese Pithecanthropus: Interpreting Japanese Unfamiliar Compounds. Takao Suzuki’s Model of Conceptual Combination Through kun-Glossing |
|
dc.contributor.author |
dalla Chiesa Simone |
|
dc.publisher |
Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari |
|
dc.type |
Research Article |
|
dc.language.iso |
en |
|
dc.identifier.uri |
http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/annali-di-ca-foscari-serie-orientale/2023/1/the-japanese-pithecanthropus-interpreting-japanese/ |
|
dc.description.abstract |
With ‘kun-glossing’, I refer to the method of interpreting unfamiliar compounds proposed by Takao Suzuki (1926-2021), a well-known Japanese scholar. Readers assign a semantic gloss to each constituent kanji, combine those meanings into a new, complex concept and attempt to validate the result(s) encyclopedically. In this essay I verify kun-glossing’s processing power by applying it to eleven compounds, beginning with enjin 猿人 (Pithecanthropus). I conclude that this method is only effective in interpreting words that are structured as descriptions, as the neoclassical compounds of science often are, and cannot be considered a universal method to infer the meaning of novel compounds. |
|
dc.relation.ispartof |
Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale |
|
dc.relation.ispartof |
Vol. 59 | June 2023 |
|
dc.issued |
2023-08-29 |
|
dc.dateAccepted |
2023-06-20 |
|
dc.dateSubmitted |
2023-05-19 |
|
dc.identifier.issn |
|
|
dc.identifier.eissn |
2385-3042 |
|
dc.rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License |
|
dc.rights.uri |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
|
dc.identifier.doi |
10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2023/01/023 |
|
dc.peer-review |
yes |
|
dc.subject |
Appositive compounds |
|
dc.subject |
Binomens |
|
dc.subject |
Compounding |
|
dc.subject |
Conceptual combination |
|
dc.subject |
Ernst Haeckel |
|
dc.subject |
Japanese compounds |
|
dc.subject |
Kanji |
|
dc.subject |
Neoclassical compounds |
|
dc.subject |
Onomasiological approach |
|
dc.subject |
Takao Suzuki |
| Download data |
-
file_download 29
-
search 189
-
format_quote 0
