31220 - Japanese Philology 1

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course students will be able to deepen the knowledge of Japanese Language and Culture from the ancient era until contemporary times. Moreover, they will be able to manage texts in modern Japanese which show the language evolution throughout the time.

Course contents

The course includes an introductory module to the History of Japanese language which will be introduced in Italian and through texts in contemporary Japanese. This module illustrates the transformation of Japanese language from a diachronic perspective in order to highlight its specific characteristics during the ancient, medieval and modern periods.  The second part of the course will focus on the topic of loanwords and katakanago in contemporary Japanese from a sociolinguistic perspective in order to illustrate the main language policies conducted by the Japanese government in the twenty-first century.

The above module will comprehend  part of the syntactic and grammatical syllabus through translation exercises from Japanese to Italian guided by the teacher. During this academic year students will translate the volume Yuki Onna - Natsu no hi no yume (2011, Iwanami Shoten) by Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo).

An important section of the linguistic analysis will be devoted to the structural characteristics of the ideograms in order to convey a correct interpretation of the constituent elements of the kanji together with an appropriate utilization of the dictionary.

Readings/Bibliography

CALVETTI, Paolo, Introduzione alla storia della lingua giapponese, Napoli, Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1999.

DE BENEDITTIS A., NEGRI C., Introduzione alla scrittura giapponese, Milano, Hoepli, 2015.

GALLERANI M., CASADEI R., Le latitudini della pedagogia, Loffredo Editore University Press, 2013, pp.157- 170.

INOUE, Fumio, Nihongo wa ikinokoreruka, Tokyo, PHP Shinsho, 2001.

ISHIGURO, Kei, Nihongo wa kuuki ga kimeru - Shakaigengogakunyuumon, Tokyo, Koubunsha, 2013.

ISHIKAWA, Kyuyou, Taction. The drama of the stylus in Oriental Calligraphy, Tokyo, LTCB International Library Trust, 2011.

JINNOUCHI, Masataka, Gairaigo no shakaigengogaku, Tokyo, Sekaishisousha, 2007.

MANIERI, Antonio (a cura di), Hitachi no kuni fudoki - Cronache della provincia di Hitachi e dei suoi costumi, Roma, Carocci, 2013.

MAURIZI, Andrea (a cura di), Introduzione allo studio della lingua giapponese, Roma, Carocci, 2012, pp. 11 - 135.

OKAMOTO, Sachiko, Shakaigengogaku, Tokyo, Aruku, 2008.

SUZUKI, Yuji, Katakana eigo de kajuaru bairingaru, NHK Shuppan, Tokyo, 2003.

TAKAGI, Hiroko, Nihongo no moji – hyōki  nyūmon, Tokyo, Babel Press, 1996.

TOLLINI, Aldo, La scrittura del Giappone antico, Venezia, Cafoscarina, 2005, pp. 11 - 74.

TOLLINI, Aldo, La scrittura della lingua giapponese moderna tra logografia e fonografia in Nuovi dialoghi sulle lingue e sul linguaggio (a cura di Grandi Nicola), Bologna, Patron, 2015, pp. 175-184.

VITUCCI, Francesco, "Chi ha paura del katakanago? Un'analisi sociolinguistica agli albori del ventunesimo secolo" in Riflessioni sul Giappone antico e moderno (a cura di M. Mastrangelo, L. Milasi, S. Romagnoli), Roma, Aracne, 2015, pp. 93- 111.

VITUCCI, Francesco,  2015: “ Gairaigo within Japanese Language: language suicide or casual culture?  ” in  The Annals of the University of Bucharest.   Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures (Analele Universitatii din Bucuresti.   Limbi si literaturi straine ) , 2014, 2, pp. 97-108.

VITUCCI, Francesco, 2016: "La riscrittura come ponte tra due mondi: Lafcadio Hearn e la diffusione della tradizione fantastica giapponese", «ESTETICA. STUDI E RICERCHE», Il Mulino, VI, pp. 289 - 306.

 

Link:

1) http://libro.do-bunkyodai.ac.jp/research/pdf/treatises05/05OKAMOTOa.pdf (articolo Gairaigo, Okamoto Sachiko).

2) http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/hakusho/nc/k19910628002/k19910628002.html (parametri governo giapponese per trascrizione gairaigo).

3)   http://www.info.sophia.ac.jp/sophiaj/hp/fujita/ronbum/0011.htm (Dare no tame no katakanago - Sophia University)

Teaching methods

Seminar classes.

Assessment methods

The exam includes a written test at the end of the semester.  The written test has a maximum duration of 180 minutes and is divided into the following sections:  
 
1) Translation from Japanese to Italian of a text with the aid of bilingual dictionaries;   
 
2) Exercises on the history of Japanese language writing extrapolated among the contents presented in class; 
 
3) Four exercises regarding the analysis of kanji's structure selected among exercises performed in the classroom.   
 
The final grade will be the sum of each part of the final written exam. The content offered in the written test will be aimed at testing the descriptive knowledge of the topics covered during the course, the ability to contextualize and summarize the main features of the subject. It will also assess the ability of expression in terms of accuracy and language appropriateness. Global knowledge of the topics covered will be evaluated as excellent, while an excessively expertise which would rely too much on the materials provided and not supported by interpretation will be considered with a positive but low vote. The proven and repeated difficulty in creating logical and descriptive connections between phenomena and contents will be negatively evaluated. The vote will be awarded assigning to each and every exercise a specific weight depending on the objectives to achieve.   
 
Examples of scores:      

Maximum scores (30 - 30 cum laude)   in case the candidate has: 1) assimilated all contents related to the history of Japanese language and writing, 2) achieved an extensive comprehension of ideograms 3) been able to develop his/her own translation style balancing contextual elements contained in the source and target language.
 
Intermediate scores (24-29)   in case the candidate has: 1) partially assimilated all contents related to the history of Japanese language and writing, 2) achieved a farily good comprehension of ideograms 3) been able to develop his/her own translation style though with slight translation difficulties.    

Minimum scores (18-23)   in case the candidate has: 1) sufficiently assimilated contents related to the history of Japanese language and writing, 2) has achieved a sufficient albeit poor understanding of ideograms, 3) been able to develop their own translation style but with evident translation  difficulties.
 
Insufficient scores (less than 18)   in case the candidate could not: 1) assimilate contents related to the history of Japanese language and writing, 2) prove a sufficient understanding of ideograms 3) handle processes related to interlingual translation.

Students who could not attend the seminars are required to contact the teacher who will provide a list of texts.  The written test for those who cannot attend the classes will consist of n. 5 questions about the history of Japanese language and writing extrapolated from the slides and references provided.

Teaching tools

On-line teaching materials will be made available ; it will be made extensive use of the projector to display summary, concepts, fragments of text, images and,  occasionally, video sequences  At the end of the course slides used in class will be provided on line.

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Vitucci