Tokieda Motoki

Tokieda Motoki ( Japanese 時 枝 誠 記 , first name with the same spelling also read Seiki ; born December 6, 1900 in Tokyo ; died October 27, 1967 ) was a Japanese linguist and grammar researcher of the Shōwa period .

life and work

Tokieda Motoki was born in Tokyo and graduated from Tokyo University in 1926 . From 1927 he worked as a university professor for Japanese in Korea, which was then Japanese. Then he moved back to his alma mater in 1943 , where he was able to take over the chair of Japanese from Hashimoto Shinkichi (橋本 進 吉, 1882–1945).

Tokieda studied the grammar of both classical and modern Japanese. He is known for his "process theory of Japanese" (言語 過程 説, Gengo katei-setsu), with which he differs from the European structure-oriented approach. His approach shows strong influence from previous studies of Japanese grammar, particularly from Suzuki Akira .

Tokieda's grammatical system is based on the distinction between shi , words that express an experience of the mind, and ji , words that reflect mental activity, or words that express concepts and words, and words that are associated with affects, or in other words, between semantic and pragmatic elements. Tokiedas approach follows that of the linguists Yamada Yoshio (山田 孝 雄, 1873-1958) and Matsushita Daisaburō (松下 大 三郎; 1878-1935), also that of Hashimoto.

Another central idea is that of the “structure of nested boxes” (入 れ 子 型 構造, Irekogata kōzō), which Tokieda preferred to linear structures (文 節, bunsetsu).

Tokiedas left behind numerous books on the grammar of the Japanese language. His approach has been widely criticized, but as far as Japanese grammar goes, he was arguably the most influential figure after the Pacific War .

Remarks

1. ↑ That literally corresponds to the "doll in the doll" as we know it from Russia.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Tokieda Motoki . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1575.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Tokieda is the family name, Motoki the first name.