Images of Pre-WW II: National Language Policies as Reflected in the Field of "National Language Studies" Itself
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.1.1.39-52Keywords:
Japanese language, kokugo (national language), language policyAbstract
In this study I focus on the possible intellectual background regarding the scant attention paid by researchers and textbook writers to the establishment of the Japanese national language and pre-WWII language policies in Japan. This fact is surprising because the successful implementation of a modern standard language was one of the key factors in the process of the building of Japan as a modern nation-state. The central hypothesis of this research is that this conspicuous absence stems from the projection of the modern nation-state on the past, resulting in a perception of Japanese polity as a basically homogeneous and unchanged continuum in time and space. An analysis of several texts by prominent Japanese scholars of the national language has revealed important differences in perception. One group, mainly those preoccupied with the didactics of the national language, tends to view the past in the light of a “homogenised” present. On the other hand, those scholars researching Japanese in the wider context of general linguistics seem to treat national language related issues in a much more critical and theoretically informed way.
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References
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Spolsky, B. (2009). Language Management. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
Tajfel, H. (1974). Social identity and intergroup behaviour. Social Science Information, 13, 65-93.
Tanaka, K. (田中克彦) (1981). Kotoba to kokka (Language and the state, 言葉と国家), Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten Publishers.
Tanaka, K. (田中克彦) (1991). Gengo kara mita minzoku to kokka (Ethnicity and state as seen from the language, 言語からみた民族と国家), Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten Publishers.
Tani, Y. (多仁安代) (2000). Daitoa kyoeiken to nihongo. (Greater East Asia co-prosperity zone and Japanese, 大東亜共栄圏と日本語, Tokyo: Keiso Shobo.
Watanabe, M. (渡辺実) (1999). Nihongo shi yōsetsu (The essential history of Japanese, 日本語史要説, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten Publishers.
Yasuda, T. (安田敏朗) (1997). Shokuminchi no nakano ‘kokugogaku’: Tokieda Motoki to Keijo Teikokudaigaku o megutte (‘The National language studies’ in the colony: Tokieda Motoki and the Seoul Imperial University, 植民地のなかの「国語学」 時枝誠記と京城帝国大学をめぐって), Tokyo, Sangensha.
Yasuda, T. (安田敏朗) (1999a). Kokugo to hōgen no aida: gengo kōchiku no seijigaku (Between the ‘national language’ and ‘dialect’: the political science of language construction, 〈国語〉と〈方言〉のあいだ 言語構築の政治学), Kyoto: Jinbun Shoin.
Yasuda, T. (安田敏朗) (1999b). ‘Gengo’ no kōchiku: Ogura Shinpei to shokuminchi Chōsen (Constructing a language: Ogura Shinpei and Korea under colonial rule,「言語」の構築−−小倉進平と植民地朝鮮), Tokyo: Sangensha.
Anderson, B. (1998). Zamišljene skupnosti: o izvoru in širjenju nacionalizma (translation of Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, 1983, Verso). Ljubljana: SH.
Bekeš, A. (2011). Conspicuous absence: ‘national language’ in Japanese history textbooks. Inter Faculty, Vol. 2. Electronically published by Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba. (https://journal.hass.tsukuba.ac.jp/interfaculty/article/view/28, accessed April 21, 2011).
Benner, E. (2006). Japanese national doctrines in international perspective. In N. Shimazu (Ed.).
Bourdieu, P. (1992). Language as symbolic power, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Burke, P. & Porter, P. (Eds.). (1988). The Social History of Language, Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
De Swaan, A. (2001). Words of the World. Cambridge: Polity.
Frellesvig, B. (2010). A history of the Japanese language. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
Geary, P. (2005). Miti narodov (translation of Europäische Völker in Mittelalter, Fischer Taschernbuch Verlag 2002). Ljubljana: SH.
Gottlieb, N. (1995). Kanji Politics: Language Policy and Japanese Script. London: Kegan Paul International
Gottlieb, N. (2007). Japan, in A. Simpson (Ed.). pp. 186-199.
Hudson, M. J. (1999). Ruins of identity: ethnogenesis in the Japanese Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawai’I Press.
Joseph, J. E. (2004). Language and identity: national, ethnic, religious. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Katō, S. (1983). A history of Japanese literature. Translated by Don Sanderson. Vol. II: The years of isolation; Vol. III: The modern years. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Press.
Komori, Y. (小森陽一) (2000). Nihongo no kindai (Japanese in the modern times ,日本語の近代), Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten Publishers.
Lee, Y. (イ・ヨンスク) (1996). Kokugo toiu shisō: kindai Nihon no gengo ninshiki (The ideology of national language: understanding of language in modern Japan, 国語という思想--近代日本の言語認識) ,Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten Publishers.
Luthar, O. (Ed.). (2008). The Land Between: A History of Slovenia. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Makoni, S. & Pennycock A. (Eds.) (2007). Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Osa, S. (長志珠江) (1998) Kindai Nihon to kokugo nashonarizumu (Modern Japan and national language nationalism, 近代日本と国語ナショナリズム), Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan.
Ohsawa, M. (大澤真幸) & Kang S. (姜尚中) (2009). On nationalism: theory, history and area study, (ナショナリズム論・入門), Tokyo: Yuhikaku Publishing Co.
Pontecouteau, H. (2002). Devenir bretonnant. Découvertes, appretissages et réappropriation d’une langue. Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes.
Prunk, J. (1996). A brief history of Slovenia. Ljubljana: Založba Grad.
Rodrigues, J. [1604-1608] Arte da Lingoa de Iapam (日本大文典 nihon daibunten) comp./transl. by Doi, T. (1955). Nihon Daibunten. Tokyo: Sanseidō.
Shimazu, N. (Ed.). (2006). Nationalisms in Japan. Abingdon: Routledge.
Shulze, H. (2003). Država in nacija v evropski zgodovini (Translation of Staat un Nation in der europaeischen Geschichte, 1994 C.H. Beck’sche Verlagbuchshandlung, Muenchen, Series Making of Europe), series Delajmo Evropo, Ljubljana: Zaloûba *cf.
Simpson, A. (Ed.). (2007). Language and National Identity in Asia. Oxford: Oxford UP.
Spolsky, B. (2009). Language Management. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
Tajfel, H. (1974). Social identity and intergroup behaviour. Social Science Information, 13, 65-93.
Tanaka, K. (田中克彦) (1981). Kotoba to kokka (Language and the state, 言葉と国家), Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten Publishers.
Tanaka, K. (田中克彦) (1991). Gengo kara mita minzoku to kokka (Ethnicity and state as seen from the language, 言語からみた民族と国家), Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten Publishers.
Tani, Y. (多仁安代) (2000). Daitoa kyoeiken to nihongo. (Greater East Asia co-prosperity zone and Japanese, 大東亜共栄圏と日本語, Tokyo: Keiso Shobo.
Watanabe, M. (渡辺実) (1999). Nihongo shi yōsetsu (The essential history of Japanese, 日本語史要説, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten Publishers.
Yasuda, T. (安田敏朗) (1997). Shokuminchi no nakano ‘kokugogaku’: Tokieda Motoki to Keijo Teikokudaigaku o megutte (‘The National language studies’ in the colony: Tokieda Motoki and the Seoul Imperial University, 植民地のなかの「国語学」 時枝誠記と京城帝国大学をめぐって), Tokyo, Sangensha.
Yasuda, T. (安田敏朗) (1999a). Kokugo to hōgen no aida: gengo kōchiku no seijigaku (Between the ‘national language’ and ‘dialect’: the political science of language construction, 〈国語〉と〈方言〉のあいだ 言語構築の政治学), Kyoto: Jinbun Shoin.
Yasuda, T. (安田敏朗) (1999b). ‘Gengo’ no kōchiku: Ogura Shinpei to shokuminchi Chōsen (Constructing a language: Ogura Shinpei and Korea under colonial rule,「言語」の構築−−小倉進平と植民地朝鮮), Tokyo: Sangensha.
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Published
18.05.2011
How to Cite
BEKEŠ, A. (2011). Images of Pre-WW II: National Language Policies as Reflected in the Field of "National Language Studies" Itself. Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 1(1), 39–52. https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.1.1.39-52
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Copyright (c) 2011 Andrej BEKEŠ
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