1. For use with loan/foreign words whose sounds may not be original Japanese sounds, such as:
country names,foreign places,personal names:
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2. For emphasis, since hiragana accounts for all of the phonetic representations of original japanese sounds and is used for particles and many Japanese words, sometimes using katakana is used for emphasis of very important, exciting or interesting things such as:
ｽﾎﾟ -- ｼ!
ﾄﾞﾚﾏ!
ｱﾆﾒ!
Each member of the family shouts in excitement to watch their favorite thing on the new television. Sports! Drama! Anime!
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3. For Scientific/Medical Terms. This usage makes sense considering the top two main uses of kanji since these terms may not be composed of original Japanese sounds and are likely to be loan words. Also I would consider scientific and medical terms to be quite important and deserving of emphasis:
ガン = cancer
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4. For onomatopoeia, which is defined as a word the imitates or suggests the sound that it describes. It makes sense for katakana to be used in this instance because it falls into the loan word category, as it is the sound being described by the word is not likely an original Japanese sound and onomatopoeias are commonly create emphasis when they are used:
チクタク = tick tock , the noise a clock makes
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ワンワン = wan wan, the noise a Japanese dog makes
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5. For Unification, sometimes katakana is used to conveniently combine 2 words into one:
ルームミラー = Rear view mirror
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6. For shortening, sometimes for convenience katakana is used to shorten a longer word or phrase into a shorter one:
ﾊﾟｿｺﾝ = personal computer
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Dilciaさん！こんばんわ！
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your katakana analysis. You picked up on several more examples than I did, and you did a great job of showcasing the range of uses that katakana can be put to. I especially liked that you brought up the combining of words (#5) and the shortening of words (#6) because they are things that I noticed as well, but did not take special note of. Good job, and thanks for reminding me of these interesting usages!
じゃまた！
- Glenda
I liked your first example, where you said that カタカナ is used to express sounds that are not part of the original Japanese language. I also liked your second example, and the picture that went along with it. I agree that using カタカナ stresses the family's excitement of what they like to watch. I wonder why the words of the rightmost family member are in kanji though.
ReplyDeleteおはよう。ナズキアン先生の四年生クラスの学生です。チンと言います。よろしく。先生に頼まれてこのブログを読んでずいぶん面白いと思います。カタカタの用い方についてとても参考になりました。昔勉強した一つの記事も思い出しました。この記事によると、最初はカタカナは外来語としてよく使われたんですが、どんどん変わってきて、いま日本で普通の場合にもよく出てきたそうです。若者文化のおかげで、多くの場合は、カタカナのほうがひらがなよりすごくトレンディな感じがします。
ReplyDeleteWow! いいですね！ You really did analyze a LOT of カタカナ uses. This post reminded me of the cancer example we used in class--in that case wasn't カタカナ also used to perhaps make the word less frightening?
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ReplyDeleteすごい！
ReplyDeleteYou clearly showcased a wide variety of katakana usages. I really like #5 (unification of two words).
I didn't consider that you can use katakana to combine two words. That's very interesting. Are there other examples of this?
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ReplyDeleteHi, I'm Joseph. Nice to meet you. I am a graduate student and taking Japanese course at Columbia University. I was assigned to read what you wrote and post my comment on it. The American map seems very useful for Japanese to get to know the names of each states of America. And the Japanese cartoon was interesting as well. I like them all! Good luck with your Japanese!
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