KJC Korea
Journal Central

In the speech of Japanese learners (hereinafter referred to as learners) and native Japanese speakers (hereinafter referred to as native speakers), multiple fillers appear consecutively (consecutive fillers). However, characteristics of these two cohorts in the use of the consecutive fillers show both similarities and differences with each other. The current study first looked into the database of OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) and drew the use of 12 types of consecutive fillers used by learners (20 learners at each intermediate, advanced and upper advanced level). Next, it undertook OPI for 10 native speakers, and then compared their use of the consecutive fillers with that of the learners. As a result, the following characteristics were identified. (1) The higher the learner's level, the higher the total number of consecutive fillers and the average number per person. (2) The higher the learner's level, the more various types of consecutive fillers used. (3) A consecutive filler expression “nanka-anoo" is found commonly in the data of native speakers and upper advanced learners, but there is no common expression between Intermediate and Advanced learners. (4) The use of consecutive fillers with two or three successive fillers were different between native speakers and learners. The above results reveal that as learners’ proficiency level becomes higher, their use of consecutive fillers shows both aspects that it is similar to that of native speakers in some features and is different in some others.

The aim of this study is to examine the usage patterns of Japanese and Korean ‘nominal expressions’ and ‘suspended clauses’ and clarify the similarities and differences between the two languages. For this, based on data from Japanese original dramas and their Korean remake versions, this study analyzes the frequencies of ‘nominal expressions’ and ‘suspended clauses’, and their frequency distributions in terms of the speaker’s gender, and differences in the usage patterns in terms of the social hierarchical relationships (i.e. equals/superiors/inferiors) between the main characters. The findings of this study are as follows. (i) The overall frequency of Japanese ‘nominal expressions’ is higher than that of Korean, whereas the frequency of ‘suspended clauses’ does not show any remarkable difference between the two languages. (ii) In terms of gender, the two languages show commonality in that male speakers use far more ‘nominal expressions’ and ‘suspended clauses’ than female speakers. (iii) The frequency distribution for the social hierarchical relationships of the main characters, from most to least frequent, is as follows: Nominal expressions - Japanese: Superiors>equals>inferiors, Korean: Equals>superiors>inferiors Suspended clauses - Japanese: Equals>superiors>inferiors, Korean: Superiors>equals>inferiors

When Japanese learners are reading Japanese documents and come across unfamiliar phrases, they may guess at the meanings based on the significance of individual kanji, or according to context. In this paper, we asked Korean-speaking learners of Japanese to read Japanese documents, and then investigated how they guessed at the meanings of unknown parts of phrases. As a result, it became clear that learners used one of the following four types of guessing strategies. Whichever the guessing strategy employed, we found both successful and unsuccessful cases. (1) Guessing from characters (kanji): When a learner finds kanji that he/she does not know, for example, “受け入れ (ukeire),” he/she can guess the meaning of “accept” from the known kanji, 入 (incoming), used in the latter half of 受け入れ (ukeire). (2) Guessing from words in the sentence: When a learner encounters an unknown word, for example “gyuuziru (牛耳る),” he/she tries to find a known word in the surrounding context. Since he/she has the expression “eriito-soo (エリート層),” which is the subject of “Pari no seizi-keizai o gyuuziru (パ リの政治経済を牛耳る)” as part of the clause with “gyuuziru (牛耳る)” he/she can guess the meaning of “gyuuziru” to be “affect.” (3) Guessing from grammar: When a learner finds an unknown expression, “mitomeraremasen (認められ ません),” for example, and knows the grammar form “…masen (ません)” which expresses the negative, he/she can guess “mitomeraremasen” as “must not.” (4) Guessing from context: When a learner finds an unknown phrase such as “atama o sagemasita,” he/she tries to find the meaning from the context around that phrase. Since he/she finds the known phrase “moosiwakenai-keredo,” which expresses an “apology,” he/she can guess that “atama o sagemasita” also has the meaning of “apologize.”