This section introduces some theoretical backgrounds on Japanese kanji. As mentioned above, form and meaning are two important issues that will be addressed in the present study. Therefore, Sections 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 will provide some concepts with meaning and form of kanji. The background information about learner strategies will be presented in Section 1.2.3.
1.2.1 Form Formation
In Japanese, there are four major types of forms (He, 2004). The first type refers to Japanese characters (国字 Guozi). The definition of Japanese characters is controversial, but the Japanese characters refer mainly to the characters which are Japanese-originated, such as 込. These characters are not borrowed from Chinese and they can only be read in
kun-reading2. The second type is Japanese simplified characters. Some of these Japanese simplified characters are same as modern simplified Chinese but some are not. Some of these characters are derived from ancient Chinese. While these ancient simplified characters are commonly used in modern Japanese, they are not used in Modern Chinese. For instance, 拝 is listed in 1,945 jooyoo kanji (The Agency for Culture Affair of Japan, 2010) but in modern Chinese 拜 is used. The third type is popular Japanese characters (日本俗字 Riben suzi). Compared to the standard characters in each ancient period, these Japanese characters are the most popular words used in lower society. For example, 包 can be used as a popular form of 庖. The last type is Hanzici (or Sinoxenic), such as 書. The Hanzici refers to words only written in kanji, no matter they are kun-reading or on-reading. This type of kanji includes Chinese-originated characters and Korean-originated characters.
However, according to Yamashita and Maru (2000), there is another type of kanji, katakana composites. Katakana composites are formed by katakana characters, such as タ and ト formed kanji 外.
1.2.2 Meaning Formation
Japanese kanji characters are meaning-related as are Chinese characters (Halpern, 2001). A kanji character may have different senses or meanings. The meanings of a kanji can be operated at four levels, as in (3).
(3) a. on independent word (e.g. 明 ‘discernment’ in 先見の明 'foresight') b. on word element (e.g. 明 'clear, obvious' in 明確な 'clear, distinct') c. an independent kun word (e.g. 明るい 'bright, light')
d. a kun word element (e.g. 明け 'end' in 忌明け 'end of mourning').
2 Kanji characters are derived from Chinese characters. This exchange of Chinese characters has gone through several periods of time and the pronunciation of the Chinese characters might be preserved or might change.
Hence, Japanese kanji characters can be read in two readings, on-reading and kun-reading. The Chinese readings (or Sino-Japanese readings) are called on-reading and Japanese readings (or native readings) are called kun-reading. For consistency, this thesis uses on-readings and kun-readings.
Sometimes, a kanji character can have different meanings at one or more than one level.
These levels may then interact in a complex way. Moreover, a kanji character may function as a morpheme. It may have a bound form and a free form. Hence, when kanji characters are combined, numerous meanings of kanji may be generated. For example, the on word element 山 /san/ and the kun word element 山 /yama/ have the same meaning as
‘mountain’. However, the on word element 山 /san/ also has a sense of ‘Buddhist temple’
in 本山 /honzan/. Therefore, this complex interaction in kanji combination may cause learning difficulties for L2 learners of Japanese.
As mentioned by Vee (2006), kanji characters are meaning-related in nature. However, the question is whether kanji characters only represent meanings. According to Matsunaga (1996), kanji characters commonly refer to pictographs, ideographs, logographs, or morphographs. Those who use these terms may claim that kanji characters represent meanings independent of sounds. However, Matsunaga reexamined kanji and found that
kanji characters are not only meaning-related but also sound-related. He, thus, considered kanji “morphophonemic”. The nature of kanji is still controversial.
1.2.3 Contrastive Analysis: Difficulty Order
The theory of contrastive analysis hypothesis assumes that the degree of difference between the target language and the source language will affect the L2 learners’ acquisition.
The more different the two languages are, the more difficult L2 learners perceive. As advanced by Lado (1957), he describes the relation between first language and second language with the notions of similar and different on forms and meanings. Difficulty patterns are proposed in response to how to compare two vocabulary systems, including Cognates, Deceptive Cognates, Different Forms, Strange Meanings, New Form Types, Different Connotation and Geographical Restrictions, as shown in Table 1-1.
Table 1-1 Difficulty Patterns and Levels of Difficulty Levels Difficulty Patterns
Easy Cognates
Normal Different Forms Difficult Deceptive Cognates Difficult Strange Meanings Difficult New Form Types, Difficult Different Connotation Difficult Geographical Restrictions
The Cognates refers to the words that are similar in forms and meanings in the L1 and L2.
The words in L2 may be borrowed from the L1. The difficulty level of this pattern is identified as easy. The words that are different in forms but similar in meanings are identified as the Different Forms and the difficulty level is classified as normal. The Deceptive Cognates are the words that are similar in forms but different in meanings. This kind of words in the L2 may also be borrowed from the L1 but meanings changed in L2. The difficulty level of this pattern is identified as difficult. The Strange Meanings refers to the words that are different in forms and meanings. The different meanings in this pattern are
“strange” (Lado, 1957, p.85) for the L1 speakers in that a given concept is interpreted differently in the two languages. Thus, the difficulty level of this pattern is difficult. The New Form Types refers to the words that are different in the morphological construction (Lado, 1957, p.86) and the difficulty level of this pattern is recognized as difficult. If the words that are very different in connotations in the two languages, these words will be identified as Different Connotation. The difficulty level of this pattern is also difficult. The last Geographical Restrictions refers to the words that are only used in certain geographical area and the difficulty level is difficult as well.
Stockwell, Bowen and Martin (1965) also agree that the differences between the L1 and L2 will be challenging for L2 learners. Thus, he takes grammatical differences between
English and Spanish as examples and proposes his own five-type hierarchy of difficulty (simplified version, adapted from Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991, p.54).
Table 1-2 Hierarchy of Difficulty Degree Type of Difficulty
Easy
Hard
Correspondence Coalesced
Absent New Split
The Correspondence was the easiest, whereas the Split was the most difficult. The Correspondence type refers to a function or a grammatical structure which exists in both L1 and L2. The Coalesced means that different grammatical structures with multiple meanings in the L1 are realized as a single grammatical structure in the L2. The Absent occurs when a form in the L1 does not have the correspondence in the L2. The fourth type, the New, means that a function or a structure only exists in the L2 but no correspondence in the L1. Finally, the Split means that a grammatical structure in the L1 is split into two or more grammatical structures with multiple meanings in the L2.