5 ms·

This is true, and it's not unique to Japanese (Chinese does it too). But I'm not sure the existence of this specific feature in the language supports any partic

by JMStewy 15y ago

This is true, and it's not unique to Japanese (Chinese does it too). But I'm not sure the existence of this specific feature in the language supports any particular generalizations about a "Japanese mindset." To English speakers, using different counters for different classes of nouns is a pretty strange feature, but I'd imagine no stranger than the Japanese might consider our plurals. Japanese (and Chinese) don't inflect nouns for plural agreement at all. From there, imagine how English's seemingly random collection of irregular plurals must seem (feet, oxen, halves, deer, women, mice, children, dice, larvae, alumni, bacteria, etc). I wonder what features of English-origin programming syntax they might link to this bizarre collection of special cases :).

mechanical_fish 15y ago
But I'm not sure the existence of this specific feature in the language supports any particular generalizations about a "Japanese mindset." It doesn't, of course! I thought about making that point explicitly, but eventually decided that the OP was obviously a big joke so I might as well go along with it. ;) One of the most fun things to do in linguistics class is to identify the supposedly-unique features of odd foreign languages and then find them in English. Using tone to convey meaning? I think you might be able to come up with some kind of example. Using clicks as phonemes? Tsk, tsk, tsk. And so on. And English has formal and informal modes. There's studies showing that, like, people speaking to each other informally, like, use all these, um, little interjections, for which they are sometimes mocked as inarticulate. But put them in a different social situation, and their speech tends to become more formal and those "likes" disappear. English has lost most of German's fancy gender and case-marking systems, but there are fascinating residues left over. I forget the detailed examples; hopefully I kept my notes from that class.
yangman 15y ago
To English speakers, using different counters for different classes of nouns is a pretty strange feature... Strange, perhaps, but present. To a native Chinese and Japanese speaker like myself, the list of collective nouns for animals in English is staggering, almost mindblowing, and appears absolutely arbitrary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns_by_subject_A-H http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns_by_sub...

by JMStewy 15y ago

mechanical_fish 15y ago

But I'm not sure the existence of this specific feature in the language supports any particular generalizations about a "Japanese mindset." It doesn't, of course! I thought about making that point explicitly, but eventually decided that the OP was obviously a big joke so I might as well go along with it. ;) One of the most fun things to do in linguistics class is to identify the supposedly-unique features of odd foreign languages and then find them in English. Using tone to convey meaning? I think you might be able to come up with some kind of example. Using clicks as phonemes? Tsk, tsk, tsk. And so on. And English has formal and informal modes. There's studies showing that, like, people speaking to each other informally, like, use all these, um, little interjections, for which they are sometimes mocked as inarticulate. But put them in a different social situation, and their speech tends to become more formal and those "likes" disappear. English has lost most of German's fancy gender and case-marking systems, but there are fascinating residues left over. I forget the detailed examples; hopefully I kept my notes from that class.

yangman 15y ago

To English speakers, using different counters for different classes of nouns is a pretty strange feature... Strange, perhaps, but present. To a native Chinese and Japanese speaker like myself, the list of collective nouns for animals in English is staggering, almost mindblowing, and appears absolutely arbitrary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns_by_subject_A-H http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns_by_sub...