Onomatopoeia-occasionalisms as a feature of Japanese colloquial speech

Kuznetsova Elena Mikhailovna Lecturer; Department of Japanese Language; Institute of East country 23, Trade Union Street, Moscow, 117418, Russia amateur-artist@mail.ru

Introduction

Colloquial speech has a number of distinctive characteristics, among which researchers most often distinguish its informal and relaxed nature, close connection with the context, as well as an improvisational type of implementation associated with the unpreparedness of colloquial speech ^{[1, p. 18]}. Despite the presence of certain norms, colloquial speech, due to the above-listed properties, more freely admits violation of language rules than a codified literary language, and therefore the use of occasional formations can often be noticed in it. The use of such combinations has several goals: to fill the lack of language resources, save speech efforts by simplifying the nomination and creating a certain emotional background ^{[2, p. 7]}.

The use of occasional words and neologisms is also characteristic of the lexical level of Japanese colloquial speech, and in the process of word creation, both borrowed words gairaigo ("guguru" — "Google", where "guguru" is the Japanese pronunciation of Google, and also along with this "–ru" is a verbal affix) and actually, the Japanese words vago ("axis" — "pet", from yap. "osu" — "recommend"), and even in some cases kango Sinoisms ("tyu:nibe:" — "eighth grader syndrome", from the Japanese "tyu:gakko:-but ninensei" — "a student of the second year of secondary school" and "be:ki" — "illness") ^{[3, p. 93]}. Later, some of them may even become entrenched in the language. Onomatopoietic words are also widely used in colloquial speech and, due to their concise form and the ability to simultaneously convey different types of sensations, make speech more saturated with images.

The relevance and scientific novelty of the undertaken research lies in the fact that the topic of Japanese onomatopoeia has not been studied in detail by researchers. Many note that onomatopes actively participate in the word-making process and are able to form new combinations in a variety of ways ^{[3, p. 114; 4, p. 197; 5, p. 49]}, however, no attention was paid to a more detailed description of this phenomenon in colloquial speech.

The purpose of our study is to consider the types of onomatopoeia in Japanese colloquial speech, to identify the reasons for their use. Onomatopoietic words of the Japanese language are the object of research. The subject of the study is their occasional variants. As factual material, examples of Japanese statements from videos on video hosting are given youtube.com , as well as excerpts from the Japanese TV show Love is Blind and selected Japanese messages on social networks.

The main part

Before describing the occasional variants of onomatopes found in colloquial speech, it is necessary to list the general ways of their formation. Various types of reduplication act as one of the most common models for the formation of onomatopoietic words ^{[6, pp. 300-301; 7, pp. 50-51]}. Both the entire root and its part can be repeated ("deluge" and "deluge" about the prolonged fall of drop-shaped objects); the root itself can be monosyllabic or more often two-syllabic ("gu:gu: "about deep sleep and "gusugus" about a stuffy nose). Another common model is the addition of the formant "–ri" to a two-syllabic onomatopoietic root ("kururi" about rotational movement), often with a geminate appearing between the two parts of the onomatopoietic root ("guttari" and "gutari" about the absence of forces) ^{[6, pp. 302-303]}. In addition to the formant "–ri", the onomatopoietic root can end with a nasal consonant or geminate ("kusyan" about sneezing and "kukut" about absorbing liquid in one gulp). Some onomatopoietic roots are able to attach the verbal affixes "–tsuku", "–meku", etc. ("urotsuku" about aimless fermentation and "soyomek" about rustling) ^{[8, p. 25; 9, p. 119]}. H. Otsubo also describes a rarer method of formation, which is the addition of two onomatopoietic roots ("tsurupika" about something smooth and shiny, from onomatopes "tsurutsuru" about something smooth and "pikapika" about shine and sparkle), similar units for The account of its rarity is more often attributed to occasional formations ^{[9, pp. 125-126]}.

P. S. Tumarkin notes that onomatopoietic formations are quite common in colloquial speech. First of all, the researcher refers to such an onomatopoietic root with verbal affixes, to the actual colloquial units (i.e. not included in the normative dictionary) are onomatopes with the affix "–ru" ("deburu" about someone fat or "mofuru" about touching something fluffy, from "debudebu" and "mofumofu", respectively). Sometimes there is an addition of the onomatopoietic root and the basis of vago ("metyabome" — "to praise", from the onomatope "matyakutya" about something excessive and disorderly and the verb "homeru" - "to praise") ^{[3, pp. 93, 101; 10, pp. 61-62]}.

Using the example of the material we have analyzed, we can identify several language levels at which occasional variants of onomatopes appear: phonetic, morphological and syntactic.

At the phonetic level, attention is drawn to the use of the sound [b ^w], which is uncharacteristic not only for onomatopoietic words, but also for the Japanese language as a whole:

(1) "Ikari-ga saiko:te:-ni natte, "bva: "tte yutte simau." "The anger will reach its peak, and I'll end up yelling at him" ^{[11, 00:01:47]};

(2) "Kabu-kara bvat-to haitte kuru no". — "They instantly come out of the stump" [Episode 12, 7, 00:36:52].

N. A. Syromyatnikov notes that at the stage of the existence of the classical Japanese language, there were labialized posterior lingual [k ^w] and [g ^w], the use of which in the position before the vowel [a] persisted until the XIX century. ^{[13, pp. 73-74]}, however, in some onomatopes this phenomenon can be observed very rarely now. However, [k] and [g] were the only consonants that were labialized and this phenomenon did not extend to [b]. It can be assumed that this combination appeared in Japanese under the influence of English, in which there is an exclamation "bwah", used in a variety of situations, including when describing irritation. We cannot unequivocally assert that there was a process of borrowing an onomatopoietic word, since this in itself is an extremely rare phenomenon, especially when an onomatopoeic with a similar meaning already exists in the language. P. S. Tumarkin writes that Japanese youth, preferring to use foreign words more attractive for their unusual nature in their speech, quickly gets used to atypical for Japanese phonetic combinations and begins to pronounce them fluently ^{[6, p. 86]}. Therefore, most likely, we are talking about borrowing an uncharacteristic sound for Japanese phonetics and its subsequent adaptation to specific onomatopes, where such a sound would be appropriate. Note that this sound appears only in vividly emotionally colored sentences, both in terms of the general meaning of the utterance and its intonation pattern.

The randomness of Japanese onomatopes at the phonetic level can also manifest itself in a situation of intentional isolation of long vowels and consonants. In itself, the lengthening of a syllable is not unusual, because longitude plays a meaningful role in the Japanese language, however, we are talking about units where, for a more vivid transmission of the described state, a vowel or consonant is lengthened several times in its pronunciation:

(3) "Bikkuri-sita". - "I was shocked" ^{[14, 00:01:59]};

(4) "Gohan tabetate mo, dzutto ge:mu toka, dzuu-to, honto dzuu-to ge:mu-siteru kara, samisii ye ne." "He plays games all the time, even when he's eating. All the time, he's really playing all the time, so I'm sad." ^{[11, 00:07:38]}.

When using onomatopes with such pronounced longitudes, the emotional background of the utterance increases, it shows how much the speaker experiences the described event. The onomatope "bikkuri" from example (3) often describes surprise, but the form with an emphatically elongated consonant shows that the event was shocking to the speaker. In addition, in this way, the speaker can focus the interlocutor's attention on the states described by onomatopes, emphasize their importance. This is especially noticeable in example (4), where the onomatop "dzutto" is repeated three times, while at first it is pronounced completely calmly, and the next two times with an emphatically long vowel (the third time the sound is longer than the second).

At the morphological level, non-standard onomatopes in their form attract attention, which, in essence, being neologisms, gradually began to be used by a large number of people. These include, for example, "bonkubbon":

(5) "Bonkubbon wa saiko: des". — "90-60-90 is the best option" ^{[15, 00:02:38]}.

This word has appeared relatively recently in the Japanese language and has entered the everyday speech of young people. The root "bon" indicates something large and dense, and the root "kut", on the contrary, describes something thin (in the context of appearance — a toned body). As a result of their combination, an onomatopoietic word was obtained describing the parameters of a woman's figure of 90-60-90, in which she has large breasts, a wasp waist and wide hips.

The onomatop "fuwafu" belongs to a slightly different type::

(6) "Fuwafu:- cite mite." - "Try to blow" ^{[16, 00:00:05]}.

One could assume that we have a non-standard variant of partial reduplication, but this is difficult to imagine in a situation where longitude occurs in the second, and not in the first, of the reduplicated syllables. In addition, the onomatope "fuwafuwa" can describe the process of light rocking, but not the blowing itself, unlike "fu:fu:", which simulates strong air blowing. Most likely, we are looking at the addition of the onomatopoietic roots "fuwa" and "fu:", as a result of which both the action produced by a person (blowing) and its result (swaying dandelion hairs) are described. The use of such onomatopes can be explained by the economy of linguistic means: wanting to describe the phenomenon from several sides of perception, a Japanese can combine parts of different onomatopes into one new word.

In addition to the basic structure, one can also find occasional geminate formations in colloquial speech:

(7) "Siroi ichigo tte sukosi fuwat-to sittiau, wa:t-to hirogettiau. Kore tetto amasa-ga kyut-to natte, chan-to todoku" - "[The taste of] white strawberries "explodes" and spreads throughout the mouth. But the sweetness of this strawberry is more targeted and reaches the taste buds well" ^{[17, 00:17:28]};

(8) "Iya, dzu:t-to hitori nan de, ni ju: issai gurai toki-kara jut-to hitori nan des e" - "No, I have been alone for a long time, somewhere from the age of twenty-one I have not been dating anyone for a long time" ^{[18, 00:02:25]}.

In these examples, we are most interested in the onomatopes "va:t-to" and "dzu:t-to", since the use of geminates in an onomatopoietic word, if its root ends in a long vowel, is very rare. The onomatopes in these examples are variants of the same onomatopes only without a long vowel ("wat-to" and "dzut-to", respectively), therefore, most likely, the vowel lengthening here is emphatic in nature.

In terms of syntactic connections, onomatopes draw attention to themselves, which, as a definition, attach to themselves the affix of semi–predicative adjectives "-on", which is a very rare use case. Let's make a reservation that onomatopes can act as semi–predicative adjectives in Japanese, but more often this is achieved in other ways (using the affix "-yaka"). The affix "–on", although it is a typical way of introducing a semi-predicative adjective into a sentence in the position of definition, is not usually used with onomatopoietic roots, however, we can find similar examples in colloquial speech:

(9) "Waku-na o-shirase tottemo thanoshimi-ni sitemas!" - "I'm really looking forward to the good news!";

(10) "Yukkuri-na hito na no." — "I'm not a particularly efficient person" [Episode 12, 4, 00:29:02].

Note that at least the onomatope "waku" or its reduplicated form "wakuwaku" may still occasionally occur with the affix "–na" in various video titles or blog entries ("Wakuwaku-na tyarenji-o sitai anata-ni" — "For those who want to challenge themselves with a fun challenge" ^[19] or "Dokidoki, wakuwaku-na haru-no shiki" — "An exciting and joyful spring ceremony"^[20]), then the onomatop "yukkuri" does not find any other examples of use with the affix "–na", it is usually introduced into the sentence as a circumstance of the mode of action using the formant "–that". The introduction of onomatopoeia into a sentence using indicators that are not typical for use with onomatopes may be dictated by the desire to draw the interlocutor's attention to the phenomenon described by the onomatopoeic word, to make a semantic emphasis on it.

Conclusion

Based on the analysis, the following conclusions can be drawn regarding the occasionality of onomatopoietic words in Japanese colloquial speech. Conversational speech, being a constantly developing system, most easily refers to various violations of the norms of language, which can manifest themselves, including in onomatopoietic words. As a rule, a violation of the norm can take place at the phonetic or morphological levels, but it also occurs at the syntactic level. At the phonetic level, attention is drawn to the use of labialized [b ^w], which is uncharacteristic of the Japanese language, as well as the emphatic elongation of vowels and consonants. In terms of morphology, one can note the use of onomatopes, which are the addition of onomatopoietic roots (some of which are gradually entering the dictionary), as well as rare cases of geminate joining to a root ending in a long vowel. In addition, at the syntactic level, it can be noted how some onomatopes, acting as a definition, are introduced into a sentence using an unusual affix of semi–predicative adjectives "-on".

The use of the above techniques is determined by a number of factors. First of all, this increases the overall level of emotionality of the statement and it becomes more colorful, which is an integral property of spoken language. Due to non-standard combinations from the point of view of word formation, gaps can be filled in place of those words that are missing in the language, and thus the desired content is transmitted to the speaker in a more concise form. In addition, the use of rare forms of onomatopes contributes to the function of attracting attention, in which the listener first focuses on the phenomena and conditions described by onomatopes.