Research On The Variation Of Japanese Katakana Loanwords

The Japanese language has a complex writing system that uses kanji,katakana,and hiragana at the same time.Within the katakana writing system,which is used to record foreign words,there is a coexistence of multiple forms of the same word.For example,which one should be used,"ウイルス" or "ウィルス",which is borrowed from "virus" into Japanese? Not only do bilingual learners have a problem with this,but also native speakers of Japanese may not be able to tell.This study looks at the coexistence of multiple word forms in foreign languages from the perspective of linguistic variation,and asks two questions based on previous research: First,what variations of foreign word forms exist in modern Japanese? What are the tendencies in the use of word forms? Second,what factors influence the variation of foreign word forms?In this study,we used a large-scale corpus and statistical analysis to examine the overall situation of variation in modern written Japanese by counting the foreign language epithets where variation exists,and found that 13.06% of foreign words have two or more variants,and the scale of variation was found to vary considerably among articles in different fields.According to the different forms of variant opposition,Japanese foreign word variants are grouped into seven types: opposition between long and vowel forms,opposition between upper and lower case,opposition between the presence or absence of long syllables and the presence or absence of prompt syllables,opposition between approximant sounds,opposition between borrowed sounds and borrowed forms,opposition between coextensive and subextensive forms,and opposition between singular and plural forms.The statistical analysis of these types of variants and their variants reveals the tendency to use variants in several contrastive variants: firstly,when the variants are expressed as the opposition between long and vowel forms,the long form is preferred in the variants;secondly,when the variants are expressed as the opposition between upper and lower case kana,except for the "ウイ" combination,the small form is preferred in the other combinations.In the third category,when the opposition is expressed in the presence or absence of syllables,the long and velar forms are more often used in the opposition;in the fourth category,due to the difference in approximation,no generalization can be made;in the fifth category,when the variation is expressed in the divergence of borrowing rules,the borrowed variants are more widely used,while the borrowed variants are less numerous and less frequently used;in the sixth category,when the In the sixth category,when the variation manifests itself as a dichotomy between morphological and morphless forms,the singular variant is more often chosen as the unmarked form than the plural variant;in the seventh category,when the variation manifests itself as a dichotomy between the split and the combined variant,the combined variant occupies an overwhelmingly dominant position in usage.As for the factors influencing the morphological variation of Katakana words,in addition to linguistic factors,external social forces can have a wide and far-reaching impact on them.Based on the model proposed by Tanami(2019)to explain language contact variation,this study integrates social factors into three aspects: social change,language policy,and transmission routes,and analyzes how social factors contribute to the morphological variation of Japanese Katakana words through case studies.This study is expected to clarify the complex variation of Japanese Katakana words,reveal the usage tendency of variants,provide reference for language learners,and provide reference value for the study and revision of Japanese Katakana words policies.