Japanese linguistics has grown into a large field of study, but according to Paul Warnick, it all started with a forgotten scholar’s deceptively simple metaphor: The noun is like the body.
If words such as “verb,” “preposition,” or “noun” didn’t exist, how would you describe parts of speech? Eighteenth-century Japanese scholar Fujitani Nariakira faced this problem, and instead of attempting an impossible game of charades, he compared the different parts of speech to the human body and traditional clothing. In doing so, he became the first scholar to attempt a systematic analysis of Japanese linguistics, yet few academics studying Japanese have ever heard his name.
Associate Professor Paul Warnick (Japanese Language Pedagogy) first learned of Nariakira while completing his PhD at The Ohio State University. Now, he’s working to revive Nariakira’s works and to introduce the Western world to the founder of Japanese linguistics.
Japan’s First Linguist
Before Nariakira, written Japanese was heavily based on Chinese. Japan began to branch off over time, creating three new alphabet systems: hiragana and katakana, phonetic alphabets formed by simplifying written Chinese, and kanji, which uses traditional Chinese characters to convey meaning. Warnick explains that the Japanese writing system was becoming more linguistically independent, and “things were shifting more toward acknowledging Japan’s own literature and not just relying on Chinese as the standard.”
It was with this independent language system that Nariakira began his study of Japanese, and he did so by writing three volumes. In these books, Nariakira compared nouns to the human body, calling them na, meaning ‘name’; he later compares the function of apparel to parts of speech: both verbs and adjectives are clothing (yosoi); adverbs, conjunctions, and adnominal words are traditional head ornaments (kazashi); and particles and auxiliary verbs are binding cords (ayui).
Nariakira pulled examples of each part of speech from 1,100 Japanese poems by labeling words in each piece as either “name,” “clothing,” “headpiece,” or “binding cord.” Warnick considers Nariakira’s metaphor an extraordinary first attempt at categorizing the Japanese language.
In Nariakira’s works, he also provided context to language change in Japan using poetry: “He identified six periods of history and then wrote a sample poem [on] 100 different topics [in the style] of each of those six periods,” Warnick says. Not only did this show off Nariakira’s vast knowledge of Japanese poetry and his abilities as a writer and poet, but it also offers linguists a de facto time capsule into six different periods of Japanese history and language.
Bringing Nariakira’s Works to Light
Warnick believes that Nariakira isn’t well-known for a myriad of reasons, the most prominent being his death at the young age of 41 and the obscure and somewhat obtuse metaphors described in his works. However, Warnick says that “he influenced later linguists,” including Motoori Norinaga, a famous scholar known throughout Japan. Despite this influence, Warnick notes that very few modern-day academics know Nariakira’s name—and even fewer have conducted research on his works.
We take a lot of things for granted because they have been building over time, and different people have contributed a piece here and a piece there
Since earning his PhD, Warnick has steadily studied the scholar’s works and has two drafted translations of Nariakira’s books. By translating these works, Warnick hopes to introduce the centuries-old works into many different fields of study. “I think his work is relevant to teaching linguistics today; I think it’s relevant to teaching classical Japanese today; and I think it’s relevant to teaching Japanese literature today,” Warnick states.
Until his translations are published, Warnick takes any opportunity he can—in classes, during presentations, and with his colleagues—to share Nariakira’s legacy. “We take a lot of things for granted because they have been building over time, and different people have contributed a piece here and a piece there,” he says. Warnick continues, saying that in the future, “I would hope [Nariakira] could be recognized and appreciated for his contribution.”
Learn more about Warnick’s research interests and course offerings here.