Group 7; Project 2

Zombieland Saga Episode 2 – I <3 HIP HOP SAGA

Group 2: Samuel Roberts, Jin Yu Li, Daniel Grigsby, Tianqi Lin, Jason Tseng

Our team looked at the second episode of the anime Zombieland Saga, titled “I <3 HIP HOP SAGA”, and took out a number of phrases used in conversation by two characters: Minamoto Sakura: the aspiring idol, and Saki Nikaido: the young delinquent, and analyse the ways in which their various choices in vocabulary imply masculinity, femininity, and the indexed features involved with each. Continue reading

Group 3; Project 1

Group 3 : Samuel Roberts, Amber Walker, Jason Tseng, Haochen Huang, Daniel Grisby

Site 1: DMM Games

 

Sino Japanese:
漢字:20
温泉、満喫、基本、無料、有料、放題、湯気、友達、利用、可能、確認、所持、交換、艦隊、開催中、突破、拘束

Native Japanese: ひらがな:11
女のこたち、録りおろし、すぐ、これくしょん、来た、好きな、
必ずもらえる、おゆばに、この、から、まで
Katakana: 28
ゲーム、トップ、リーグ、コミュニティ、メッセージ、ヘルプ、ボイス、
メンテナンス、メダル、ポイント、チャージ、ダウンロード、チッピ、コミュ、
ピックアップ、ハイパー、チーム、バトル、バスタオル、チュートリアル、
トリック オア プリン、ハロウィン、パーティー、イベント、プリンセス、コネクト
Romaji: 9
DMM Games, New, PUBG, Flower Knight Girl, Cygames Inc.

A large portion of the terms present are given in katakana, which is understandable for a games website. Katakana text is used very often in games as labels for items (メダル, チッピ) as well as other game based terms (イベント, ヘルプ). A number of katakana words could have easily been shown via hiragana and/or kanji, but were instead purposefully chosen to be written in katakana, such as ヘルプ or ボイスThis allows these often relevant terms to stand out, sort of like using Italics, and also gives off the casual vibes that gaming is often known for. While there are nearly twice as many Sino-Japanese words than there are Native Japanese words, these words are mostly located in titles and headlines, where conservation of space was likely taken into account on the designers end.

Site 2: Uniqlo

Sino Japanese: 12
店舗, 検索, 会員, 登録, 限定値, 新作, 今週, 期間, 限定, 価格, 商品, 消費税
Native Japanese: 15
お問い合わせ、お気に入り、下げ中、見る、まで、軽い、いろいろ、すっきり、とした、楽しめる、使える、これ、暖かい、薄い、値下げ
Katakana: 10 ラインナップ、カート、デザイン、レイヤード、ウルトラ、ライト、ダウン、ベスト、アウター、インナー
Romaji: 10
Women, Men, Kids, Baby, Company, Ultra Light down, XS – 3/4XL

Nearly half of the words on this particular screenshot are given either in Katakana or are English words in Romaji. This is likely both because, as a clothing website, Uniqlo wants to have a particularly international style as well as because they may receive traffic from users in other countries being that they are a major clothing brand. As for the Sino/Native balance, they are mostly balanced in usage, which seems to show that the words are used for technical, literary purposes rather than to show a particular style.