Members of the group: Alli Livermore, Quinn Takara, Mckenzie Grisham, Avigail Valdecantos
PSA: We formatted everything within a Google Document, unfortunately, all our beautiful highlighting, formatting, and picture quality did not transfer over, to view the post in all its glory please click here.
Methodology:
Our group conducted a vocabulary choice analysis of articles from two websites, Kai-You and Toei Video (東映ビデオ株式会社). We chose to look at the vocabulary choice from an old Japanese animated film called, “The Boy Who Killed the 8 headed Dragon”, published by Toei Video, and the more recent “Boy and the Heron” published by Kai-You.
To conduct the analysis, we selected a text that contained about 500 letters and characters and divided the work of identifying all the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, and the categorization of Sino-Japanese, Native Japanese, western loan words, and nonstandard scripts used. From the vocabulary choices, we could examine the meaning, imagery, and nuance created by each website.
Kai-You – https://kai-you.net/article/88592
Toei – https://www.toei-video.co.jp/special/wanpakuouji/
Materials:
The Boy and the Heron:
Nouns:
- 作品 (work)
- 君たち (you)
- 生きる (live)
- 第81回 (81st)
- ゴールデングローブ賞 (Golden Globe Award)
- アニメ映画賞 (animated film award)
- アカデミー賞 (Academy Award)
- 前哨戦 (precursor)
- 日本 (Japan)
- 今回 (this time)
- 他 (others)
- 戸締まり (closing the doors)
- スパイダーマン (Spider-Man)
- アクロス (across)
- スパイダーバース (Spider-Verse)
- 17. マイ・エレメント (My Element)
- ザ・スーパーマリオブラザーズ・ムービー (The Super Mario Brothers Movie)
- 19. ウィッシュ (Wish)
- 音楽 (music)
- 作曲家 (composer)
- ノミネート (nominated)
- 同賞 (the same award)
- 映画 (movie)
- オッペンハイマー (Oppenheimer)
- 原作 (original work)
- 脚本 (screenplay)
- スタジオジブリ (Studio Ghibli)
- 31. アニメーション映画 (animated film)
- 引退宣言 (retirement declaration)
- 物語 (story)
- 最中 (midst)
- 火事 (fire)
- 母親 (mother)
- 少年 (boy)
- 38. 青サギ (blue heron)
- 異世界 (different world)
- 40. 公開日 (release date)
- あらすじ (synopsis)
- 42. 声優キャスト (voice cast)
- 主題歌 (theme song)
- 対応 (response)
- 話題 (topic)
Adjectives/Adverbs:
- 新たな (new)
- 2. かつてない (unprecedented)
- 斬新な (innovative)
- 傑作 (masterpiece)
- 5. フラットで (flat)
- シンプルな (simple)
- 様式化された (stylized)
- 造形美溢れる (full of aesthetic beauty)
- 約 (approximately)
- 重厚な (profound)
- 早くも (already)
- 新機軸を (innovation)
- 4Kマスター使用の (using 4K master)
- 生かしつつ (while utilizing)
- も (also)
- 導入 (introduction)
Verbs:
- 受賞する (to win, to receive an award)
- いわれる (to be said, to be called)
- 手がける (to handle, to be in charge of)
- ノミネートされる (to be nominated)
- 担当する (to be in charge of)
- 撤回する (to retract)
- 完成させる (to complete)
- 失う (to lose)
- 導かれる (to be guided)
- 迷い込む (to wander into)
- 描かれる (to be depicted)
- 明かす (to reveal)
- なる (to become)
- 話題になる (to become a topic)
- 期待する (to expect)
- 公開する (to release)
- 記録する (to record)
- 獲得する (to achieve, to win)
- 注目を集める (to attract attention)
The Boy Who Killed the 8 headed Dragon:
Nouns:
- 白蛇伝 (Legend of the White Serpent)
- 歳月 (years)
- 技術 (technology)
- 経験 (experience)
- 製作システム (production system)
- アニメーション映画 (animated film)
- 日本アニメ史 (history of Japanese animation)
- 傑作 (masterpiece)
- 東映動画 (Toei Animation)
- 長編 (feature film)
- わんぱく王子の大蛇退治 (The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon)
- Blu-ray (Blu-ray)
- 日本神話 (Japanese mythology)
- 14. ギャグ (gag)
- 15. ユーモア (humor)
- 物語 (story)
- 17. キャラクター (character)
- 背景美術 (background art)
- 造形美 (artistic design)
- 画面 (screen)
- 作品 (work)
- 製作費 (production cost)
- スタッフ (staff)
- 作画枚数 (number of animation frames)
- 絵具 (paint)
- 新人 (newcomer)
- ベテラン (veteran)
- 作画監督 (animation director)
- 原動画 (original animation)
- 映画音楽 (film music)
- 物語 (story)
- クライマックス (climax)
- アクションシーン (action scene)
- 大蛇退治 (defeat of the giant serpent)
- 大塚康生 (Yasuo Ōtsuka)
- 月岡貞夫 (Sadao Tsukioka)
- 名場面 (famous scene)
- 今 (now)
- 語り継がれる (handed down)
- 日本アニメーション (Japanese animation)
- 歴史 (history)
- 新機軸 (new axis)
- 4Kマスター (4K master)
- 使用 (use)
- 映像 (image)
Adjectives/Adverbs:
- 初 (first)
- 日本の (Japanese)
- 他の (other)
- 4. ノミネートされていた (nominated)
- 同賞 (the same award)
- 映画の (movie)
- 不思議な (mysterious)
- 珍しい (unusual)
- 約 (about)
- ほとんど (almost)
- 11. 第89回 (89th)
- 高い (high)
- 注目を集めている (gathering attention)
- 以来 (since)
- 期待される (expected)
- また (also)
- 全編を (throughout)
- 一層 (even more)
- そして (and)
- 早くも (already)
- 今なお (still)
Verbs
- 経る (to pass)
- 生かす (to make use of)
- 導入する (to introduce)
- 残す (to leave, to remain)
- 発売する (to release)
- 題材にする (to use as a subject)
- 交える (to mix)
- 綴る (to compose)
- 使用する (to use)
- 起用する (to appoint)
- 担当する (to be in charge of)
- 貫く (to penetrate)
- 盛り上げる (to enhance, to raise)
- 取り組む (to tackle)
- 費やす (to spend)
- 語り継ぐ (to pass down, to tell)
- 打ち出す (to propose)
- 住む (to live)
- 楽しむ (to enjoy)
- 亡くなる (to pass away)
- 行く (to go)
- 受け入れる (to accept)
- 旅に出る (to embark on a journey)
- 訪ねる (to visit)
- 触れる (to touch, to feel)
- 苦しめる (to torment)
- 戦う (to fight)
- 誓う (to vow)
Analysis and Discussion
Kai-You “君たちはどう生きるか”
Kai-You’s business statement is, “To enhance the social value of pop culture and make the world a more enjoyable place to live” and their tagline is, “Play with the world!”. They were established in 2011 and offer the latest pop culture and media news.
Within the article on the film “君たちはどう生きるか”, the identified nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs were categorized into nonstandard scripts, western loan words, Native Japanese, and Sino-Japanese. Nonstandard script made up the smallest group size making up 11% of the words. Next was loan words, which made up 19% of the words. Native Japanese made up only 26%, and Sino-Japanese was by far the largest group, making up 44% of the words used in the article.
Because the article made mention of the Golden Globes Awards, which is an American-made institution, and many of the films are of American origin, there were many uses of katakana and loan words. For example, after mentioning the achievements of “Boy and the Heron” in the Awards, the article mentioned other nominated films of the category including スパイダーマン：アクロス・ザ・スパイダーバース, マイ・エレメント, and ウィッシュ amongst others.
Something of note here is despite the article’s mentions of the Foreign Awards Academy and competitors, the article used the Japanese name for the film “君たちはどう生きるか.” In English, this title had been changed to “ The Boy and the Heron,” which differs drastically in meaning from the original Japanese name translating to “how you all live.” This points towards the view of the Japanese on foreign novelty. While Japanese-made things are adapted to better suit the Western palette, as seen in “君たちはどう生きるか” to “The Boy and the Heron,” the Japanese seem to keep things as accurate to the origins by using katakana for phonetic transfer rather than translation. For example the movie “Wish” could easily be translated to 望み, however the name is kept as ウィッシュ.
The abundance of Sino-Japanese words used in this article can be attributed to two major factors. The first is that the article is report-based. Because the Japanese language has differences in vocabulary between differing honorific and causal styles of speech, articles that are written as reports use vocabulary that is deemed to be more professional. Sino-Japanese words are often used in these reports, as they carry a degree of professionalism. The second reason is that Sino-Japanese will typically carry more specific meanings beyond that of Native Japanese. For example from this excerpt “宮崎駿監督作品『君たちはどう生きるか』” the word 作品 (sakuhin) can be translated to work of art, while the closest Native-Japanese word that could fill this space would be 仕事 (shigoto) which can only be translated to work.
Toei Video
Toei-Video’s business statement is, “We have been planning, producing, manufacturing, and selling video content. Currently, we are developing a wide range of businesses related to entertainment, as well as video production” and their tagline is, “Life is entertainment”. They were established in 1962 and offer a wide range of news and advertising about media entertainment and video production.
The article on “わんぱく王子の大蛇退治” by Toei Video was sorted identically to the article on “君たちはどう生きるか.” Non-Standard Script made up 10% of the words, Loan Words made up 14% of the words, Native Japanese made up 37% of the words, and finally Sino- Japanese was responsible for 41% of the words in the article.
Conclusion
The most noticeable difference between the “わんぱく王子の大蛇退治” and “君たちはどう生きるか” articles is the noticeably higher ratio of Native to Sino-Japanese words. Because this article is again a report of the film’s production and performance like the Kai-You article, the Sino-Japanese words that carry more professionalism are necessary and remain the dominant group. Though Sino-Japanese still makes up the largest category of words in the Toei Video article, the ratio of 26:44 in the Kai-You article to 37:41 in the Toei-Video article is a noticeable change. A large factor that could influence such a drastic difference could be the 言文一致運動 or “Script-speech unification movement” that occurred in the 20th century right around the time that “わんぱく王子の大蛇退治” was released. Before the movement, written Japanese was primarily Sino-Japanese Chinese characters with supplementary hiragana and katakana. In an attempt to increase literacy and accessibility to written Japanese, a movement began in the 20th century to increase the amount of Native Japanese in writing. By doing so, written Japanese would be much more similar to spoken Japanese. The film “わんぱく王子の大蛇退治” was released in 1963 which was around the peak of the “Script-speech unification movement” resulting in a much higher Native Japanese word count in its promotional material and articles.