Japanese for Life

Book Review: Words in Context

Words in Context by Takao Suzuki (subtitled “A Japanese Perspective on Language and Culture”) was originally published as a Japanese book, 言葉と文化, for Japanese lay-readers interested in linguistics. Its English translation was published a few years afterwards and seems to target mainly students of Japanese, since it contains useful insights on aspects of the language that can be expected to confuse Westerners. For this review, I’ll be evaluating the book as a Japanese learning guide, rather than its usefulness as a cultural reference or introduction to linguistics.

Getting into it

I was quite enthusiastic about Words in Context as I began it. The opening chapter brought up the vast differences between the semantic region a Japanese word might cover versus its English dictionary “equivalents”. For example, the English word “break” might be defined in an English-Japanese dictionary by such terms as こわす, おる, やぶる, and きる — yet none of these words convey the same range of meanings that “break” does, and a student cannot hope to understand which word to use in every case by relying a dictionary alone.

Another comparison given in this chapter is that between the English “drink” and the Japanese 飲む. Although the dictionary ascribes to them the same meaning, Japanese speakers actually mean something quite different when they say 飲む, and as a result, they will use it in situations “drink” cannot be used. In order to correctly use nearly any Japanese word in its range of meanings, a student really needs something more comprehensive than a single-word definition.

Suzuki analyses these terms and provides example definitions that illustrate the real meanings of drink and 飲む:

drink — the act of orally taking some liquid that is expected to help maintain one’s physical well-being

飲む — to introduce a substance into one’s body without chewing it

These definitions explain why water and soup can be drunk, but pills and poison swallowed, and tabaco inhaled. On the other hand, we see why it’s perfectly acceptable to use 飲む in Japanese when taking pills or smoking cigarettes. I actually encountered this difference myself a few weeks earlier when I tried using the wrong verb in connection with pills, and my Japanese tutor had to correct me.

As Suzuki points out, it would be nice to have a dictionary that provided such descriptive and useful definitions of every word. As far as I know, we’re still waiting.

Japanese language and culture

From the perspective of a language student, chapters one through three are probably most interesting portion of Words in Context. The following chapters tend to focus on Japanese culture and their effect on the language. This content is all quite interesting in itself, but applicable Japanese language knowledge is presented less frequently as the book progresses.

Chapter four deals with the theory, practice, and problems of defining words. Chapter five discusses the way Japanese attitudes differ from those of Europeans on such matters as pets, drawing conclusions on the problem of holding Japanese customs and language to a foreign standard. Chapter six, the last and longest chapter of the book, covers in great detail the way Japanese think about social relationships, and the system of referring to people in Japanese that has come about as a result — in contrast to Indo-European languages, which rely on a small set of immutable personal pronouns applied in a very particular way.

Summary

While the entire book is enjoyable for anyone interested in Japanese culture, it is mainly the first three chapters that Japanese students will likely find useful.

Availability

Words in Context is available at most online English book stores, including Amazon.com. Most retailers should be able to get it in by request.