Böcker av Natsuko Tsujimura

This textbook on the structure of Japanese is written in the framework of generative linguistics. It serves both as an introduction to Japanese linguistics for those who have no prior knowledge of linguistics, and as a reference book on Japanese for linguists in general.

In Expressing Silence: Where Language and Culture Meet in Japanese, Natsuko Tsujimura discusses how silence is conceptualized and linguistically represented in Japanese. Languages differ widely in the specific linguistic and rhetorical modes through which vivid depictions of silence are achieved. In Japanese, sounds in nature evoke silence, and onomatopoeia plays an important role in simulating silent scenes. These linguistic mechanisms mediate the perception of the symbiotic relationship between sound and silence, a perception deeply embedded in the Japanese cultural experience. Expressing Silence brings the tools of both linguistic and cultural analysis in examining the remarkably rich array of representations of silence in Japanese language and culture, finding that depictions of silence through language cannot be understood without exploring what sound or silence mean to the speakers.

This book investigates how intricately language, food, and culture interact in Japanese society and culture. Natsuko Tsujimura approaches the language of food in Japanese as a vital component of communication by examining intrinsic mechanisms of the language and the broader social meaning it brings to society.