Diploma Paper Anglicisms and Pseudo

University of Havana
School of Foreign Languages
Diploma Paper
Anglicisms and Pseudo-anglicisms in Japanese.
Socio-cultural Influence
Author: Rigoberto Mir Rodríguez
Tutors: Prof. Ana Curbeira Cancela Ph.D.
Prof. Susana M. Garcia Rivero M.A.
June, 2010
七転び八起き
For Mima…at last…
INDEX
 Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................1
 Introduction............................................................................................................................ 2
 Chapter I: Japan: Some Aspects about the Language………………………………. ……... 5
1.1 The Writing Systems…………………………………………………………………………......5
1.2 Grammar …………………………………………………………………………………..…...... 6
1.3 Politeness …………………………………………………………………………………..….....7
1.4 The History of Importations in Japanese..……………………….……………………...…….7
 Chapter II: Anglicisms in Japanese…………………………………………………………..... 9
2.1 Linguistic Importation……………………………………………………………………….…. 10
2.2 Anglicism………………………………………………………. …………………………….....12
2.3 Comparison between the English and Japanese lexical-semantic variants……………... 13
2.3.1 Anglicisms decreasing in the sememic structure……………………………………....….14
2.3.2 Anglicisms that decrease in the sememic structure…………………………………….... 18
2.3.3 Anglicisms maintaining the same sememic structure……………………………………..20
2.3.4 Anglicisms that increase the sememic structure…………………………………………..20
2.3.5 Anglicisms increasing in the sememic structure. New semes are added implying cultural
differences…………………………………………………………………………………………...21
2.3.1 Anglicisms not used independently……………. ………………………………………...22
 Chapter III: Pseudo-Anglicisms in Japanese…………………………………………….…...24
3.1 Pseudo-anglicisms………………………………………………………………………….......24
3.2 Wasei-eigo…………………………………………………………………………………….....26
3.3 Word Formation Processes………………………………………………………………….…28
3.3.1 Morpho-lexical Procedures……………………………………………………………….…..29
3.3.2 Non Morpho-lexical Procedures………………………………………………………….…..31
3.3.3 Semantic Procedures………………………………………………………………………....33
 Chapter IV: Japan: Some Aspects about the Culture and Society. Influence in the
Creation of “English-Made-In-Japan” Words and the Linguistic Importation………...…38
4.1 Architecture, urban space and housing………………………………………………….……38
4.2 Brand names……………………………………………………………………………….…….40
4.3 Family, gender and society…………………………………………………………………..…41
4.4 Fashion………………………………………………………………………………………...…45
4.5 Holidays…………………………………………………………………………………..…....…46
4.6Language…………………………………………………………………………………….....…46
4.7 Mass media…………………………………………………………………………………....…47
4.8 Music…………………………………………………………………………………………...…48
4.9 Sports and recreation…………………………………………………………………….…..…49
 Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………………….…51
 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………..…..…53
 Annexes……………………………………………………………………………………………... 55
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, I would like to thank my tutors. To Professor Anita; her patience and dedication
has always defeated my laziness. To Professor Susana; her infinite enthusiasm and
tolerance kept me going on.
To Aymeé, for being so selfless and hardworking. To Girardo, Patricia, Eldis and
Milay, for their unconditional support. To Fukawa Tetsuko, for her advise and help.
To Yasuosan and Sachikosan, for appreciating my limited knowledge about
Japanese culture without taking into account my bad Japanese. To Pucca, for
understanding better what I mean and feel than what I say. To all my friends, for
showing so much faith.
To my mother; there are no words to express all my love and respect… your smile
has always been my prize at the end of the day. To my father, creator of the funniest
Made-In-Cuba English variant.
To all of you, my deepest gratitude…
1
INTRODUCTION
Since I was very young I have being interested in Japanese culture. Besides movies,
cartoons and comics, the Japanese language, from their writing systems to grammar,
has made increasingly eager to know more of its peculiarities. Even though I was
aware of the existence in Japanese of such foreign words as pen, miruku (milk) and
bi-ru (beer), I was really astonished when I heard for the first time the expression サ
ンキュー (sankyū) in Azumi, a Japanese movie which story takes place in feudal
Japan. That was precisely my first motivation to research about the use of foreign
words, specifically anglicisms, in Japanese: why expressing gratitude by means of
an English term if a Japanese expression, ありがとう (arigatō), already existed?
After a first approach to anglicisms in Japanese which resulted in a research
paper intended to prove how the sememic volume of anglicisms operated in the
target language, it was proved that in Japanese occurred three types of semantic
changes:
 A decrease in the sememic structure, which was the most common feature among
the words analyzed.
 A maintenance in the sememic structure, which did not occur frequently.
 An increase in the sememic structure, which had proved to be one of the most
prolific and productive phenomenon in Japanese importation, called as pseudoanglicisms.
Further research led to analyze how the increase in the sememic structure
was achieved and the objective was to determine the Word-Building processes
involved in the increase of the sememic structure in some of the importations in
Japanese language. With these researches another question arises:
Is there some kind of social-cultural influence from the source language in
word- formation processes in Japanese?
Thus, the objective of this paper is to present the typology of social-cultural
influence from source/target language in word- formation processes in Japanese.
Fulfilling this objective depended on the completion of the following tasks:
2
 To carry out bibliographical research.
 To summarize basic information regarding anglicisms in Japanese found during
the bibliographical research.
 To establish a sample of anglicisms in Japanese (source: videos, magazines,
books, comics, cartoons and websites).
 To describe the procedures used in the Word-Building processes.
 To compare the sememic structure of the English importations in Japanese with
the source lexemes in English.
 To characterize and typify the social-cultural influence from source/target language
in word- formation processes in Japanese.
This research paper has four chapters:
Chapter I: Japan: Some aspects about the language is divided into:
1.1 The Writing Systems: General characteristics of hiragana, katakana and kanji.
1.2 Grammar: Brief reference to Japanese word order and verb conjugation.
1.3 Politeness: Brief reference to Japanese grammatical system to express
politeness.
1.4 The History of Importations in Japanese: General overview of importations in
Japanese.
Chapter II: Anglicisms in Japanese is divided into:
2.1 Linguistic Importation: Regarding some authors‘ considerations about the
traditionally called linguistic borrowing. Adopting the definition of linguistic
importation provided by Alina Martínez Hernández, PhD.
2.2 Anglicism: Definitions of Anglicism. Adopting the definition of Anglicism stated by
Alina Martínez Hernández, PhD.
2.3 Comparison between the English and Japanese lexical-semantic variants:
Changes found in the sememic structure when comparing lexical-semantic variants
in both languages. According to the type of change, examples are given in the
following sessions:
2.3.1Anglicisms decreasing in the sememic structure
2.3.2 Anglicisms that decrease in the sememic structure
3
2.3.3 Anglicisms maintaining the same sememic structure
2.3.4 Anglicisms that increase the sememic structure
2.3.5 Anglicisms increasing in the sememic structure. New semes are added
implying cultural differences
2.3.6 Anglicisms not used independently
Chapter III: Pseudo-anglicisms in Japanese is divided into:
3.1 Pseudo-anglicisms: Providing a definition of pseudo-anglicism.
3.2 Wasei-eigo: General reference to the phenomenon of Made-In-Japan English.
3.3 Word Formation Processes: General aspects regarding word formation
processes. Examples of word formation processes in pseudo-anglicisms are given in
the following sessions.
3.3.1 Morpho-lexical Procedures.
3.3.2 Non Morpho-lexical Procedures.
3.3.3 Semantic Procedures.
Chapter IV: Japan: Some Aspects about the Culture and Society. Influence in
the Creation of “English-Made-In-Japan” Words and the Linguistic Importation
is divided into:
4.1 Architecture, urban space and housing
4.2 Brand names
4.3 Family, gender and society
4.4 Fashion
4.5 Holidays
4.6 Language
4.7 Mass media
4.8 Music
4.9 Sports and recreation
After the Conclusions, readers can find in the Annexes the corpuses
established for comparing the lexical-semantic variants both in English and
Japanese, the Japanese words analyzed and grouped attending the word formation
processes, and the words analyzed taking into account the different fields in culture
and society.
4
CHAPTER I: JAPAN: SOME ASPECTS ABOUT THE LANGUAGE
1.1 The Writing Systems
It was not until the late 5th century that the Japanese had a writing system, when
the Chinese characters were introduced in Japan. However, the existing difference
between Chinese and Japanese languages proved that the imported kanji (Chinese
characters) alone were not enough to meet the need of writing down Japanese, so
around the 10th century two syllabary 1 systems were developed from kanji and
came to function as supplements representing Japanese adjective and verb
inflections and grammar particles.
Due to the large number of characters and the complexity of reading and
writing them, the kanji writing system is considered to be very difficult to learn. If we
compare letters from our alphabet to kanji we would immediately observe that the
main difference is that, unlike letters, which bear no meaning by themselves, kanji
have one or more meanings. As an example, the meaning of the kanji character 来
could be to come, but it can also mean to cause or next.
Regarding reading, most kanji characters have at least two readings: the
Japanese native reading and the one phonologically adapted from the original
Chinese pronunciation. The reason why a kanji character may have several
Chinese readings could be that it was borrowed by the Japanese in different
moments or from different Chinese dialects, presenting thus historical or dialectal
differences. For example, the character 来 mentioned before has two 音 読 み
(onyomi, Chinese reading) and four
訓読み (kunyomi, Japanese reading).
The syllabaries or かな (kana), the second writing system, were created, as
explained before, out of certain kanji by the Japanese. Each character from a
syllabary represents a Japanese syllable, and, in contrast to kanji characters, they
do not have any meaning. There are two syllabaries, ひらがな (hiragana) and かた
かな (katakana), and they represent the same set of sounds, differing in the writing.
1
A syllabary is a written system in which each character represents a syllable.
5
The sound ra may be represented with the hiragana ら or the katakana ラ. A
Japanese word can be written either with its correspondent kanji character or in
hiragana (thus, the verb to come can be written in kanji,来る, or in hiragana, くる.
In either way the pronunciation is kuru). Hiragana is also frequently used in
combination with kanji; as an example, in the verb to come the kanji 来, which would
be the invariant part of the word, is combined with the hiragana る(ru) to form the
plain form of the verb (くる, kuru). Hiragana would represent then an inflection; if
we want to express that the action took place in the past, that is came, then we
need to combine the kanji 来 with the verb-ending ました (mashita), if it is a present
or future action then we need to combine it with ます (masu).
Some experts agreed that it was at the beginning of the Heian period 2 when
katakana was created by Buddhist monks who wanted to take notes in the reduced
space in the margins of kanji texts or between the lines in Buddhist texts while they
were listening to lectures3. Besides its use in onomatopoeia, slang, academic or
technical terms (such as computer science related ones), flora and fauna names
and company and brand names, katakana is extensively used for foreign place and
personal names and foreign language words and gairaigo4. Japanese advertising,
where foreign words and linguistic importations are frequently seen, is plenty with
katakana; trendy words come to life to highlight the features of new products or
fashions and they often have an ephemeral use, although some of them come to be
part of daily life conversation.
1.2 Grammar
The basic Japanese word order is Subject – Object - Verb. Subject and object are
usually marked by particles which come after the word. The basic structure is topiccomment. Japanese, like Chinese and Korean, is often called a topic-prominent
2
Period from 794 to 1185. It was named Heian after the former capital city of Japan, today known as
Kyoto.
3
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture, Sandra Buckley, pp. 248, Routledge.
4
Foreign words adopted in Japanese.
6
language, which means it indicates the topics separately from the subject, and the
two do not always coincide.
Japanese is a pro-drop language, meaning that the subject or object of a
sentence needs not to be stated if it is obvious from the context. As a result,
Japanese speakers tend to omit words from sentences, rather than refer to them
with pronouns. It has some pronouns although they are not used as frequently as
pronouns in Indo-European languages, and function somewhat differently. Instead,
Japanese typically relies on auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of an action to
the speaker or persons related to the speaker. These pronouns can also take
modifiers as nouns may.
Verbs are conjugated to show two tenses: past and present, or non- past,
which is used for representing the present and the future tenses.
1.3 Politeness
Unlike most Western languages, Japanese has an extensive grammatical system to
express politeness and formality. Broadly speaking, there are three main politeness
levels in spoken Japanese: the plain form, the simple polite form, and the advanced
polite form.
Since most relationships are not equal in Japanese society, one person
typically has a higher position. This position is determined by a variety of factors
including job, age, experience, or even psychological state. The person in the lower
position is expected to use a polite form of speech, whereas the other might use a
more plain form. Strangers will also speak to each other politely.
1.4 The History of Importations in Japanese
Japanese started importing words from Europe in the mid-1800s when it first opened
up to foreign trade. Because the traditional writing system, kanji, is based on
Chinese syllable-based characters, then the katakana was created to handle foreign
7
words and place names and concepts that were untranslatable into kanji. Katakana
thus became the alphabet of foreign loan words. Foreign words, therefore, at least in
writing, remain visibly dissimilar to more native Japanese words and cannot become
fully assimilated into Japanese; the imported words superficially retain their
foreignness. In the 20th century the pace of importations picked up considerably and
Japan has now become one of the most avid importers of foreign words. A 1964
study estimated that 10% of Japanese dictionary entries were loan words. This
number will have vastly increased by now. Tuttle's New Dictionary of Loanwords in
Japanese (1994) includes almost 4,000 of these foreign loan words, which are
known as gairaigo.
8
CHAPTER II: ANGLICISMS IN JAPANESE
Since third year I have been interested in researching about the use of foreign words
in Japanese language, so as a starting point I chose (along with my classmate
Aymeé Adis Salgado Ramírez, who already graduated) to analyze the semantic
volume of the so called borrowings in Japanese. Under the tutorship of Ana Curbeira
Cancela Ph.D. and. Susana García Rivero M.A., we started our project work
establishing the following:
Problem: What are the types of semantic changes produced in the anglicism
that enters in Japanese language?
Objective: To determine the types of semantic changes that occur in the
anglicism (in Japanese language).
Tasks:
● To make a bibliographical research in order to analyze the usage of anglicisms in
Japanese.
● To make up a sample of some anglicisms in Japanese.
● To establish the research corpus of anglicisms in Japanese.
● To make a comparison between the English words and the adopted ones in
Japanese.
In order to fulfill our objective we had to discuss the terms anglicism and
linguistic importation given by MSc. A. Martínez Hernández in her research PhD.
Thesis ―Fundamentación teórica de un modelo para el análisis integral de los
anglicismos presentes en la actividad económica del español de Cuba” for a better
understanding of this phenomenon in the Japanese language, and to establish a
comparison between the anglicisms in Japanese and its English lexical-semantic
counterparts to determine how the semantic volume of importations performs.
9
2.1 Linguistic Importation
Anglicism is part of a more general process traditionally called linguistic
borrowing. That is the reason why this phenomenon has become a way of
enriching the lexicon and it is generally motivated for extra-linguistic causes which
are extremely related with the development of the social life, politics, science, and
culture of the language that is considered vehicle and result at the same time.
Many authors have studied and researched the phenomenon of what has
been called linguistic borrowing for many years. According to Nicholls (2003)
borrowing is ―the practice of taking a word from a foreign language and introducing it
into another‖, and the word thus borrowed is known as loan word; however, it is
very important to point out what
the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
(1997:332) reads: ―since no language ever took a word from another language with
the intention of one day returning it, and since such words are never returned, even
once they have outstayed their welcome in the borrowing language, both of these
terms are misnomers‖.
For that reason some authors (Martínez: 2001) consider that it is more
appropriate to use the terms importation or adoption instead of borrowing. This
research followed the definition of linguistic adoption or importation given by Alina
Martínez Hernández in her research paper ―Fundamentación teórica de un modelo
para el análisis integral de los anglicismos presentes en la actividad económica del
español de Cuba‖: a linguistic unit taken from a source language (L1) and at least,
partially, culturally assimilated in the process of its adoption by a linguistic community
that speaks a target language (L2), to represent a new concept or a variant of a
concept previously established in the target language, playing its role in the
communication among the members of that community and reflecting their Cosmo
vision.
But why languages import words from others? Basically words are often taken
from other languages to fill lexical gaps, to provide names for new objects or
phenomena. But imported words sometimes compete with existing words in the
importing language as different languages come into and out of fashion.
10
Japan is one of the countries in which the practice of importing words has
become prominent; such practice started since Western culture began to invade
Asian countries. Nearly the 90 percent of the imported words used in Japanese are
from English; Japanese uses approximately 7000 English words. This is just an
illustration of how anglicism has contributed to the enrichment of Japanese.
When it comes to importing words, linguistic receptiveness tends to go hand
in hand with cultural receptiveness and this has certainly been the case in the history
of English as a word exporter. There is very little evidence of English influencing the
languages of even its closest neighbors before the beginning of the 18 th century. In
the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, globalization and the level of contact
between countries have meant that English words have spread more widely and in
greater number than ever before. These days, English words enter the languages of
countries worldwide through pop and youth culture, technology, the media, and
advertising, among other channels.
As people in Western countries, the Japanese also have a genius for
importing, and then adapting to suit their national purposes. The ease with which
Japanese imports, modifies, and adopts foreign words and idioms are perhaps its
greatest asset and in no way detract from the strength of Japanese culture or its
fundamental homogeneity.
Then, another question comes up: is the pronunciation going to be the same?
When a target language imports words from a source language, a language
will always retain the phonological contrasts that exist in the source language if they
already exist naturally in the target language. However, if a source language has
more contrast than the target language, either the extra degree(s) of contrast will be
lost in the importing, or the target language must find some way of retaining it.
Many curious mispronunciations arise from the Japanese inability to
pronounce /r/ and several other sounds used in English, and in the ending of all
syllables with a vowel, except in the case of /n/. Thus they have sori for sorry;
kurisumasu for Christmas; kādo for card; repōto for report and hōmu for home. The
Japanese cannot pronounce most (groupings of) consonant clusters and thus break
them into multiple syllables.
11
A further complication is the changed meanings Japanese give to many
imported words. Handoru for handle is ‗a steering wheel‘. Even more mystifying are
Japanese inventions from English words: a new phenomenon called pseudoanglicisms. This phenomenon appears when a language creates or adapts and
English-looking word and applies it to something more or less predictable (Nicholls:
2003). For example, the word kūra from cooler is ‗an air conditioner‘; a naitā
(nighter) is ‗a night game‘, etc. Japanese has many pseudo-anglicisms and they are
known as wasei-eigo (English made in Japan).
2.2 Anglicism
For many authors, the term anglicism includes not only the lexical and terminological
units, but also the adoption process of these units. Other researchers go beyond,
and they include in the semantic volume of the term, the fact of using the anglicisms
and even the preference of being related to English.
The Dictionary of the Real Academia Española defines the term anglicism
as:
1. Manner of speaking that is common of the English language5.
2. Term or turn of this language used in another.
3. The usage of English language in other languages.
The definition that appears in the Practical English Dictionary (1987) reads:
anglicism: English idiom or peculiarity.
In its seventh edition, the Webster‘s Dictionary (2003) reads: Anglicism: a
characteristic feature of English occurring in another language.
In all these definitions there is a generalized seme and a differentiating seme.
The first sets the anglicism as a term, word, and loan. And the second points out its
English origin. So far, the meaning of all these lexical-semantic variants of anglicism
is too general, and even though we get the idea of an English word that has been
brought to a language, somehow it does not explain the linguistic phenomenon as
that occurs.
5
Definition translated by Professor Aymeé Adis Salgado Ramírez and the author.
12
Alina Martínez Hernández in her research paper ―Fundamentación teórica de
un modelo para el análisis integral de los anglicismos presentes en la actividad
económica del español de Cuba‖ (2003) provides a new concept of anglicism which
we consider very comprehensive and functional:
Anglicism: linguistic unit taken from the English language and culturally
filtered in its adoption process by the linguistic community which is going to
designate the new concept or to make this new concept function as a competitive
variant of the vernacular designation of a concept that has been previously set in the
target language, becoming as a result of that process, in an equivalent of the
linguistic unit in the source language. This linguistic unit will be used among the
members of the community and will reflect their vision of the world.
Now, we have a comprehensive definition of importations or adoptions and
anglicism.
2.3 Comparison between the English and Japanese lexical-semantic variants
We have stated all the changes that we found in the sememic structure of the words we
chose. This session is meant to show how we fulfilled the tasks we first set and all the
variations that occur in the anglicisms in Japanese.
As a first step, we chose 50 words at random instead of choosing words of a
specific field. We thought it would serve better to the purpose of this research to work in
a general field since we would be able to find and analyze words people use in daily life.
Besides, we would observe, then, what different types of changes occur in the imported
words.
After this, we compared each one of the imported words in Japanese to their
English lexemes, in order to see how they changed and how the sememic structure
performed in every case.
The changes found are:
 A decrease in the sememic structure, which is the most common feature we found
among the words we analyzed.
 Maintenance in the sememic structure, which does not occur frequently.
13
 An increase in the sememic structure, which lately has proved to be one of the most
prolific phenomena in Japanese importation.
 A decrease in the sememic structure, but these imported words specifically are
used as free bases in the word formation processes.
Now we will see carefully all the changes with the examples both in English
and in Japanese. We only have the English lexical-semantic variants that coincide
with the Japanese ones. 6
2.3.1 Anglicisms decreasing in the sememic structure
In these examples it can be observed that there is a decrease in the sememic
structure since just one or some lexical-semantic variants from the lexeme in the
source language is/are maintained and activated when the word is adopted in the
target language. This decrease in the sememic structure is one of the most
important and common features of imported words in Japanese. Generally, the
most known and/or common lexical-semantic variant in English is the one that
remains in Japanese. In the examples first the adopted variant in Japanese is given
with the corresponding semmeme, and then the English lexical-semantic variant.

アーチスト (āchisuto (n)): Mostly it refers to a musician, but not of classical
music. 芸術家 (geijutsuka): is an artist especially one practicing the fine arts such
as a painter or sculptor.
Artist (n): 1a: one who professes and practices an art in which conception and
execution are governed by imagination and taste. 1b: a person skilled in one of the
fine arts.

アクシデント (akushidento (n)): Used mostly in abstract sense causing a minor
damage or for a minor accident. 事故
(jiko) is used in physical sense or for a
major accident.
Accident (n): 1a: an event occurring by chance or from unknown causes. 1c: an
unforeseen or unplanned event.
6
All the Japanese importations are taken from ―A Dictionary of Loanwords Usage Katakana-English‖.
th
All the English lexical-semantic variants are taken from the Webster‘s Dictionary in its 7 Edition.
14
 アパート (bairingaru (adj.)): A bilingual person.
Bilingual (adj.): 2: using or able to use two languages especially with the fluency
characteristic of a native speaker.
 ベテラン (beteran (n)): Person having long experience in a particular job or field,
but it does not refers to a military veteran.
Veteran (n): 1b: A person of long experience in politics a profession or some
other occupation or skill.
 ビル (biru (n)): Mainly implies an office block. It is never used for a residential
building, which is ア パ ー ト
(apāto); or
マ ン シ ョ ン (manshion) for an
apartment building.
Building (n): 1: a usually roofed and walled structure built for permanent use (as
for dwelling).
 ボトル (botoru (n)): Any kind of bottle is bin. In this case botoru means a bottle
of whisky and no other. ボトルキープ
(botoru kīpu): bottle- keep system (a
system whereby a customer keeps his own bottle in bar with his name on it and
is served from it whenever he visits that bar).
Bottle (n): 1a: A rigid or semi rigid container typically of glass or plastic having a
comparatively narrow neck or mouth and no handle.
 ブース (būsu (n)): Booth; mainly implies a booth in the language laboratory. A
telephone booth is 公 衆 電 話
bokkusu). 同 時 通 訳 ブ ー ス
(kōshū denwa)
or 電 話 ボ ッ ク ス (denwa
(dōji tsūyaku būsu) (booth for simultaneous
interpreters).
Booth (n): 2b: a small enclosure affording privacy or isolation for one person at a
time.
 チャンス (chansu (n)): Usually a chance that occurs in a life time. 機会
and 切っ掛け
(kikai)
(kikkake) are used for opportunities or chances one may get
every now and then.
15
Chance (n): 1a: something that happens unpredictably without discernible
human intention or observable cause. 4a: the possibility of an indicated or favorable
outcome in an uncertain situation.
 ダメージ (damēji (n)): In the abstract sense: in this case, damēji is used to
illustrate danger not in the physical way.
Physical injury or damage is 損害
(songai).
Damage (n): 1: loss or harm resulting from injury to person, property, or
reputation.
 ディーラー (dīrā (n)): Dealer only of cars.
Dealer (n): 4: A person or (in pl.) firm dealing in merchandise, a trader; spec. one
buying and selling articles of a particular commodity.
ガレージ (garēji (n)): For keeping a car =
attached to a house.
カーポート
(kāpōto). Garēji is one
車庫 (shako) is a shed meant for taxis, buses and trains.
Garage for repairing motor vehicles is 修理工場
(shūrikōjō).
Garage (n): A shelter or repair shop for automotive vehicles. A commercial
establishment which sells petrol, oil, etc., and freq. also repairs and services motor
vehicles7.
 ゲスト (gesuto (n)): In a TV or radio program. NOTE: a visitor to another
person‘s place (house, store, office, hotel or theater) is お客さん (okyakusan)
colloquially, and 客
(kyaku) in general.
Guest (n): 3: a person not a regular member of a cast who appears on a
program.
 ギブアップ（する） (gibu appu (suru)8 (v)): Unlike English where it means to
abandon hope or despair, in Japanese it is used in a lighter sense as when one
is tired after a long session of study.
7 Excerpted from: Oxford Talking Dictionary. Copyright © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc. All
Rights Reserved.
8
As far as we studied, we found that most of the imported words are nouns. In order to make them
verbs, Japanese use the affixation process. For example, する(suru), a common verb, is suffixed to a
large number of imported words to ―verbify‖ them; such as: アップする(appu suru/ to increase), ダウ
16
Give up (v): 2: to desist from. 3a: to abandon (oneself) to a particular feeling,
influence, or activity. 6: to withdraw from an activity or course of action.
 ギフト (gifuto (n)): Essentially used by department stores. NOTE: プレセント
(puresento/present) is used colloquially for a gift given on formal occasions such
as marriage, birthday, Christmas, and also for gifts exchanged between a man
and a woman. お土産 (omiyage) is a gift in general used both colloquially and in
written form, especially a souvenir or a gift given on visiting a person.
Gift (n): 2: something voluntarily transferred by one person to another without
compensation.
 キッチン (kitchin (n)): 台所
(daidokoro) is a standard word and is still most
widely used, but kitchin is used for a modern style kitchen. Kitchin is also used
for that kitchen of a restaurant and in that sense daidokoro is not used.
Kitchen (n): 1: a room or other place with cooking facilities.
 コイン (koin (n)): When used separately it implies old coins.
Coin (n): 2a: a piece of metal issued by governmental authority as money.
 テスト (tesuto (n)): A class periodical test and it is small in scale than a 試験
(shiken), which is final examination.
Test (n): 2b (2): a series of questions or exercises or other means of measuring
the skill, knowledge, intelligence, capacities, or aptitudes of an individual or group.
 タンク (tanku (n)): A receptacle used to store liquids or gas.
Tank (n): 2: a usually, large receptacle for holding, transporting, or storing liquids.
 ステッキ (sutekki (n)): Stick carried as a fad for morning walk. NOTE: Walking
stick for people with walking difficulties or for climbing a hill is 杖
branch of a tree or a long slender piece of wood is 棒
(tsue). While a
(bō).
ンする(daun suru/ to decrease), スピーチする(supīchi suru/ deliver a speech), etc; another method
employed is adding the common verb-ending る(ru) ,such as in メモる (memoru/ from memo), アジる
(ajiru/ from agitation), etc.
17
Stick (n): 2: a long slender piece of wood as 2a (2): something suitable for use in
compelling. 2b: walking stick.
 スケープゴート (sukēpugōto (n)): Essentially an economic term used to blame
others in this context.
Scapegoat (n): 2: a person or thing bearing the blame for others.
 スト（ライキ）(suto(raiki)(n)): Act of refusing to work. Usually スト
shortening. NOTE: Strike in baseball is ストライク
(suto) by
(sutoraiku).
Strike (n): 2: an act or instance of striking. 3a: a work stoppage by a body of
workers to enforce compliance with demands made on an employer.
2.3.2 Anglicisms that decrease in the sememic structure
These anglicisms designate Western style importations. In these cases there is also
a decrease in the sememic structure, but these words are used to designate things
related to Western culture. Since there was a predominant American presence in
Japan after the country of the Rising Sun was defeated by the US, Japan began to
import many words from English. These words were related, at first, with Western
fashion and life style. These adopted words have its Japanese counterparts, but the
use of English words was a sign of refinement. Nowadays, these words have
become of common use.
 バー (bā (n)): A Western‘s style bar with a counter, where alcohol is served.
Bar (n): 5a: A counter at which food or especially alcoholic beverages are served.
 バス (basu (n)): Western‘s style bath (room). 風呂場
呂
(furoba), colloquially お風
(ofuro), implies a Japanese style bath. However, when used in ads. such as
バスートイレ付の部屋 (basū toire tsukino heya) implies a room with attached
bath and toilet and it could be used to mean Western or Japanese style bath.
Bath (n): 2b (2): a receptacle holding the liquid. 3a: bathroom.
 ベッド (beddo (n)): Western style one to distinguish it from sleeping on a futon.
Bed (n): 1a: a piece of furniture on or in which one may lie and sleep. 1c: a place
for sleeping.
18
 ダンサー (dansā (n)): Of Western‘s style dance. 舞踊家
(buyōka) is used for a
dancer of Japanese style dance.
Dancer (n): 1: one that performs a rhythmic and patterned succession of bodily
movements usually to music.
 ダンス (dansu (n)): Western‘s style dance. 踊り
(odori)
implies Japanese
style dance or ballet.
Dance (n): 1: an act or instance of dancing. 4: the art of dancing.
 ドア (doa (n)): Western style hinged door of a house or that of a train, car or
elevator. In other words, a door through which human beings go in and out, that
is not a sliding door.
Door (n): 2: doorway.
 フォークソング (fōku songu (n)): Folk song; it implies American folk song or
folk music composed under American influence. Japanese folk song is 民謡
(min¨yō).
Folk (adj.): Originated or widely used among the common people (- music).
 グラマー (guramā (n)): Of foreign language, especially English grammar. NOTE:
Japanese language grammar is 文法
(bunpō).
Grammar (n): 1a: the study of the classes of words, their inflections, and their
functions and relations in the sentence. 1b: a study of what is to be preferred and
what avoided in inflection and syntax.
 ケーキー (kēki (n)): お菓子
(okashi) is a generic term for cake, sweets, candy,
etc. Whether Japanese or Western, but kēki is Western style cake or pastry and
if a clear distinction is to be made 和菓子
洋菓子
(wagashi/Japanese style sweets) and
(yōgashi/ Western style sweets) could be used.
Cake (n): 1a: any of the numerous breads usually small in size and round and
flat in shape. 1b: any of numerous fancy sweetened breads often coated with icing.
19
2.3.3 Anglicisms maintaining the same sememic structure
These anglicisms maintain the same lexical-semantic variants when imported in
Japanese. There are no changes at all, but those which imply the phonological
changes in the target language. Items like the selected ones are seldom find in
Japanese because most of the time, the imported words lose at least one of the
lexical-semantic variants in the sememic structure.
 アパート (apāto (n)): It names a building, as well as an apartment.
Apartment (n): 1: a room or set of rooms fitted especially with house-keeping
facilities and used as a dwelling. 2: a building made up of individual dwelling units.
 スタンドプレー (sutando purē (v)): To play to the gallery, make a grandstand
play. Figuratively it means to show off or do things in an unnecessarily showy
way.
Grandstand (v): To play or act so as (to impress onlookers), to seek to favorable
attract public or media attention.9
 スマート
(sumāto (adj.)): (i) Smart, sharp (witty person). (ii) Elegant,
sophisticated, fashionable.
Smart (adj.): 1: making one smart: causing a sharp stinging. 4a: mentally alert:
bright. 4b: sharp in scheming: shrewd. 5a: witty, clever. 6a: neat, trim. 6b: stylish or
elegant in dress or appearance. 6c (1): sophisticated. 6c (2): characteristic of or
patronized by fashionable society.
2.3.4 Anglicisms that increase the sememic structure
As all languages, Japanese is in evolution. These examples show that the language
not only imports words, but also its usage adds new sememes that the imported
word did not have in the source language. They also prove how active the role of the
linguistic community is in the process of importing foreign words.
9 Excerpted from: Oxford Talking Dictionary. Copyright © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc. All
Rights Reserved.
20
 ベンチ (benchi (n)): (i) Bench (in public parks). (ii) Manager, coach (of a team).
As they sit on a bench and watch their team in action.
Bench (n): 1a: a long seat for two or more persons.
 イージーゴーイング (ījī gōingu (adj.)): In Japanese it implies casual, lazy and
not diligent person.
Easygoing (adj.): 1: taking life easily: as a: placid, b: indolent and careless, c:
morally lax. 2: unhurried, comfortable.
 エッチ (etchi (n)): (/h/): From the initial of a Japanese word hentai meaning
sexual pervert. However, these days it is used more casually for a lecherous,
lustful person or for a man always talking about girls or women or sex. (It is
mainly used by women for describing men).
H (n): 1b: a graphic representation of this letter.
 ジャー (jā (n)): Thermos or container that encloses a vacuum tube to retard heat
transfer and it does not have a wide mouth.
Jar (n): 1: a wide-mouthed container made typically of earthenware or glass.
2.3.5 Anglicisms increasing in the sememic structure. New semes are added
implying cultural differences
These are also cases in which new semes are added to the adopted word, but in
these examples the usage of the words in Japanese are influenced by the
peculiarities of the society. The use of certain words or expressions in Japanese
depends on the age, sex gender, social level or hierarchy, etc. of the speakers.
While some imported words are used only colloquially, some are used only in script
form. Differentiating them is very important to speak and write correct and natural
Japanese.

バイ－バイ (baībai (n)): Used by children and youth, especially girls. Adults use
it when sharing with children or youth.
Good bye (bye-bye) (n): A concluding remark at parting- often used
interjectionally.
21

バレンタインーデー (Barentain-dē (n)): February 14th. In Japan women and
girls give gifts to men and men return the gesture on March 14 th.
Saint Valentine’s Day (n): February 14th is observed in honor of St. Valentine
and as a time for sending valentines.

エンターテーメント (entātēmento (n)): Not used colloquially, mostly used in
written form in advertisements.
Entertainment (n): 1: the act of entertaining. 3: something diverting or engaging,
especially: a public performance.

ツー (tsū (num.)): ワン
(wan /one), ツー (tsū/ two), スリー (surī/ three) are
preferred over Japanese numbers whenever these numerals come with an
adopted word. E.g. ツードアの車
(tsū doa no kuruma/ two-door car).
Two (num.): 1: number. 2: the second in a set or series.

トイレ (toire (n)): Also お手洗い
(otearai), 便所 (benjo), 化粧室
(keshōshitsu).
Otearai is used colloquially by women or when asking someone where the toilet
is as it is politer than toire. Benjo is used mostly in the written language such as
公衆便所
(kōshūbenjo/ public toilet). Keshōshitsu is written on the door of the
toilet and usually not used colloquially. Toire is used mostly by men or its use is
at least avoided by women in front of men; however, it is the most common word
of all for toilet.
Toilet (n): 3a (1): bathroom, lavatory. 3a (2): privy. 3b: a fixture for defecation
and urination, especially: water closet.
2.3.6 Anglicisms not used independently
These anglicisms are used as free bases in the word formation process and are not
used independently as in English; instead, Japanese words are used. According to
Prem Motwani (1991), ―independently, these (imported words) have no entity as far
as the Japanese language is concerned‖.
For instance, スクール
(sukūru/from English ―school‖) is used in a number of
compound words such as スクールバス
(sukūru basu/school bus), ビジネススクー
22
ル (bijinesu sukūru/business school), etc. Separately, school is always 学 校
(gakkō). Likewise カルチャー
ィー (tī/tea), ペーパー
(karuchā/culture), テレホン
(terehon/telephone), テ
(pēpā/paper), etc, are widely used in compound words but
never independently.

ベビー (bebī (n)): Usually not used independently. Instead 赤ちゃん
is used. E.g. ベビーシッター
fūdo/baby food), ベビーブーマー
(akachan)
(bebī shittā/baby sitter), ベビーフード
(bebī
(bebī būmā/baby boomer).
Baby (n): 1a (1): an extremely young child; especially an infant. 2: an infantile
person.

カ ー (kā (n)): Not used independently, instead 車
(jidōsha) are used. E.g カーステレオ
(kuruma)and 自 動 車
(kā sutereo/car stereo), カーラジオ
(kā
rajio/car radio).
Car (n): 1: d: automobile.

アイス (aisu (adj.)): Not used independently except at time as abbreviation of ア
イスクリーム (aisu kurīmu/ice cream). Instead 氷
コーヒー
(aisu kōhī): iced coffee, アイススケート
(kōri/ice) is used. E.g. アイス
(aisu sukēto): ice skating.
Ice (n): 2: a state of coldness (as from formality or reverse). 4a: a frozen dessert
containing a fruit juice or other flavoring, esp: one containing no milk or cream.
23
CHAPTER III: PSEUDO-ANGLICISMS IN JAPANESE
While analyzing the sememic structure of linguistic importations in Japanese and
observing how in many cases there was an increase in the sememic structure, we
came across with a linguistic phenomenon known as pseudo-anglicism, so having
our previous research as a starting point we found interesting to study about how
that increase was performed. We started our new research establishing the
following:
Problem: How is the increase in the sememic structure of pseudo-anglicism
achieved?
Objective: To determine the Word Formation processes involved in the
increase of the sememic structure in some of the importations in Japanese language.
Tasks:
 To do a bibliographical research about the phenomenon of the pseudo-anglicisms.
 To establish a sample of 50 pseudo-anglicisms in Japanese.
 To establish the research corpus of Anglicisms in Japanese.
 To describe briefly the procedures used in the Word-Building processes.
 To describe the processes found in the pseudo-anglicisms.
 To compare the sememic structure of the English importations in Japanese with
the source lexemes in English.
3.1 Pseudo-anglicisms
In the previous chapter, the concept of the term anglicism that was used whereas
conducting this research was stated, given the concept that the MsC. Alina Martínez
Hernández in her PhD. thesis ―Fundamentación teórica de un modelo para el
análisis integral de los anglicismos presentes en la actividad económica del español
de Cuba‖ came across with while studying the subject.
However, when all the changes found in the sememic structure of the
selected words were established, an increase in the sememic structure in some
words was found. These words had been alike to their counterparts in English, and
24
yet they had a new or more meanings introduced by the speakers of the linguistic
community in the target language: the pseudo-anglicisms.
The linguistic phenomenon of the pseudo-anglicisms appears when a
language creates or adapts and English-looking word and applies it to something
more or less predictable (Nicholls: 2003).
Based on that information, it was necessary to look for the concept of these
new anglicisms for a better understanding of the whole linguistic phenomenon.
The Dictionary of the Real Academia Española defines the term pseudo as10:
seudo-. (De pseudo-). elem. compos. Significa 'falso'.
In its eleventh edition, the Webster‘s Dictionary (2003) reads:
Main entry: pseudVariant: or pseudoFunction: combining form
Etymology: Greek, from pseudesthai to lie.
1: false: spurious.
2: temporary or substitute formation similar to (a specified thing).
3: resembling, isomeric with, or related to (a specified chemical compound).
So, when the word is thought, it has to come to mind as an anglicism that is
false or not completely true as it seems or appears to be; or at least as something
related with the word but which carries some modifications in its sememic structure.
To briefly explain this, in Japanese, the word クーラー
(kūrā) from cooler (LSV11:
refrigerator especially made to cool liquids) is ―an air conditioner‖; a ナ イ タ ー
(naitā/nighter) is ―a baseball game at night‖; in German, das Handy (LSV: convenient
near or convenient for use: easily handled) is ―a mobile cell phone‖, etc.
Then, pseudo-anglicisms are words that were imported from English but are
used in a way native English speakers would not readily recognize or understand.
Pseudo-anglicisms often take the form of combining elements of multiple English
words to create a new word that appears to be English but is unrecognizable to an
10
11
The Oxford Superlex Dictionary states falso as false, fake, forged.
LSV: lexical-semantic variant: (the provided LSVs come in these cases from English).
25
English native speaker. It is also common for a genuine English word to be used to
mean something completely different from its original meaning.
After having got the idea of what this linguistic phenomenon is, we decided to
come up with a concept of the term pseudo-anglicism that would fulfill the needs of
this research and which would not be counterproductive to the terms anglicism and
linguistic importation that presented in previous chapter.
Pseudo-anglicism12: linguistic unit taken from the English language and at
least partially, culturally filtered in its adoption process by the linguistic community
which is going to introduce new meaning(s) to the word already adopted or which is
going to create a new word based on an English-looking word in order to make this
new meaning function as part of its vernacular designation. This linguistic unit will be
used among the members of the community and will reflect their vision of the world.
Counting on this concept, it can be said, for instance, that to the anglicism jinx,
new sememes were added in Japanese when it refers to a person, thing or influence
supposed to bring good or bad luck as opposed to a person who brings only bad
luck in English. Or for example, when the Japanese use H not as the graphic
representation of the letter but to refer to a sexual pervert as an initialism for the
word へんたい (hentai).
This phenomenon is happening in almost all the languages that have
anglicisms; however, it is very interesting to notice that nowadays it has become one
of the most productive processes in the enrichment of the lexicon in Japanese
through word formation processes.
3.2 Wasei-eigo
Japanese started importing words from Europe in the mid-1800s when it first opened
up to foreign trade. Because the traditional writing system, kanji, is based on
Chinese syllable-based characters, then the katakana was created to handle foreign
words and place names and concepts that were untranslatable into kanji. Katakana
thus became the alphabet of foreign imported words. Foreign words, therefore, at
12
Concept provided by the authors.
26
least in writing, remain visibly dissimilar to more native Japanese words and cannot
become fully assimilated into Japanese; the imported words superficially retain their
foreignness.
In the 20th century the pace of importations picked up considerably and
Japan has now become one of the most avid importers of foreign words. A 1964
study estimated that 10% of Japanese dictionary entries were imported words 13 .
This number have vastly increased by now, only counting the anglicisms, the
number has reached 7,000. Tuttle's New Dictionary of Loanwords in Japanese
(1994) includes almost 4,000 of these foreign loan words, which are known as
gairaigo.
Wasei-eigo ( 和 製 英 語 lit. "Made-in-Japan English") are then Japanese
pseudo-anglicisms: English constructions not in use in Anglophone countries nor by
English native speakers, but only by speakers of Japanese. A more general term for
made-in-Japan foreign words is wasei-gairaigo, which usually applies to words
made from European languages. The term "Japanese English" (ジャパニーズ・イン
グ リ ッ シ ュ ) has become the common name for these words inside of Japan
meaning Japanese people are indeed aware that they are terms used only in their
language and which are not anglicisms as such.
However, the Japanese have difficulty in the distinction between these words
and true Anglophonic English sometimes because some linguists note that pseudoanglicisms are related to false friends or false cognates 14 . Many speakers of a
language which employs pseudo-anglicisms believe that the relevant words are
genuine anglicisms and can be used in English.
Wasei-eigo words can form compounds with Japanese words, for example, 億
ション (okushon) combines oku, meaning hundred million, with mansion to form a
new word meaning luxury apartment. This is actually a pun, since the word man (万)
means ten thousand in Japanese: oku-shon is ten thousand times more than manshon. Sometimes, two English words with their normal meanings will be combined to
form a new compound word. One instance is ファミコン (famikon), a combining
13
14
Gao, Fengping. Japanese: A Heavily Culture-Laden Language.
Heffernan, Kevin. Correlating Social Setting and the Retention of Contrast in Loanword Phonology.
27
form of family and computer, meaning a video game system (especially, but not
necessarily, because the Famicom is known to the rest of the world as the Nintendo
Entertainment System).
Gairaigo are Japanese words originated or based on foreign language
(generally Western) terms, including wasei-eigo (Japanese pseudo-Anglicisms).
Many derive from Portuguese, due to Portugal's early role in Japanese-Western
interaction; from Dutch, due to the Netherlands' relationship with Japan amidst the
policy of sakoku during the Edo Period; or from French and German, due to France
and Germany's cultural and scientific prominence during Japan's modernization in
the Meiji Period.
However, most come from English, perhaps the dominant world language
today. Due to the large number of western concepts imported into Japanese culture
during modern times, there are thousands of these English importations. Japanese
vocabulary also includes large numbers of words from Chinese, imported at various
points throughout history. However, since the Japanese language has such strong
historical ties to the Chinese language, these adoptions are not generally considered
gairaigo.
Some wasei-eigo words have in turn been imported as pseudo-Anglicisms in
other countries. For example, 아파트 apateu/ap'at'ŭ in Korean has been imported
from the Japanese word apāto which is definitely an anglicism.
3.3 Word Formation Processes
Word Formation is a branch of Lexicology that has as an object of study the
relationships that establish the units which carry lexical meaning from a language
when interacting in the creation of a word. Bauer intends to refer to the ―formation of
lexemes‖ to achieve a bigger precision (1983:13). It is only after having coined the
new word that the speaker begins to associate other semantic contents with that
same phonological form, being constituted in this way gradually, the different lexicalsemantic variants that integrate the lexeme in the lexical system.
28
The aim of this research is not to describe each process that occurs in the
pseudo-anglicisms in Japanese or to work with some of the models studied in the
Lexicology undergraduate course, but illustrate them as a very productive
phenomenon. However, it was decided to explain briefly some aspects in order to
make the further expositions clearer to the reader.
Then, it can be said that the Japanese average speaker usually takes as
starting point a sentence, a lexeme, a lexical-semantic variant of the lexeme (the
word), and, for the most part, the free base, either simple, complex or phrastic. On
these sources, three types of formative procedures operate basically, that is to say,
mechanisms of change of lexical meaning that are applied in the formation of the
new word:
• Morpho-lexical procedures that consist in the addition, the elimination, the
combination or the integration of units that carry lexical meaning;
• Non morpho-lexical procedures that consist in the elimination and the
combination of elements that do not carry lexical meaning;
• Semantic procedures that already consist in the extension or qualitative reduction
of the meaning of lexical units existent in the lexicon.
The application by the linguistic community of these three procedures to the
units that take as starting point gives place, in its very diverse variants, to the
different word formation processes that exist in modern English.
Now, these procedures will be explained and in each one of the processes
examples will be stated for better understanding.
3.3.1 Morpho-lexical Procedures
Some of the pseudo-anglicisms that enter the Japanese vocabulary are formed as a
result of morpho-lexical procedures, that is to say, through the addition, elimination,
combination and integration of units that carry lexical meaning (meaningful units 15).
Word Formation through morphological procedures implies the addition, elimination
15
Sonia Dunn Marqués. (2000) PhD Thesis: The modelling of affixation, zero derivation,
compounding and their parasynthetic combination in Modern English deverbal subordinative concrete
nouns.
29
or combination of morphological units, while Word Formation through lexical
procedures implies the semantic integration of the words that form the phrase.
Compounding
Compounding as a lexical procedure is the combination of two word-stems to form a
complex stem and they occur in the language as free forms. In a compound word
the immediate constituents obtain integrity as structural cohesion that make them
function in a sentence as a separate lexical units (Hansen: 1994).
In Japanese, バージンロード (bājinrōdo) is the aisle (in a Western-style or Christian
wedding ceremony, as followed by the bridal procession). This word was
compounded by the anglicisms virgin (LSV: free of impurity or stain) and road (LSV:
an open way for vehicles, persons, and animals). Thus in this way, Japanese will not
use aisle (LSV: the side of a church nave separated by piers from the nave proper)
but the pseudo-anglicism coined in their language. Among others, we found the
following examples:
• ドクターストップ/dokutāsutoppu (doctor stop): Order given by the physician to
the patient to discontinue treatment.
• インキー/inkī (in key ): To lock one's car keys inside of one's car.
• ドライブイン/doraibuin (driver inn): Rest area, motor lodge.
• オンリーワン /onrīwan (only one): One of a kind or unique; e.g., オンリーワン技
術 (~gijutsu: only one technology) or オンリーワン商品 (~shōhin: "only one
products") meaning one of a kind technology or products.
Affixation
Affixation as a morphological procedure is the combination of a word-stem with
affixes (prefixes, suffixes and infixes which can be derivational or functional). In
English, this is a very productive way of enriching the lexicon and it happens to be
30
more or less so in Japanese with the anglicisms, where the linguistic community is
capable of using English affixes in order to build a new word, which will function in
the speech.
For even an English-speaking person, the word komicalize seems as an
English word, but actually, it does not exist in the language. For Japanese it means
to make a comic strip (manga) version of an originally non-comic strip title, such as
a novel, movie, or TV show. They combined the adjective comical (LSV: causing
laughter especially because of a startlingly or unexpectedly humorous impact) and
the suffix –ize (LSV: cause to be or conform to or resemble) in English to come
across a new word which would fulfill their linguistic needs.
Some other examples are:
• バリアフリー/bariafurī (barrier free): Accessible facilities for handicapped persons.
•フリーダイヤル/furīdaiyaru (dial free): A call that is toll free, meaning the person
does not have to pay for phoning.
• フリーサイズ/furīsaizu (free size): One-size-fits-all.
• ポエマー/poemā (poemer): A poet.
3.3.2 Non Morpho-lexical Procedures
Japanese language is also enriched by the creation of words which are formed by
means of Non Morpho-lexical Procedures that, as we affirmed before, is the
elimination and the combination of elements that do not carry lexical meaning.
Shortening consists in the reduction of a word to one of its parts, as a result of which
the new form acquires some linguistic value of its own. Shortening may be regarded
as a type of stem creation because the resulting new morphemes are capable of
being used as free forms and combine with bound forms (The English Word 1993:
135).
31
Clipping
As part of the shortening process, clipping carries various classifications. Since our
goal is not to classify what types of clipping we came across with in the words we
chose, it will not be mentioned whether the clipping is initial, medial or final. Besides,
while researching, the clipped words analyzed would not allow us to widen the scope
as to say that all types of clipping exist in Japanese pseudo anglicisms because only
final clipping was located.
An instance is the word ア ニ メ /anime (LSV: animation, animated
cartoons/films). According to the Webster´s Dictionary in its 11 th Edition, anime is a
style of animation originating in Japan that is characterized by stark colorful graphics
depicting vibrant characters in action-filled plots often with fantastic or futuristic
themes. However, Japanese use this word to refer to animation in general. When
looking up the word in a dictionary anyone could not easily realize that the word
anime, whose origin is the clipped word animation, was imported into English
implying Japanese ‗animation‘. Another example is ノ ー ト /nōto (notebook), a
notebook (it is used with this meaning in the title of the manga series Death Note).
Parasynthesis16
Parasynthesis is a Word-building process in which a new lexical unit is formed by
the simultaneous operation of at least two of the mentioned processes such as
affixation, compounding, shortening, etc.
As a way to explain this, cases of clipping and compounding as a
parasynthetic process were located. A very funny example is ロンパリ/ronpari (LSV:
slang for Strabismus, cross-eyed, wandering eye) from the final clipping of London
combined with Paris to give the idea of ‗one eye looking towards London and the
16
Sonia Dunn Marqués. (2000) PhD Thesis: The modelling of affixation, zero derivation,
compounding and their parasynthetic combination in Modern English deverbal subordinative concrete
nouns.
32
other eye looking towards Paris‘. Another example is ファミコン (famikon, famicom),
the Nintendo Entertainment System.
3.3.3 Semantic Procedures
As we stated before, the semantic procedures have to do namely, with the changes
occurring in the sememic structure of an already existing lexeme. The sememic
structure 17 of a polysememic lexeme 18 presents a system within which all its
constituent sememes or lexical-semantic variants are held together by logical
associations. This ability of a lexeme of having more than one sememe (LSV) is
termed polysememy (Curbeira, 2005:112). Curbeira states that polysememy is very
often achieved through different types of semantic associations that lead to
metaphor or to metonymy. These procedures have proved to be very effective in the
process of enriching Japanese language since in most of the words we chose we
could observe examples of metonymy, antonomasia and metaphors as part of
polysememy.
Antonomasia
In simple words, antonomasia is the use of a proper name or a trademark name to
designate a member of a class which may have all the traits as to be considered a
hyperonym and not what it really is: a hyponym. Examples of the use of
antonomasia are: ホッチキス/hotchikisu, to refer to a stapler (that was a well spread
trademark by E. H. Hotchkiss Company) and シャップペンシル/shappu penshiru
(sharp pencil), meaning mechanical pencil (from Sharp Corporation as a
manufacturer of mechanical pencils). Japanese use these two words in daily life, as
part of the basics of the language. They did not import stapler and mechanical pencil,
but in turn, they utilized a WB process. Another example is
マジックインキ
17
The sememic structure of a lexeme is composed by the sememes and is generally understood in
the dictionaries as the definitions or meanings.
18
A lexeme is polysememic when it has more than one sememe or lexical-semantic variant.
33
/majikkuinki (Magic Ink), a registered trademark of Uchida Yoko Co., Ltd; it is used
to refer to any kind of marker.
Polysememy achieved through metaphoric associations
Metaphors are closely intertwined with the very texture of human speech: as a major
factor in motivation, as an expressive device, as a source of synonymy and
polysememy, as an outlet for intense emotions, as a means of filling gaps in
vocabulary, and in several other roles (Ullmann, 1977: 212-213). Then it can be said
that that the polysememy achieved through semantic association of comparison has
the image-making faculty of man expressed by means of the similarity of senses.
In Japanese, the adjective ス ケ レ ト ン /sukeruton (LSV: translucent) was
achieved by the means of a metaphor because it gives the whole idea of skeleton
(LSV: consisting of, or resembling a skeleton) activating the traits of extreme
thinness.
However, the word in Japanese is used to talk not only about human beings,
but also anything that might be translucent. Other example is:

ファイト/faito (fight)19: An interjection often used to mean "Do your best!" or
"I'll do my best."
Polysememy achieved through metonymic associations
Ullmann considers the metonymy less interesting than metaphor since it does not
discover new relations but arises between words already related to each other
(1977: 218). However, we prefer to give the two associations equal weight in the
formation of words since both are productive in any given language and an
interesting feature of metonymy is that it tends to give abstract words a concrete
meaning: the name of an action will stand for its result, the name of a quality for a
19
In this specific example, a case of interlinguistic homonymy has been achieved through the
metaphor. The lexical-semantic class changes, but one of the sememes of the imported word
remains giving way to its competence in Japanese.
34
person or object exhibiting it, etc. the polysememy achieved through metonymic
associations is then expressed as a contiguity of senses.
When looking for words for the corpus of this term paper, the word benchi
(LSV: ‗manager, coach of a team‘) came across. It was not important at the first
stage of the research to deal with the WB process it was built upon. Why benchi
would be polysememy achieved through metonymic association for the Japanese?
Basically because bench (LSV: a long seat for two or more persons) is the place
where the coaches sit and watch their team in action. A relationship of contiguity
easily established without having to import another word and providing an example
as how active the linguistic community is regarding word formation. Observe the
followings examples:
• デスク/desuku (n): An editor for a certain section of a publication, derived from the
English custom of calling the job a desk, as in "the sports desk".
Desk (n): c: a table, counter, stand, or booth at which a person works.
• フロント/furonto (n): The front desk at a hotel
Front (n): 3: a side of a building; especially: the side that contains the principal
entrance. Desk (n): see above.
• ウインカー/uinkā (n): Turn signal, blinker on an automobile.
Winker (n): 1: one that winks.
Polysememy
The majority of pseudo-anglicisms analyzed maintained at least one of the lexicalsemantic variants of their English counterparts, but at the same time, the linguistic
community had been able to introduce new sememes to the word which were not
part of the importation in the first place. So the pseudo-anglicisms would retain the
lexical-semantic variant adopted in the process of adoption of the word and would
gain new sememe(s) given by the linguistic community.
In the following examples, the new sememe(s) will be marked.
35
•
ブレザ ー /burezā (n): Blazer, or Japanese school uniform that includes that
garment. It usually has buttons down the front and a vest under it with a white
collared shirt.
Blazer (n): 1: one that blazes 2: a sports jacket often with notched collar and
patch pockets.
• エール/ ēru (v): (1) To cheer on a player in a sports competition; (2) To express
support for a candidate in an election.
Yell (v): 2: to give a cheer usually in unison.
• フライングスタート/furaingusutāto (n): Premature start. Breakaway.
Flying start (n): 1: a start in racing in which the participants are already moving
when they cross the starting line or receive the starting signal.
• ガードマン/gādoman (n): A (private) security guard. A person who directs traffic in
work sites.
Guard (n): 1: one assigned to protect or oversee another: as a: a person or a body
of persons on sentinel duty.
• ギャラリー/gyararī (n): An art gallery audience. A pool of celebrities in a program.
Gallery (n): 4 a: a room or building devoted to the exhibition of works of art b: an
institution or business exhibiting or dealing in works of art c: collection, aggregation
(the rich gallery of characters in this novel — H. S. Canby); the part of a theater
audience seated in the top gallery c: the undiscriminating general public.
• ハンドル/handoru (n): Any kind of handle, but specifically a steering wheel.
Handle (n): 1: a part that is designed especially to be grasped by the hand.
• ジュース/jūsu (n): Often used to refer to soda or energy drinks, regardless of
whether they contain any juice.
Juice (n): 2 a: b: the liquid or moisture contained in something.
• リベンジ /ribenji (n): Return match, rematch; chance for redemption after a failed
attempt.
Revenge (n): 3: an opportunity for getting satisfaction (sought revenge through a
rematch).
36
 サービス/sābisu (adj.): Service: Often used to describe something as being free of
charge.
Service (adj.): 2: used in serving or supplying (delivery men use the service
entrance).
• サイダー/saidā (n): A kind of soda having or not cider.
Cider (n): 1: fermented apple juice often made sparkling by carbonation or
fermentation in a sealed container.
• バッティング /battingu (v): Swing the bat in baseball; or, to project forward or
propose competitively on business or others by two or more parties, like "butt heads"
by animals.
Batting (v): 1: to strike or hit with or as if with a bat.
• マニア/mania (n): Mental problems, but also enthusiast.
Mania (n): 1: excitement manifested by mental and physical hyperactivity,
disorganization of behavior, and elevation of mood; specifically: the manic phase of
bipolar disorder.
• ムーディ/mūdi (adj.): Depressive, but commonly used as nice.
Moody (adj.): 1: subject to depression: gloomy.
•センス/sensu (n): Sense is used as in English, but when regarding films means
understanding of subtleties.
Sense (n): 6a: capacity for effective application of the powers of the mind as a
basis for action or response: INTELLIGENCE b: sound mental capacity and
understanding typically marked by shrewdness and practicality; also: agreement with
or satisfaction of such power (this decision makes sense).
37
CHAPTER IV: JAPAN: SOME ASPECTS ABOUT THE CULTURE
AND SOCIETY. INFLUENCE IN THE CREATION OF “ENGLISHMADE-IN-JAPAN” WORDS AND THE LINGUISTIC IMPORTATION
So far most of the examples we have seen are imported words or terms that even
though they may be seen as English words (and sometimes they are), they
designate a different object from the one referred to with the same term in English.
However, as we go deeper into how English is absorbed into Japanese language
some interesting questions arise: In the process of linguistic importation, does
Japanese mix their own native words with English ones? Is it prolific the use of
foreign words to designate phenomena or objects that are common only in Japan?
Stating that this chapter will extensively provide with the answers for these
questions would be extremely pretentious; but some attention-grabbing examples
and some explanations will be given, showing to what a great extent English has
been adopted by Japanese.
Although some information related to linguistic importation in Japanese and
its classification has been consulted 20 , we found that it would serve better the
purpose of this diploma to typify the terms by the knowledge field.
It is necessary to explain that in some cases we will find terms related to the
otaku subculture; that is the culture of those who are used to spending most of the
time at home due to their obsession with a certain hobby, specially comics,
Japanese animation and videogames. The term implies negative associations and it
is used pejoratively even though animation and comics followers use it to refer to a
genuine fan; one of the closest English words for otaku would be nerd.
4.1 Architecture, urban space and housing
 ベ ッ ド タ ウ ン (beddotaun): Bedtown. Bedroom suburbs, bedroom community,
dormitory suburb, commuter town.
20
Rebuck, Mark- Raising Awareness of English Loanwords in Japanese. Nagoya City University. The
Language Teacher September 27, Volume 31, Number 9 (pp. 54).
38
 カンコロジー (kankorojī): ―Can ecology‖, that is beautifying a recreational or
other public area by picking up empty beverage cans. One may think that the term
is compounded by two English words; can and the clipped form of ecology. It is
true in the case of the clipped word, but the first one is Japanese: 缶 (kan).
 LDK: It refers to apartments having a living room (L), a dining room (D) and a
kitchen (K). One can even find 3LDK, 4LDK (apartments with 3 or 4 rooms plus
living room, dining room and kitchen). Rooms can be multifunctional, so in 1LDK or
2LDK the living room may be used as bedroom; the futon (Japanese-style
bedding) can be stored in a cupboard or closet during the day.
 ラブホテル (rabuhoteru): Love hotel. This is the name for short-stay hotels that
have become popular even outside Japan due to their amazing architecture and
the theme-based designs of their rooms. From fantasy castles to spaceships or
even a volcano; the list of different designs is huge. Regarding the rooms, one can
find from S&M, shuttle, safari, to samurai themes. If at the very beginning the
phenomenon of short-stay hotels developed as lodging for a new breed of car
commuters, travelling salesmen and truckers in the wake of expansion of
commercial road transport and the オーナードライバー (ōnādoraibā/owner-driver)
boom of the 1960s, nowadays it is mainly associated with love affairs and
prostitution rings, but it also provide lovers with privacy for having sexual
intercourse. Today love hotels also represent a popular location for storylines of
movies and soap operas.
 マイホーム (mai hōmu): My Home. This term describes a phenomenon dating
from the 1960s. The period of rapid economic growth and income-doubling policy
witnessed a growing number of Japanese who were able to afford the purchase of
their own home. Real-estate developers responded with a well-stratified range of
housing from free-standing single-family homes to less expensive medium-and
high-density apartment blocks. Many have criticized the so called ―mai hōmu‖
generation by stating that they typified a new individualism characterized by a
drifting apart from the Japanese traditional family interest to a family structure
39
driven by consumerism. An increase in car sales was one of the results of the ―mai
hōmu‖ boom; this trend ended up being named similarly マイカー
(mai kā/my
car). Due to the initial rapid speed of construction and contracting, a result of the
fast economic growth and the high demand, many of the concrete apartment
blocks developed and sold during the boom have faced serious financial and
structural problems.
 マンション (manshon): Mansion. It refers to apartment buildings with Western
style or a combination of Western and Japanese interior designs. In contrast to
more utilitarian public housing or danchi 21 , a manshon is rather modern and
luxurious. This linguistic importation portraits in some way the consumers‘ my
home‖ ideal of owning their own house.
 オクシ ョン (okushon): It is a pun on the word ―manshon‖. This refers to an
apartment whose purchase price is so high that it is stated not in units of ten
thousand (万, ―man‖ in Japanese) yen but in units of one hundred million yen (億,
―oku‖).
4.2 Brand names
 バイキング (Baikingu): Smorgasbord, buffet. It is said that this originated from the
Imperial Hotel, in Tokyo, naming a smorgasbord after the 1958 American film The
Vikings.
 デ ニ る (deniru): To eat at Denny‘s. Denny‘s is the biggest chain of family
restaurants in the United States and has spread considerably in Japan. It is
famous because of its 24-hour service. This is a very interesting example of
affixation, since in most cases, as in examples that will be analyzed later, an
English affix has been combined with a word-stem (like –er in poemer, Amurer and
–ize in comicalize); now we can observe how –ru, which is a Japanese verb ending,
is combined with a English proper name.
21
This term refers to multi-storey apartment complexes that incorporate features of western dwellings.
They first were built around 1925 as a government project to provide affordable collective housing
with modern conveniences to the middle class.
40
 ホッチキス (hotchikisu): A stapler. It is named after a generalized trademark of
the E. H. Hotchkiss Company, also used in Korea).
 マジックインキ (majikkuinki): It is any kind of marker. Magic Ink is a registered
trademark of Uchida Yoko Co., Ltd.
 シャープペンシル
(shāpupenshiru): Mechanical pencil. (Sha (rp) + pen (cil). It
refers to Sharp Corporation, a manufacturer of mechanical pencils.
 プリクラ (purikura): It refers to both a photo sticker booth or the photo taken in
such a booth. The registered trademark プリント倶楽部 (Purinto Kurabu/Print
Club) was shortened to designate one of the most picturesque features of
Japanese popular culture. Japanese youngsters are used to go very frequently to
purikura to have pictures with their friends.
4.3 Family, gender and society
 3k: When it comes to jobs, one considers very carefully both positive and negative
features. For Japanese, three of the most undesirable aspects related to a bad
occupation are 危険 (kiken), meaning danger, hazard; きつい (kitsui), intense and
汚い (kitanai), dirty. They refer to this undesirable attributes as 3K. Curiously, an
American neologism derived from this Asian concept. 3Ds (Dirty, Dangerous and
Demeaning) refers to jobs that are performed by blue-collar workers. Due to the
risks that characterize these jobs, they can impose both severe mental and
physical harm to workers, who are mostly immigrants.
バイじい
(baijī): An old man who takes Viagra. This is an example of
parasynthesis; it is compounded by Viagra-a drug used in erectile dysfunction
treatment- which has been clipped, and お爺さん (ojī san) –meaning male senior
person- which has been clipped as well.
お (o) and
さん (san) are honorific
particles to convey respect.
 コスプレ (kosupure): Cosplay. A phenomenon that has become astonishingly
trendy all over the world, even though Japan is its birthplace, is the cosplay. It
41
consists on wearing costumes inspired by characters from comics, cartoons,
movies, videogames and even artists and singers, and playing that role as good as
possible- the word costume is clipped (cos) and by means of the word-building
process of compounding we have the term cosplay. It is such a popular practice
among youngsters that there is a World Cosplay Summit in which people from
South Korea, China, Brazil, Mexico, USA, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark,
Thailand, Singapore, Spain and, of course, Japan, participate either individually or
in groups.
Although this a term originated in Japan, the activity of costume playing have
been present in the United States, where science fiction and heroic fantasy are the
main source of inspiration; characters from TV series and movies such as Star Trek,
Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are among the favorite for those
who enjoyed wearing costumes. Of course, such popularity is sustained by the
media; in Japan there are two particularly popular magazines specialized on this
phenomenon; there is a manufacture industry that sells outfields for any occasion;
television and movies are important promoters and many cosplayers have become
professionals who work as models for anime, manga and video game companies.
The term cosplay is also used in Japanese slang for referring to sexual play
involving costumes. Nowadays, some love hotels offer costume rental service and
there are also sexual-costume play specialized clubs, known as image clubs.
 アニメ顔
(animegao): It is used to refer to cosplayers who cover their faces with
a mask resembling the facial features of a cartoon character. In a parasynthetical
process, the word anime (clipped form of animation) is combined with the
Japanese word 顔 (gao/face). Although it is considered a minor manifestation in
the cosplay subculture, it began to attract attention around 2005 in some European
countries, U.S.A and Canada.
 デ リ バ リ ー ヘ ル ス (deribarīherusu): Delivery health. A form of prostitution,
essentially a call girl or escort service with girls who are dispatched to customers‘
homes or hotels.
 ファッションヘルス (fasshonherusu): Fashion health. Simply said, it is a form of
Japanese brothel. Despite Japanese anti-prostitution laws, many sex-intercourse
42
related services are offered in this kind of massage parlor. Unlike the delivery
health service, instead of call girl or escort service there are masseuses.
 ハイカラ (haikara): High collar. In 1920s Japanese slang, "haikara" referred to a
person who was a slave to Western fashions, trends and values because of the
use of high-collar outfits.
 コギャル (kogyaru): This term refers to obsessively trend-conscious teen-age girls
who may offer themselves for 援 助 交 際 (enjo kōsai, usually translated as
―compensated dating‖) with older men in order to finance their lifestyle. If at the
very beginning it was only senior high school girls who had this kind of life style (ko,
clipped form of 高校生,kōkōsei/high school; gyaru from the colloquial gal), as time
passed by, professional prostitutes who were used to dressing as high school
students were called the same. ―Compensated dating‖ is a very subtle term used to
define the services given by kogyaru which can include prostitution.
Kogals can be identified not only by their looks, but also by the way they
speak; they have a very distinctive way of speech which is called コギャル語
(kogyarugo/kogal language). One of the features of this peculiar speech is the use
of English expressions and words; the following term is an example of コギャル語.
 コギャル度
(kogyarudo): ―Galness‖. The Japanese word for ―degree‖ is added to
―gal‖. In order to increase or highlight more the features by which they are identify
as kogals (that is to increase their galness), they buy gal stuff.
 ニューハーフ (nyūhāfu): New half. A man who has undergone a sex change
operation
 OL: Office Lady. At first known as しょくかの花
(shokuka no hana; literally office
flower), a term that emphasized how women ―were‖ considered (simple and
insubstantial decoration), OL refers to women hired to perform roles traditionally
related with women in order to support their male colleagues. Among their duties
we can find photocopying and serving tea to clients and male co-workers. OLs are
expected to fulfill those roles of obedient wives or daughters as an evidence of
their subordinate status.
43
 ロリコン(rorikon): Akihabara, a Tokyo district known as the Electronic Town,
since is full of stores specialized in electronics, is also famous as the Otaku Culture
Mecca, due to the sales of products related to videogames and Japanese comics
and cartoons. In Akihabara it is completely normal to see youngsters dressed as
comic characters and there are even cafes where customers can be served by
girls wearing Victorian dresses. In the streets, people take pictures of young girls
wearing a mixture of modern trend clothes and those wore by the aristocracy in
past centuries. Those girls are known as ロリタ (Lolita). Lolita is the title of the
novel written by Vladimir Nabokov. The Russian (naturalized American) author tells
the story of professor Humbert, who fell in love and got obsessed with Lolita, the
12-year-old daughter of his wife. Many consider that the term Lolita applied to
young girls wearing rococo and Victorian clothes has anything to do with the novel;
however, they referred to a certain comic and cartoon genre in which female
characters with childlike features are involved in erotic situations or in a love
relationship with grownups as ロリコン (roricon), a clipped and compounded term
for Lolita complex (sexual attraction to fictional and real underage girls, or
pedophilia).
 サラリーマン (sararīman): Salaryman. In general, it refers to company employees,
but specifically a salaryman is a salaried white-collar male employee, although the
usage of this term has broadened in a way that sometimes (and very rarely) it is
used to refer to female employees. Salaryman is one of the many manifestations of
Japanese society, where men are associated with work, and that is why salarymen
have to devote themselves to the company and leave matters related to household
to women (femininity is associated with household). Salaryman are identified by
their clothes which have became a kind of uniform: white or light color shirt, dark
suit with a pin of the company they work for, black leather shoes, briefcase,etc.
 セレブ (serebu): Celebrity. We can find this term in magazines and mass media
in general. It is used to refer to a rich, elegant person even if he/she is not famous
or popular.
44
 ソ ー プ ラ ン ド (sōpurando): ―soap land‖: a bath house/massage parlor where
sexual services are offered. Formerly known as ト ル コ 風 呂 (torukoburo) from
―Turkish bath,‖ but changed after protests from Turks resident in Japan.
4.4 Fashion
 ブランド (burando): Although some authors consider this word as a designation
for distinguishable brand names (e.g. Gucci, Dior, Louis Vuitton, etc.) and at the
beginning it referred exclusively to foreign luxury goods, this term is also used for
major Japanese brand names (e.g. Kenzo, Comme des Garcons, etc.). In a society
like the Japanese one, consumerism is a main feature, and brand name products
is one of the many faces of consumerism; brand names has such a significance in
Japan since having a genuine brand name article shows the consumer somehow
explicit intention of demonstrating he/she can afford to buy a 本物 (honmono), a
real thing, instead of a cheap imitation. 40 to 60% of global sales for major luxury
brands belong to Japanese.
 イメチェン (imechen): Image change. According to some websites and bloggers it
is a look change cute little teen idol singers have to go through if they hope to
survive in show business past the age of nineteen; however, the use of this term
has become not exclusive for referring to a change in idol singers‘ look and is used
in a more general sense. As an example, in the worldwide popular Japanese
animated series Naruto, Sakura, one of the main characters was forced to cut her
hair short in order to avoid being beaten by an enemy who was pulling her head by
the hair. When Naruto noticed her short hair, he alarmingly asked her ―Sakura,
what has happened to your hair…?‖ (―さくらちゃん、その髪。。。？‖),
and she
answered ―I have just changed my look!‖ (―イメチェンよ！‖) 。
 パ ー ソ ナ ル 化 (pāsonaruka): Personalization. When a product stops being a
novelty or luxury and becomes a consumer item that ―everyone‖ has, due to low
costs; it becomes ―personal‖. It is important to observe that although in Japanese
linguistic importation it is common to find examples of affixation in which an English
45
affix is added, in this case a Japanese suffix is used. The suffix (-ka), equivalent for
the English ―-ization‖ is added to create a term for naming the act, process or result
(of a luxury product) of becoming a common item.
4.5 Holidays
 ヴァレンタインデー・ホワイトデー (barentaindē/howaitodē): Valentine‘s Day
and White Day. The Saint. Valentine‘s Day tradition arrived in Japan as the result
of a 1960s commercial marketing. In this occasion women give gifts to men, but
chocolate became the most frequent present. In just less than ten years Japanese
women, in order to avoid any misunderstanding or not to show any explicit
favoritism, began to give chocolate as presents to all male colleagues at the
workplace and to classmates in universities. However, Japanese men seemed to
be not that interested in having Valentine gifts for women and this was seen as an
opportunity to create the White Day: while women buy presents for men on
February 14th, men have to give chocolates to women on March 14th. It is important
to notice that these traditions have lost a little of romantic spirit and have gained a
lot of sense of obligation.
 ゴールデンウィーク (Golden Week): Period of the year (end of April to first week
of May) in which some national holidays come together. This week represents a lot
for Japanese taking into account that it is a rare opportunity for them to have a
whole week for vacation, time they spend traveling (Golden Week is a period of the
highest sales for travel both national and international) and in leisure activities.
4.6 Language
 ボ キ ャ 貧 (bokyahin): lacking the words to say what one means. Another
parasynthetical process (clipping and compounding), but in this case only one
word has been clipped- bokya, from vocabulary-. 貧 (hin) implies lack, poverty.
46
4.7 Mass media
 アニメ (anime): From the clipped word ―animation‖. Some have stated that this
term was first used in 1940, as a substitute for the word 漫 画 映 画
(mangaeiga/cartoon films). This is indeed a very interesting example of linguistic
importation due to the fact that Japanese use this term to refer to animation in
general; however, in Western culture, the word ―anime‖ has become the term to
label Japanese animation. The decade of 1950 is considered to be the period of
maturity of Japanese animation, but it reached the highest level of global popularity
in the 1980s, after some successful artists such as Tezuka Osamu, with his
masterpiece Astroboy among some others22, paved the way during the previous
two decades. Among modern worldwide famous artists we can find Hayao
Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Lupin III), Otomo Katsuhiro
(Akira, Memories), Oshii Mamoru (Ghost in the Shell) and Rumiko Takahashi
(Ranma ½, Inuyasha).
コミカライズ
(Komikaraizu): An example of affixation (comical + -ize).
Komikaraizu is to make a comic strip (manga) version of an originally non-comic
strip title, such as a novel, movie, or TV show.
 コミケット (Komiket): A convention where amateur comic book artists show and
sell their works (it is also an excellent moment for cosplayers to show their
―performances‖). This is the event where they have the opportunity to show their
talent trying to get the attention of the comic industry and have their works
published. At the very beginning it was known as コミックマーケット that is comic
market, but it was shortened to comiket. Many famous artists have made
themselves famous thanks to the comiket. Since Japanese animation and comics
have achieved such a great popularity all over the world, we can easily imagine
that the comiket has also surpassed Japanese territory.
 ゴジラ (Godzilla): If we hear this word, probably the first image that comes to our
mind is that of the Hanna-Barbera‘s cartoons: the Godzilla Power Hour showed the
22
One of his creations, Kimba: The White Lion (originally The Jungle Emperor), was the source of
inspiration for the popular Disney film The Lion King.
47
adventures of a group of scientists protected by a huge monster called Godzilla.
However, other than recalling an American animated series, Godzilla is considered
to be one of the most popular references to Japanese culture and an icon of
Japanese cinema. The name for this mutant dinosaur as is worldwide known is a
rude phonetic translation of the original Gojira, a combination of both clipped
English word gorilla and the Japanese 鯨 (kujira/ whale). Besides being the most
famous character of the Japanese cinema genre known as 怪獣
(kaiju/monster) it
is also the inspiration for many American TV series, cartoons and film parodies.
 タレント
(tarento): Talent. It is used for personalities who frequently appear on
TV. Contrary to what the word may indicate, most of these personalities have no
distinct talent other than appearing on TV. They mainly take part in game and
variety shows. Among the different types of tarento, one of the most common is the
one (male or female) that is often featured on TV because of his/her physical
appearance and has no real ability to entertain. These tarento are known as お馬
鹿アイドル (obaka idoru/dumb idol).
 メカアニメ(meka-anime): Combination of two clipped words (mecha(nical) and
animation). It refers to anime portraying the story of vehicles or robots and their
pilots. As examples of mecha anime, one of the oldest anime genres, we can find
Mazinger Z, Gundam, Macross, Getter Robot, Pat Labor, Neon Genesis
Evangelion. Some of this animated series are very old, but still there are sequels
being released in Japan, U.S.A and other countries in Asia and Europe. Just to
have an idea of such a popularity, last year, a giant model of a Gundam robot was
built in Odaiba, Japan.
4.8 Music
 アムラー (Amurā): An evident case of affixation; the suffix – er is added to Amurothat refers to young girls who imitate the style of the popular J-pop and R&B singer
Namie Amuro.
48
 カラオケ(karaoke): One of the most popular hobbies of modern entertainment
industry was created in Japan and is the result of the compounding of the
Japanese word 空
(kara), meaning emptyness, and the English word orchestra,
which has been clipped (oke); the person doesn‘t need any accompaniment to sing.
The karaoke, which is so ―traditional‖ in Japan that has become a sort of daily life
hobby with its thousands of clubs all over the country, has reached such a great
level of popularity that there is a Karaoke World Championship.
4.9 Sports and recreation
 ナイター (naitā): This term is mostly used to make reference to a baseball game
that is held at night time. In Japan, most of baseball games take place during the
evening.
 エレベーター横綱
(erebētā yokozuna): elevator yokozuna. Contrary to what
many of us may think, Japan‘s national sport is not baseball, karate or judo, but
sumo, a Japanese traditional wrestling worldwide known to a great extent because
of the heavy-weighted sumo wrestlers. The dream of any sumo wrestler is to get
the rank of yokozuna, the highest rank. In this case we have a very hilarious
compounded term with a certain metaphoric association: there is this sumo grand
champion who lately hasn‘t had a good performance and has as many losses as
wins; this yokozuna ―goes up and down‖, just as an elevator does.
 パチプロ（pachipuro): Pachinko is a Japanese version of the American pinball.
This popular gambling game consists of a vertical gameboard where one launches
small steel balls and tries to make them get into slots in order to gain additional
balls that can be exchanged for prizes (cigarettes, soaps, key holders, CDs) at the
parlor. Pachinko is such a passion for Japanese that it is said that in Japan
pachinko establishments are easier to find than supermarkets, and so it is not
surprising to find comics related to this leisure activity as well as TV special
programs about pachinko tournaments in which players try to get the highest score
in one night. Along with the luck factor, winning at pachinko also requires skill, and
49
there are people who, due to their skills, are known as pachipuro, that stands for
pachinko professional player.
50
CONCLUSIONS
It has been decades since Japanese started importing foreign words and Japanese
lexicon has grew richer with all foreign linguistic adoptions. If generally, in most of
countries where linguistic importation is a more or less a prolific phenomenon the
culture, society and phonetics differences are not considered a barrier due to their
linguistic, phonetic and cultural similarities, we have to agree that Japan is one of the
most outstanding examples of how a foreign language is used to serve the linguistic
needs a community has.
Although very briefly, not only the main features of anglicisms and pseudoanglicisms have been presented in this research paper, but also how two different
cultures have contact by means of the linguistic importation. Even though Japan has
been influenced by the U.S.A to a great extent, Japanese culture was not set aside
when importing English words as we could observe in anglicisms and pseudoanglicisms in which there is an explicit influence of Japanese culture or language
(words such as バ イ じ い (baijī), コ ギ ャ ル 度
(kogyarudo), パ ー ソ ナ ル 化
(pāsonaruka), that one Japanese word has been used) as well as in those cases
that although all the elements used to create the word were English, the meaning
behind that word completely referred to Japanese reality only (ゴールデンウィーク
(Golden Week), マイホーム (mai hōmu)).
Particularly in chapters II and III, some examples were presented in which we
can notice the use of anglicisms and pseudo-anglicisms with the intention of
differentiating any object, phenomena, person or manifestation proper of Japanese
culture or society from those that are Western. Furthermore, it could be observed
plenty of cases of parasynthesis in which both languages are combined.
Besides, while analyzing the words, we came up with something very
interesting that although we cannot say is a general feature of anglicisms and
pseudo-anglicisms in Japanese. It turns out that in some cases there were words
that once imported and transformed by Japanese not only have been re-adopted by
English native speakers, but also have been worldwide adopted, in a kind of
rebound effect if we may say so. That is the case of コスプレ (kosupure), アニメ
51
(anime), コミケット (komiket), カラオケ(karaoke). There are even words that are
not adopted into English, but their meaning can be used to develop an English word
carrying a similar meaning (3k).
There is a certain predominant myth that featured Japan as an imitator; by
carefully analyzing Japanese culture and language we can realize at one that Japan
is rather an innovator. Indeed Japan has been influenced by the contact with foreign
culture, but instead of copying whatever new or unknown Japanese encountered,
they adopted that according to their view of the world.
Being aware of the whole cultural background behind the use of a simple
English or any foreign word in Japanese is of great importance in any sense,
especially for translators and interpreters; knowing the difference of the use the word
bar instead of the Japanese word izakaya could seem irrelevant, but many words
apparently simple words are frequently the most difficult to translate. Thus, a matter
that may be considered as one only related to semantics can be researched upon
from other perspectives.
52
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Buckley, Sandra. (2006) Encyclopedia of contemporary Japanese culture Taylor &
Francis e-Library.

Crystal, D. (1997) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge
University Press.

Curbeira Cancela, A. (2005) Selección de Lecturas de Introducción a la Lingüística.
Facultad de Lenguas Extranjeras, Universidad de la Habana.

Definitions
of
the
different
Japanese
Dialects.
Retrieved
from
http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Dialects_Japanese_Language

Dunn Marqués, S. Conferencias curso de Lexicología Inglesa, pregrado (2006).
Facultad de Lenguas Extranjeras, Universidad de la Habana.

______________
(1993)
English
Word
Formation.
Exercises
for Advanced ESL Students. ENPES, La Habana,

______________. PhD. Thesis Tesis de Doctorado (2000). La modelación de la
sufijación, de la derivación cero, de la composición y de su combinación
parasintética en sustantivos subordinados deverbales concretos del Ingles
Moderno. Facultad de Lenguas Extranjeras, Universidad de la Habana.

Gao, Fengping. (2005) Japanese: A Heavily Culture-Laden Language. Journal of
Intercultural Communication. Issue 10.

Heffernan, Kevin. (2004) Correlating Social Setting and the Retention of Contrast
in Loanword Phonology. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics 21: pages 27-41

International Internship Programs- (2001) イラスト日本まるごと事典
Japan at a
Glance Updated. Bilingual Books.

Japanese Language. Retrieved from:

Martínez Hernández, A. (2001- 2003) PhD. Thesis ―Fundamentación teórica de un
modelo para el análisis integral de los anglicismos presentes en la actividad
económica del español de Cuba‖, La Habana.

Merriam-Webster‘s 11th Collegiate edition (2003).

Miller, Laura/Bardsley, Jan, (2005). Bad Girls of Japan Palgrave Macmillan™
53

Motwani, Prem- (1991) 二常外来語用法事典 A Dictionary of Loanwords Usage
Katakana-English. Maruzen.

Nicholls, Danielle. (March, 2003) Borrower Beware! False Friends and English
Loanwords. MED Magazine, Issue 5.

Nicholls, Danielle. (April, 2003) English Loanwords in Japanese. MED Magazine,
Issue 6.

Oxford Advanced Learner‘s Dictionary (1991). Oxford University Press.

Oxford Superlex Dictionary (1997)
54
ANNEXES
Chapter II: Anglicisms in Japanese Anglicisms decreasing in the sememic
structure
 アーチスト (āchisuto (n)): Mostly it refers to a musician, but not of classical music.
芸術家 (geijutsuka) is an artist especially one practicing the fine arts such as a
painter or sculptor.
Artist (n): 1a: one who professes and practices an art in which conception and
execution are governed by imagination and taste. 1b: a person skilled in one of the
fine arts.
 アイロン (airon (v)):To press or smooth clothe. NOTE: Iron as a noun is not used;
the Japanese word 鉄
(tetsu) is used instead.
Iron (v):3b: vi: to smooth or press cloth or clothing with a heated flatiron.
 アイス (aisu (adj.)): Not used independently except at time as abbreviation of アイ
スクリーム (aisu kurīmu/ice cream). Instead 氷
(kōri/ice) is used. E.g. アイスコー
ヒー (aisu kōhī) : iced coffee, アイススケート
(aisu sukēto): ice skating.
Ice (n): 2: a state of coldness (as from formality or reverse). 4a: a frozen dessert
containing a fruit juice or other flavoring, esp: one containing no milk or cream.
 アクシデント (akushidento (n)): Used mostly in abstract sense causing a minor
damage or for a minor accident. 事故
(jiko) is used in physical sense or for a
major accident.
Accident (n): 1a: an event occurring by chance or from unknown causes. 1c: an
unforeseen or unplanned event.
 アパート (bairingaru (adj.)): A bilingual person.
Bilingual (adj.): 2: using or able to use two languages especially with the fluency
characteristic of a native speaker.
 ベテラン (beteran (n)): Person having long experience in a particular job or field,
but it do not refers to a military veteran.
55
Veteran (n): 1b: A person of long experience in politics a profession or some
other occupation or skill.
 ビル (biru (n)): Mainly implies an office block. It is never used for a residential
building, which is アパート
(apāto); or マンション (manshion) for an apartment
building.
Building (n): 1: a usually roofed and walled structure built for permanent use (as
for dwelling).
 ボトル (botoru (n)): Any kind of bottle is bin. In this case botoru means a bottle of
whisky and no other. ボトルキープ (botoru kīpu): bottle- keep system (a system
whereby a customer keeps his own bottle in bar with his name on it and is served
from it whenever he visits that bar).
Bottle (n): 1a: A rigid or semi rigid container typically of glass or plastic having a
comparatively narrow neck or mouth and no handle.
 ブース (būsu (n)): Booth; mainly implies a booth in the language laboratory. A
telephone booth is 公衆電話 (kōshū denwa) or 電話ボックス (denwa bokkusu).
同時通訳ブース
(dōji tsūyaku būsu) (booth for simultaneous interpreters).
Booth (n): 2b: a small enclosure affording privacy or isolation for one person at a
time.
 チャンス (chansu (n)): Usually a chance that occurs in a life time. 機会
and 切っ掛け
(kikai)
(kikkake) are used for opportunities or chances one may get every
now and then.
Chance (n): 1a: something that happens unpredictably without discernible human
intention or observable cause. 4a:
the possibility of an indicated or favorable
outcome in an uncertain situation.
 ダメージ (damēji (n)): In the abstract sense: in this case, damēji is used to
illustrate danger not in the physical way.
Physical injury or damage is 損 害
(songai).
Damage (n): 1: loss or harm resulting from injury to person, property, or
reputation.
 ディーラー (dīrā (n)): Dealer only of cars.
56
Dealer (n): 4: A person or (in pl.) firm dealing in merchandise, a trader; spec. one
buying and selling articles of a particular commodity.
 デビュー (debyū (n)): By a TV (film) actor, player, writer and also marketing of a
new product (however, in case of a product, it is used mainly in ads.). In case of
artist of traditional Japanese arts such as Kabuki, Noh and the like 初 舞 台
(hatsubutai) and
初登場
(hatsutōjō) are used.
Debut (n): 1: a fist public appearance.
 ドクター (dokutā (n)): When used independently it means doctorate (PhD), but
never a medical doctor, which is 医者
(isha).
Doctor (n): 1c: a person who has earned one of the highest academic degrees
(as a PhD) conferred by a university. 1d: a person awarded an honorary doctorate
(as an LLD or LittD) by a college or university.
 ファイター (faitā (n)): Mainly used in the context of boxing.
Fighter (n): 1a (3): prizefighter, boxer.
 フィルム (firumu (n)): It is a pellicle. Never implies a motion picture as in English.
A motion picture in Japanese is 映画
raiburarī) (film library), カラーフィルム
(eiga). E.g. フィルムライブラリー
(firumu
(karā firumu) (color roll (film)).
Film (n): 1a: a thin skin or membranous covering: pellicle.
 ガレージ (garēji (n)): For keeping a car = カーポート
attached to a house.
(kāpōto). Garēji is one
車庫 (shako) is a shed meant for taxis, buses and trains.
Garage for repairing motor vehicles is 修理工場
(shūrikōjō).
Garage (n): A shelter or repair shop for automotive vehicles. A commercial
establishment which sells petrol, oil, etc., and freq. also repairs and services motor
vehicles.
 ゲスト (gesuto (n)): In a TV or radio program. NOTE: a visitor to another person‘s
place (house, store, office, hotel or theater) is お客さん (okyakusan) colloquially,
and 客
(kyaku) in general.
Guest (n): 3: a person not a regular member of a cast who appears on a program.
57
 ギブアップ（する） (gibu appu (suru) (v)): Unlike English where it means to
abandon hope or despair, in Japanese it is used in a lighter sense as when one is
tired after a long session of study.
Give up (v): 2: to desist from. 3a: to abandon (oneself) to a particular feeling,
influence, or activity. 6: to withdraw from an activity or course of action.
 ギフト (gifuto (n)): Essentially used by department stores. NOTE: プレセント
(puresento/present) is used colloquially for a gift given on formal occasions such
as marriage, birthday, Christmas, and also for gifts exchanged between a man and
a woman. お土産
(omiyage) is a gift in general used both colloquially and in
written form, especially a souvenir or a gift given on visiting a person.
Gift (n): 2: something voluntarily transferred by one person to another without
compensation.
 キッチン (kitchin (n)): 台所
(daidokoro) is a standard word and is still most
widely used, but kitchin is used for a modern style kitchen. Kitchin is also used for
that kitchen of a restaurant and in that sense daidokoro is not used.
Kitchen (n): 1: a room or other place with cooking facilities.
 コイン (koin (n)): When used separately it implies old coins.
Coin (n): 2a: a piece of metal issued by governmental authority as money.
 テスト (tesuto (n)): A class periodical test and it is small in scale than a 試験
(shiken), which is final examination.
Test (n): 2b (2): a series of questions or exercises or other means of measuring
the skill, knowledge, intelligence, capacities, or aptitudes of an individual or group.
 タンク (tanku (n)): A receptacle used to store liquids or gas.
Tank (n): 2: a usually, large receptacle for holding, transporting, or storing liquids.
 ステッキ (sutekki (n)): Stick carried as a fad for morning walk. NOTE: Walking
stick for people with walking difficulties or for climbing a hill is 杖 (tsue). While a
branch of a tree or a long slender piece of wood is 棒
(bō).
Stick (n): 2: a long slender piece of wood as 2a (2): something suitable for use in
compelling. 2b: walking stick.
58
 スケープゴート (sukēpugōto (n)): Essentially an economic term used to blame
others in this context.
Scapegoat (n): 2: a person or thing bearing the blame for others.
 スト（ライキ）(suto(raiki)(n)): Act of refusing to work. Usually スト
shortening. NOTE: Strike in baseball is ストライク
(suto) by
(sutoraiku).
Strike (n): 2: an act or instance of striking. 3a: a work stoppage by a body of
workers to enforce compliance with demands made on an employer.
Anglicisms that decrease in the sememic structure
 バー (bā (n)): A Western‘s style bar with a counter, where alcohol is served.
Bar (n): 5a: A counter at which food or especially alcoholic beverages are served.
 バス (basu (n)): Western‘s style bath (room). 風呂場
(furoba), colloquially お風呂
(ofuro), implies a Japanese style bath. However, when used in ads. such as
ートイレ付の部屋 (basū toire tsukino heya)
バス
implies a room with attached bath
and toilet and it could be used to mean Western or Japanese style bath.
Bath (n): 2b (2): a receptacle holding the liquid. 3a: bathroom.
 ベッド (beddo (n)): Western style one to distinguish it from sleeping on a futon.
Bed (n): 1a: a piece of furniture on or in which one may lie and sleep. 1c: a place
for sleeping.
 ダンサー (dansā (n)): Of Western‘s style dance. 舞踊家
(buyōka) is used for a
dancer of Japanese style dance.
Dancer (n): 1: one that performs a rhythmic and patterned succession of bodily
movements usually to music.
 ダンス (dansu (n)): Western‘s style dance. 踊り
(odori) implies Japanese style
dance or ballet.
Dance (n): 1: an act or instance of dancing. 4: the art of dancing.
 ドア (doa (n)): Western style hinged door of a house or that of a train, car or
elevator. In other words, a door through which human beings go in and out, that is
not a sliding door.
59
Door (n): 2: doorway.
 フォークソング (fōku songu (n)): Folk song; it implies American folk song or folk
music composed under American influence. Japanese folk song is 民謡 (min¨yō).
Folk (adj.): Originated or widely used among the common people (- music).
 グラマー (guramā (n)): Of foreign language, especially English grammar. NOTE:
Japanese language grammar is 文法
(bunpō).
Grammar (n): 1a: the study of the classes of words, their inflections, and their
functions and relations in the sentence. 1b: a study of what is to be preferred and
what avoided in inflection and syntax.
 ケーキー (kēki (n)): お菓子
(okashi) is a generic term for cake, sweets, candy,
etc. Whether Japanese or Western, but kēki is Western style cake or pastry and if
a clear distinction is to be made 和菓子
(wagashi/Japanese style sweets) and 洋
菓子 (yōgashi/ Western style sweets) could be used.
Cake (n): 1a: any of the numerous breads usually small in size and round and flat
in shape. 1b: any of numerous fancy sweetened breads often coated with icing.
Anglicisms maintaining the same sememic structure
 アパート (apāto (n)): It names a building, as well as an apartment.
Apartment (n): 1: a room or set of rooms fitted especially with house-keeping
facilities and used as a dwelling. 2: a building made up of individual dwelling units.
 スタンドプレー (sutando purē (v)): To play to the gallery, make a grandstand
play. Figuratively it means to show off or do things in an unnecessarily showy way.
Grandstand (v): To play or act so as (to impress onlookers), to seek to favorable
attract public or media attention.
 スマート (sumāto (adj.)): (i) Smart, sharp (witty person). (ii) Elegant, sophisticated,
fashionable.
Smart (adj.): 1: making one smart: causing a sharp stinging. 4a: mentally alert:
bright. 4b: sharp in scheming: shrewd. 5a: witty, clever. 6a: neat, trim. 6b: stylish
60
or elegant in dress or appearance. 6c (1): sophisticated. 6c (2): characteristic of or
patronized by fashionable society.
Anglicisms that increase the sememic structure
 ベンチ (benchi (n)): (i) Bench (in public parks). (ii) Manager, coach (of a team).
As they sit on a bench and watch their team in action.
Bench (n): 1a: a long seat for two or more persons.
 イージーゴーイング (ījī gōingu (adj.)): In Japanese it implies casual, lazy and
not diligent person.
Easygoing (adj.): 1: taking life easily: as a: placid, b: indolent and careless, c:
morally lax. 2: unhurried, comfortable.
 エッチ (etchi (n)): (/h/): From the initial of a Japanese word hentai meaning
sexual pervert. However, these days it is used more casually for a lecherous,
lustful person or for a man always talking about girls or women or sex. (It is
mainly used by women for describing men).
H (n): 1b: a graphic representation of this letter.
 ジャー (jā (n)): Thermos or container that encloses a vacuum tube to retard heat
transfer and it does not have a wide mouth.
Jar (n): 1: a wide-mouthed container made typically of earthenware or glass.
 ジンクス(jinkusu (n)): Person, thing or influence supposed to bring good or bad
luck.
Jinx (n): A person who brings bad luck.
Anglicisms increasing in the sememic structure. New semes are added
implying cultural differences
 バイ－バイ (baībai (n)): Used by children and youth, especially girls. Adults use it
when sharing with children or youth.
61
Good bye (bye-bye) (n): A concluding remark at parting- often used
interjectionally.
 バレンタインーデー (Barentain-dē (n)): February 14th. In Japan women and girls
give gifts to men and men return the gesture on March 14th.
Saint Valentine’s Day (n): February 14th is observed in honor of St. Valentine
and as a time for sending valentines.
 エンターテーメント (entātēmento (n)): Not used colloquially, mostly used in
written form in advertisements.
Entertainment (n): 1: the act of entertaining. 3: something diverting or engaging,
especially: a public performance.
 ツー (tsū (num.)): ワン
(wan /one), ツー (tsū/ two), スリー (surī/ three) are
preferred over Japanese numbers whenever these numerals come with an
(tsū doa no kuruma/ two-door car).
adopted word. E.g. ツードアの車
Two (num.): 1: number. 2: the second in a set or series.
 トイレ (toire (n)): Also お手洗い
(otearai), 便所 (benjo), 化粧室 (keshōshitsu).
Otearai is used colloquially by women or when asking someone where the toilet is
as it is politer than toire. Benjo is used mostly in the written language such as 公衆
便所 (kōshūbenjo/ public toilet). Keshōshitsu is written on the door of the toilet
and usually not used colloquially. Toire is used mostly by men or its use is at least
avoided by women in front of men; however, it is the most common word of all for
toilet.
Toilet (n): 3a (1): bathroom, lavatory. 3a (2): privy. 3b: a fixture for defecation and
urination, especially: water closet.
Anglicisms not used independently
 ベビー (bebī (n)): Usually not used independently. Instead 赤ちゃん
used. E.g. ベ ビ ー シ ッ タ ー
fūdo/baby food), ベビーブーマー
(akachan) is
(bebī shittā/baby sitter), ベ ビ ー フ ー ド
(bebī
(bebī būmā/baby boomer).
62
Baby (n): 1a (1): an extremely young child; especially an infant. 2: an infantile
person.
 カー (kā (n)): Not used independently, instead 車
are used. E.g カーステレオ
(kuruma)and 自動車
(kā sutereo/car stereo), カーラジオ
(jidōsha)
(kā rajio/car
radio).
Car (n): 1: d: automobile.
 アイス (aisu (adj.)): Not used independently except at time as abbreviation of アイ
スクリーム (aisu kurīmu/ice cream). Instead 氷
(kōri/ice) is used. E.g. アイスコー
ヒー (aisu kōhī): iced coffee, アイススケート
(aisu sukēto): ice skating.
Ice (n): 2: a state of coldness (as from formality or reverse). 4a: a frozen dessert
containing a fruit juice or other flavoring, esp: one containing no milk or cream.
Chapter III: Pseudo-anglicisms in Japanese
Compounding
• バージンロード (bājinrōdo): The aisle (in a Western-style or Christian wedding
ceremony, as followed by the bridal procession).
Virgin road (n): Virgin (adj.): 1: free of impurity or stain: unsullied.
Road (n): 2 a: an open way for vehicles, persons, and animals; especially: one lying
outside of an urban district: highway b: roadbed.
 ベ ッ ド タ ウ ン (beddotaun): Bedtown. Bedroom suburbs, bedroom community,
dormitory suburb, commuter town.
Bedtown (n): Town (n): c: a large densely populated urban area: CITY.
Bed (n): 4: layer, stratum.
• デリバリーヘルス (deribarīherusu): A form of prostitution, essentially a call girl or
escort service.
Delivery Health (n): Health (n): 1a: the condition of being sound in body, mind, or
spirit; especially: freedom from physical disease or pain.
Delivery (n): The act or manner of delivering something; also: something delivered.
63
• ドクターストップ (dokutāsutoppu): Order given by the physician to the patient to
discontinue treatment.
Doctor Stop (v): Doctor (n): 2a: one skilled or specialized in healing arts;
especially: a physician, surgeon, dentist, or veterinarian licensed to practice his
profession. b: medicine man.
Stop (v): Transitive verb. 4 a: to cause to cease: check, suppress b: discontinue. 6
a: to arrest the progress or motion of: cause to halt (stopped the car).
• ファッションヘルス (fasshonherusu): A form of Japanese brothel.
Fashion health (n): Fashion (n): 3 a: a prevailing custom, usage, or style.
Health (n): See above.
• インキー (inkī) : To lock one's car keys inside of one's car.
In key (v): In (prep.): 1 a: used as a function word to indicate inclusion, location, or
position within limits (in the lake) (wounded in the leg) (in the summer) .
Key (n): 1 a: a usually metal instrument by which the bolt of a lock is turned.
• ニューハーフ (nyūhāfu): A man who has undergone a sex change operation.
New half (n): New (adj.): 1: having recently come into existence: recent, modern.
Half (n): 1 a: either of two equal parts that compose something; also: a part
approximately equal to one of these (half the distance) (the larger half of the fortune).
• ポケベル
(pokeberu): Beeper, pager.
Pocket bell (n): Pocket (n): 1 a: a small bag carried by a person: purse.
Bell (n): 1 a: a hollow metallic device that gives off a reverberating sound when
struck.
• ドライブイン (doraibuin): Rest area, motor lodge.
Driver inn (n): Inn (n): 1 a: an establishment for the lodging and entertaining of
travelers
Driver (n): one that drives: as b : the operator of a motor vehicle.
• オンリーワン (onrīwan):
One of a kind or unique; e.g., オンリーワン技術
(~gijutsu: only one technology) or オンリーワン商品 (~shōhin: "only one products")
meaning one of a kind technology or products.
Only one (adj.): Only (adj.): 1: unquestionably the best: peerless.
64
One (adj.): 2 b: being preeminently. What is indicated (one fine person).
Affixation
• バリアフリー (bariafurī): Accessible facilities for handicapped persons.
Barrier free (n): -free (suffix): Without.
Barrier (n): 1 a: something material that blocks or is intended to block passage
(highway barriers) (a barrier contraceptive).
•フリーダイヤル (furīdaiyaru): A call that is toll free, meaning the person does not
have to pay for phoning.
Dial free (n): Dial (n): 4 b: a device that may be operated to make electrical
connections or to regulate the operation of a machine (a radio dial, a telephone dial).
-free (suffix): see above.
• フリーサイズ (furīsaizu): One-size-fits-all.
Free size (n): Size (n): 4: one of a series of graduated measures especially of
manufactured articles (as of clothing) conventionally identified by numbers or letters
(a size seven hat).
-free (suffix): see above.
 ポエマー (poemā): A poet.
Poemer (n): -er (suffix): 1 a: person occupationally connected with (furrier)
(lawyer).
Poem (n): 1: a composition in verse.
Clipping
 アニメ (anime): (anima (tion)): animation, animated cartoons/films. Note: although
anime has been reimported into English with a meaning of "Japanese animation",
in Japanese the term refers generically to all animation.
Anime (n): A style of animation originating in Japan that is characterized by stark
colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in action-filled plots often with fantastic
or futuristic themes.
65
• ノート (nōto): A notebook (It is used with this meaning in the title of the manga
series Death Note).
Notebook (n): 1: a book for notes or memoranda.
Parasynthesis
 ロ リ コ ン (rorikon): Loli(ta)+Com(plex). Sexual attraction to fictional and real
underage girls, or pedophilia. (Imported into English to refer a genre of mangastyle sexual artwork involving childlike female characters).
Lolita (n): A precociously seductive girl.
Complex (n): 2 d: the sum of factors (as symptoms) characterizing a disease or
condition.
• ファミコン
(famikon, famicom (n)): Fami(ly)+Com(puter). The Nintendo
Entertainment System.
Computer (n): One that computes; specifically: a programmable usually
electronic device that can store, retrieve, and process data.
Family (n): 1: a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one
head: household.
• ロ ン パ リ (ronpari (n)): Lon(don) + Paris. Slang for Strabismus (cross-eyed,
wandering eye), derived from the image of one eye looking toward London, and
the other eye looking toward Paris.
Antonomasia
 バイキング (baikingu): Smorgasbord, buffet. It is said that this originated from the
Imperial Hotel naming a smorgasbord after the 1958 American film The Vikings.
Viking (n): 2: Scandinavian.
 ホッチキス (hotchikisu): A stapler. It is named after a generalized trademark of
the E. H. Hotchkiss Company, also used in Korea).
66
 マジックインキ (majikkuinki): It is any kind of marker. Magic Ink is a registered
trademark of Uchida Yoko Co., Ltd.
 シャープペンシル
(shāpupenshiru): Mechanical pencil. (Sha (rp) + pen (cil). It
refers to Sharp Corporation, a manufacturer of mechanical pencils.
Polysememy
• ブレザー (burezā): Blazer, or Japanese school uniform that includes that garment.
It usually has buttons down the front and a vest under it with a white collared shirt.
Blazer (n): 1: one that blazes. 2: a sports jacket often with notched collar and
patch pockets.
• エール (ēru): (1): To cheer on a player in a sports competition; (2) To express
support for a candidate in an election.
Yell (v): 2: to give a cheer usually in unison.
• フライングスタート (furaingusutāto): Premature start. Breakaway.
Flying start (n): 1: a start in racing in which the participants are already moving
when they cross the starting line or receive the starting signal.
• ガードマン (gādoman): A (private) security guard. A person who directs traffic in
work sites.
Guard (n): 1: one assigned to protect or oversee another: as a: a person or a body
of persons on sentinel duty.
• ギャラリー (gyararī): An art gallery audience. A pool of celebrities in a program.
Gallery (n): 4 a: a room or building devoted to the exhibition of works of art b: an
institution or business exhibiting or dealing in works of art c: collection, aggregation
(the rich gallery of characters in this novel — H. S. Canby). b: the part of a theater
audience seated in the top gallery c: the undiscriminating general public.
• ハンドル (handoru): Any kind of handle, but specifically a steering wheel.
Handle (n): 1: a part that is designed especially to be grasped by the hand.
• ジュース (jūsu): Often used to refer to soda or energy drinks, regardless of
whether they contain any juice.
67
Juice (n): 2 a: b: the liquid or moisture contained in something.
• リベンジ (ribenji): Return match, rematch; chance for redemption after a failed
attempt.
Revenge (n): 3: an opportunity for getting satisfaction (sought revenge through a
rematch).
 サービス (sābisu): Service: Often used to describe something as being free of
charge.
Service (adj.): 2: used in serving or supplying (delivery men use the service
entrance).
• サイダー (saidā): A kind of soda having or not cider.
Cider (n): 1: fermented apple juice often made sparkling by carbonation or
fermentation in a sealed container.
 セレブ (serebu): Used to refer to a rich person, whether or not they are famous.
Celebrity (n): 2: a famous or celebrated person.
• バッティング (battingu): Swing the bat in baseball; or, to project forward or
propose competitively on business or others by two or more parties, like "butt
heads" by animals.
Batting (v): 1: to strike or hit with or as if with a bat.
• マニア (mania): Mental problems, but also enthusiast.
Mania (n): 1: excitement manifested by mental and physical hyperactivity,
disorganization of behavior, and elevation of mood; specifically: the manic phase of
bipolar disorder.
• ムーディ (mūdi): Depressive, but commonly used as nice.
Moody (adj.): 1: subject to depression: gloomy.
 センス (sensu): Sense is used as in English, but when regarding films means
understanding of subtleties.
Sense (n): 6 a: capacity for effective application of the powers of the mind as a
basis for action or response: INTELLIGENCE b: sound mental capacity and
understanding typically marked by shrewdness and practicality; also: agreement
with or satisfaction of such power (this decision makes sense).
68
Metonymy
• ブ ラ セ ラ / ブ ル セ ラ (burasera or burusera): Panty fetishism, especially with
teenage girls wearing school outfits ("sailor suits") and bloomers.
Bloomer (n): b: underpants of similar design worn chiefly by girls and women.
• デスク (desuku): An editor for a certain section of a publication, derived from the
English custom of calling the job a desk, as in "the sports desk".
Desk (n): c: a table, counter, stand, or booth at which a person works.
• フロント (furonto): The front desk at a hotel.
Front (n): 3: a side of a building; especially: the side that contains the principal
entrance.
Desk (n): see above.
• ハイカラ (haikara): In 1920s Japanese slang, "haikara" referred to a person who
was a slave to Western fashions, trends and values because of the use of highcollar outfits.
Collar (n): 1: a band, strip, or chain worn around the neck: as a: a band that
serves to finish or decorate the neckline of a garment.
 タレント
(tarento): A TV personality/celebrity.
Talent (n): 4 a: a special often creative or artistic aptitude b: general intelligence or
mental power: ability.
• ウインカー (uinkā): Turn signal, blinker on an automobile.
Winker (n): 1: one that winks.
Metaphor
 ファイト(faito (interjection)): An interjection often used to mean "Do your best!"
or "I'll do my best."
Fight (v): 2: to put forth a determined effort.
 スケレトン (sukeruton): Translucent.
Skeleton (adj.): Of, consisting of, or resembling a skeleton.
69
Chapter IV: Japan: Some Aspects about the Culture and Society. Influence in
the Creation of “English-Made-In-Japan” Words and the Linguistic Importation
Examples
 コギャル (kogyaru)
“コギャルがあざ笑う戦後教育
コギャルという言葉が一般に使われ始めたのは 94 年のことである。女子高生の姿
を写した前後数年の写真を比べてみれば、この年にミニスカに象徴される コギャ
ルファッションが現れたことがわかる。”
―The Postwar Period Ridiculed by Kogals
The general use of the word kogal began in 1994. If we observe the pictures of
some years ago in which the appearance of female high-school students was
portrayed, then we can understand nowadays how the kogal fashion, that turned
miniskirts into a symbol, came up.‖
Source: homepage1.nifty.com/1010/cogal.htm
 コスプレ (kosupure)
“コスプレコスプレ Cure
世界最大枚数のコスプレ画像が見られるコスプレコミュニティサイト。無料で簡
単コスプレイヤー登録…”
Cosplay Cure
―Cosplay Community Website, where you can find the world‘s greatest collection
of Cosplay images. Free and easy cosplayer registration…‖
Source: ja.curecos.com
 サラリーマン (sararīman)
“サラリーマンの約４人に１人が制汗剤を使用
70
制汗剤「デオナチュレ」を発売するシービックが、電車通勤の３０−４０代独身サ
ラリーマン１００人にアンケート調査を行ったところ、７割の人が体臭や汗の臭
いを気にしており、６割が３０代から臭いがオヤジ臭に変わったと回答している。
同調査によると、現在、サラリーマンの約４人に１人が制汗剤を使用していると
いう。”
―Approximately 1 Out of 4 Sararīman Use Deodorant
Deodorant-selling Civic has just carried out a survey to 100 single sararīman, age
30-40, who go to work by train. 70% of the surveyed cared about the smell of their
body and sweat; 60% answered that they began to smell like old men when they
got 30 years old. According to the survey, nowadays an approximate of 1 out of 4
sararīman use deodorant.‖
Source: zakzak, 2010.05.18.
 ソープランド(sōpurando)
“ソープランド トゥルース
ソープランド トゥルースグループのオフィシャルサイトです。川崎ソープランド
は 4 店舗・千葉ソープランドは 3 店舗のご紹介をしています。”
―Soapland Truth
Soapland Truth Group Official Site. We are presenting 4 Soapland clubs in
Kawasaki and 3 in Chiba.‖
Source: www.truthg.com
 タレント
(tarento)
“タレントのはるな愛（３７）が１４日、大阪・北区のグランキューブ大阪で、
日本赤十字社主催の献血推進啓発ライブイベント「ＬＯＶＥ
ｉｎ
Ａｃｔｉｏ
ｎ Ｍｅｅｔｉｎｇ」に出演した。”
“―May 14th, Osaka, Grand Cube of Kitaku, tarento Ai Haruna (37) appeared in the
blood-donation promoting live event ―Love in Action Meeting‖ of the Japan Red
Cross Organization.‖
71
Source: は る な 愛 、 輸 血 で 命 拾 い 「 世 界 一 も 献 血 の お か げ 」 , sanspo.com,
2010.5.15.
 デニル (deniru)
“。。。友達がﾃﾞﾆｰｽﾞで食事(お茶)することを『ﾃﾞﾆる』って言っていたのを思い
出して無性にﾃﾞﾆｰｽﾞに行きたくなりました｡笑『ﾃﾞﾆる』聞いた瞬間いきなりﾛﾊﾞｰﾄ
ﾃﾞﾆｰﾛさんの話かと首を傾げたもんです｡”
―(…)All of the sudden, I desperately wanted to go to Denny‘s because I
remembered my friends calling deniru to going to Denny‘s to have a meal or drink
tea. (laugh) The very moment I heard ―deniru‖ I thought it was all about Robert De
Niro.
Source: geinoublog.jp
 デリバリーヘルス (deribarīherusu)
“全国各地のデリヘル・風俗店を地域とジャンルから簡単サーチ。優良店のみを
掲載してるのでいつでもすぐにデリバリーヘルスを見つけられます。”
―Country-wide delivery (health) and sex-service business easy search by region
and genre. You can always find delivery health (service) immediately since only
excellent brothels are advertised.‖
Source: www.deli-spot.net
 ニューハーフ (nyūhāfu)
1) “タイのニューハーフミスコン、パタヤで水着審査”
―Thailand Miss New Half Contest, Bathing Suit Competition in Pataya‖.
Source: newsclip.be, 2010/5/ 7.
2) “タイのニューハーフコンテスト、最終選考はテレビ生中継”
―Thailand New Half Contest, Live TV Broadcast of Final Selection‖.
Source: newsclip.be, 2010/4/ 28.
72
 ナイター (naitā)
1)
“チバテレビ マリーンズナイター
放送の予定は変更となる場合があります。”
Marines Night Game on Chiba TV
There could be changes in the broadcast program…
Source: www.chiba-tv.com/marines
2) “MBS タイガースナイター
阪神タイガース情報は MBS タイガースナイターで！試合速報も掲載！”
―MBS Tigers Night Game
News about the Hanshin Tigers at MBS Tigers Night Game! Fast Reports!‖
Source: www.mbs.jp/tigers
 ファッションヘルス (fasshonherusu)
“全国ファッションヘルス・デリヘル風俗店一覧。風俗遊びのバイブル。”
―A glance into country-wide Fashion Health and Delivery Health Sex Service.‖
The Bible of Enjoying Sex Service.
Source: www.health-f.com
 バイキング (baikingu)
“ホテルバイキング情報館 | ビュッフェが人気のホテル
全国各地のホテルバイキングの情報を紹介。お気に入りのホテルバイキングを見
つけましょう。”
―The Hotel Buffet Information Center/ Popular Hotel Buffets
We provide information about hotel buffets of any area in the country. Let‘s find
the most popular buffets.
Source: www.ppaapp.com
73
 パチプロ（pachipuro)
1) “世の中には少数ですがパチプロとゆう職業の方がいます。 パチンコだけで
生活している人々です。。。”
―Although they are a minority, there are people whose occupation is being a
pachipro. They live only on pachinko …‖
Source: 食い詰めたパチプロと台を巡る争い, okozukai.moo.jp/kuitume.html
2) “負け続きのパチンコから年収 800 万円のパチプロへ。
パチンコだけで年間 800 万円以上を 7 年間以上稼ぎ続けているノウハウを、圧
お
倒的な証拠とともに ;惜しみなく公開しています。”
―From being a loser to being a pachipro who earns 8 million yens annually at
pachinko
We are fully showing how to earn more than 8 million yens annually for more than
7 years at pachinko along with overwhelming evidence.‖
Source: pp-king.com
 マンション (manshon)
“日本最大のマンション専門掲示板。マンションコミュニティは、新築マンショ
ン購入検討者を応援する口コミ掲示板サイトです。”
―Japan`s greatest bulletin specialized in mansions. Mansion Community ‖ is a
website that supports those considering the purchase of a new mansion.‖
Source: www.e-mansion.co.jp
 ラブホテル (rabuhoteru)
“１８日午前４時３５分ごろ、奈良県香芝市平野良のラブホテル「ホテルアゲハ」
に男２人が押し入り、１階フロアで居合わせた男性従業員（３２）に刃物を突き
つけ、「金を出せ」と脅迫。”
74
―May 18th , about 4:35 am, 2 men broke into Hoteruageha, a love hotel in Nara
Prefecture, and attacked an employee (32) with an sharp object in the first floor,
asking him to give them the money ‖
Source: http//sankei.jp.msn.com
75