Masayuki Onishi - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Uploads

South Asia by Masayuki Onishi

Research paper thumbnail of Expressive Lexicography: Creating a Dictionary of Expressives in the South Asian Linguistic Area

Indian Linguistics, 2021

In this paper we reflect upon the process of producing a dictionary of expressives in Mundari, an... more In this paper we reflect upon the process of producing a dictionary of expressives in Mundari, an Austroasiatic language spoken in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha, in eastern India, by approximately 1,530,000 people. We explore some methodological challenges faced in the study of expressives, as well as approaches taken in this long-term study of Mundari, including elicitation, discussion, performance, text analysis and participant observation. The study of expressives is gaining momentum in the region, yet efforts to create dictionaries of this important class of words are still few. We argue that field-based, multidisciplinary studies that draw on the insights of native speakers on the use of expressives in society are critical in this endeavour. This is crucial because semantically, there is a great, inherent tension between the desire to capture the depth of an expressive's complex meaning and the necessity of managing an inevitable process of standardization. The challenges and risks of 'taming' of expressive meaning require solid ethnographic grounding. Dictionaries of expressives will thus resemble encyclopedias in that they present a linguistic cosmology, with all the social relationships, ecological entanglements, moral statements and ethnic representations they embody.

Papers by Masayuki Onishi

Research paper thumbnail of A grammar of Motuna (Bougainville, Papua New Guinea)

This thesis is a descriptive grammar of Motuna, a Non-Austronesian language spoken by several tho... more This thesis is a descriptive grammar of Motuna, a Non-Austronesian language spoken by several thousand people in the south-western part of Bougainville (called Siwai), Papua New Guinea. It belongs to the Buin Family of the Eastern Bougainville stock, in the Bougainville Phylum. This grammar is based on the analysis of narrative texts provided by four speakers of the standard Motuna. Motuna is a both head and dependent marking agglutinative language with complex morphology. Like most Non-Austronesian languages in Papua NewGuinea, it is verb final, and has medial and non-medial verbal categories. In addition, verbs have basic voice distinction between active and middle voices, and have extensive tense/aspect/mood categories. Nouns have six genders and are also classified by fifty-one classifiers. Chapter 1 discusses the typological characteristics, as well as the genetic relations and dialectal variations of Motuna. It also briefly summarises previous work done on this language, and provides the scope and data base of this thesis. Chapter 2 deals with phonetics, phonology and orthography. It includes an introduction to morphophonemics which will be discussed fully in later chapters, particularly in Chapter 4 (nouns), Chapter 8 (classifiers, numerals and the 'all' quantifier), and Chapter 13 (verbal morphology). Chapter 3 outlines the word-classes and the clausal syntax of this language. Chapters 4 -9 deal with the mopho-syntax of all the word classes except for verbs, participles and verbal nouns. Chapter 10 discusses the internal structure of the NP, and Chapter 11 possessive, kinship and other constructions. Chapter 12 outlines the morpho-syntax of verbs. I give a gist of verbal morphology in this chapter, so that readers may skip Chapter 13 which is a lengthy discussion of complicated verbal morphology. Chapter 14 discusses valency of verbs including valency-changing derivations (stimulative, causative, applicative and reciprocal). Chapter 15 deals with tense/aspect/mood. Chapter 16 deals with two word classes derived from verbs .,.--verbal nouns and participles. Chapter 17 discusses the interclausal relations in Motuna, mainly chaining of medial verbs and relative clauses. Finally, three narative texts of this language are provided in Appendix.

Research paper thumbnail of 14 Semantic Primitives in Japanese

Studies in Language Companion Series, 1994

Research paper thumbnail of Multi-lineages of Shiikuwasha (Citrus depressa Hayata) evaluated by using whole chloroplast genome sequences and its bio-diversity in Okinawa, Japan

Breeding Science, 2016

Shiikuwasha (Citrus depressa Hayata) is distributed from the Southwest of the Japanese archipelag... more Shiikuwasha (Citrus depressa Hayata) is distributed from the Southwest of the Japanese archipelago to Taiwan. In this study, re-sequencing against the orange (C. sinensis (L.) Osbeck) chloroplast genome was applied to one superior landrace of Shiikuwasha cultivated in Oku ward, Okinawa, Japan. The chloroplast genome of the landrace was estimated to comprise 160,118 bp, including 48 indels and 71 nucleotide substitutions against the reference genome. The presumptive chloroplast indels were confirmed by subsequent experiments, and these identified multiple maternal lineages among other landraces. Some of the orange SSR markers were available for genotyping of other superior landraces and were able to distinguish among them. These molecular markers were then applied for evaluation of genetic diversity among wild and cultivated Shiikuwasha accessions. Except for Oku ward, the cultivated populations were found to have lost their genetic diversity in comparison with wild populations. Groves in Oku ward maintained, or showed even higher genetic diversity than wild accessions in the surrounding areas by the force of villagers.

Research paper thumbnail of Non-canonical Marking of Subjects and Objects

Typological Studies in Language, 2001

Page 1. NON-CANONICAL ARKING OF SUBJECT AND OBJECTS Edited by ALEXANDRA Y, AIKHENVALD R, M, W, DI... more Page 1. NON-CANONICAL ARKING OF SUBJECT AND OBJECTS Edited by ALEXANDRA Y, AIKHENVALD R, M, W, DIXON MASAYUKI ONISHI JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY Page 2. r Page 3. NON-CANONICAL ...

Research paper thumbnail of The grammar of mental predicates in Japanese

Language Sciences, 1997

Abstract The current NSM theory regards six mental predicates— think, know, want, see, hear and f... more Abstract The current NSM theory regards six mental predicates— think, know, want, see, hear and feel —as indefinable semantic universals. This paper examines the syntax of their Japanese exponents (omou, sit-te iru, -tai/hosii, miru, kiku and kimoti). Special attention is paid to the syntax and semantics of major complementation types (S no, S koto and S to) found with the majority of these predicates. It is shown that each primitive predicate has a specific set of syntactic frames in which the primitive meaning is expressed, and that the extended meanings which may be expressed in other syntactic environments are specifiable by reductive paraphrase explications.

Research paper thumbnail of Expressive Lexicography: Creating a Dictionary of Expressives in the South Asian Linguistic Area

Indian Linguistics, 2021

In this paper we reflect upon the process of producing a dictionary of expressives in Mundari, an... more In this paper we reflect upon the process of producing a dictionary of expressives in Mundari, an Austroasiatic language spoken in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha, in eastern India, by approximately 1,530,000 people. We explore some methodological challenges faced in the study of expressives, as well as approaches taken in this long-term study of Mundari, including elicitation, discussion, performance, text analysis and participant observation. The study of expressives is gaining momentum in the region, yet efforts to create dictionaries of this important class of words are still few. We argue that field-based, multidisciplinary studies that draw on the insights of native speakers on the use of expressives in society are critical in this endeavour. This is crucial because semantically, there is a great, inherent tension between the desire to capture the depth of an expressive's complex meaning and the necessity of managing an inevitable process of standardization. The challenges and risks of 'taming' of expressive meaning require solid ethnographic grounding. Dictionaries of expressives will thus resemble encyclopedias in that they present a linguistic cosmology, with all the social relationships, ecological entanglements, moral statements and ethnic representations they embody.

Research paper thumbnail of A grammar of Motuna (Bougainville, Papua New Guinea)

This thesis is a descriptive grammar of Motuna, a Non-Austronesian language spoken by several tho... more This thesis is a descriptive grammar of Motuna, a Non-Austronesian language spoken by several thousand people in the south-western part of Bougainville (called Siwai), Papua New Guinea. It belongs to the Buin Family of the Eastern Bougainville stock, in the Bougainville Phylum. This grammar is based on the analysis of narrative texts provided by four speakers of the standard Motuna. Motuna is a both head and dependent marking agglutinative language with complex morphology. Like most Non-Austronesian languages in Papua NewGuinea, it is verb final, and has medial and non-medial verbal categories. In addition, verbs have basic voice distinction between active and middle voices, and have extensive tense/aspect/mood categories. Nouns have six genders and are also classified by fifty-one classifiers. Chapter 1 discusses the typological characteristics, as well as the genetic relations and dialectal variations of Motuna. It also briefly summarises previous work done on this language, and provides the scope and data base of this thesis. Chapter 2 deals with phonetics, phonology and orthography. It includes an introduction to morphophonemics which will be discussed fully in later chapters, particularly in Chapter 4 (nouns), Chapter 8 (classifiers, numerals and the 'all' quantifier), and Chapter 13 (verbal morphology). Chapter 3 outlines the word-classes and the clausal syntax of this language. Chapters 4 -9 deal with the mopho-syntax of all the word classes except for verbs, participles and verbal nouns. Chapter 10 discusses the internal structure of the NP, and Chapter 11 possessive, kinship and other constructions. Chapter 12 outlines the morpho-syntax of verbs. I give a gist of verbal morphology in this chapter, so that readers may skip Chapter 13 which is a lengthy discussion of complicated verbal morphology. Chapter 14 discusses valency of verbs including valency-changing derivations (stimulative, causative, applicative and reciprocal). Chapter 15 deals with tense/aspect/mood. Chapter 16 deals with two word classes derived from verbs .,.--verbal nouns and participles. Chapter 17 discusses the interclausal relations in Motuna, mainly chaining of medial verbs and relative clauses. Finally, three narative texts of this language are provided in Appendix.

Research paper thumbnail of 14 Semantic Primitives in Japanese

Studies in Language Companion Series, 1994

Research paper thumbnail of Multi-lineages of Shiikuwasha (Citrus depressa Hayata) evaluated by using whole chloroplast genome sequences and its bio-diversity in Okinawa, Japan

Breeding Science, 2016

Shiikuwasha (Citrus depressa Hayata) is distributed from the Southwest of the Japanese archipelag... more Shiikuwasha (Citrus depressa Hayata) is distributed from the Southwest of the Japanese archipelago to Taiwan. In this study, re-sequencing against the orange (C. sinensis (L.) Osbeck) chloroplast genome was applied to one superior landrace of Shiikuwasha cultivated in Oku ward, Okinawa, Japan. The chloroplast genome of the landrace was estimated to comprise 160,118 bp, including 48 indels and 71 nucleotide substitutions against the reference genome. The presumptive chloroplast indels were confirmed by subsequent experiments, and these identified multiple maternal lineages among other landraces. Some of the orange SSR markers were available for genotyping of other superior landraces and were able to distinguish among them. These molecular markers were then applied for evaluation of genetic diversity among wild and cultivated Shiikuwasha accessions. Except for Oku ward, the cultivated populations were found to have lost their genetic diversity in comparison with wild populations. Groves in Oku ward maintained, or showed even higher genetic diversity than wild accessions in the surrounding areas by the force of villagers.

Research paper thumbnail of Non-canonical Marking of Subjects and Objects

Typological Studies in Language, 2001

Page 1. NON-CANONICAL ARKING OF SUBJECT AND OBJECTS Edited by ALEXANDRA Y, AIKHENVALD R, M, W, DI... more Page 1. NON-CANONICAL ARKING OF SUBJECT AND OBJECTS Edited by ALEXANDRA Y, AIKHENVALD R, M, W, DIXON MASAYUKI ONISHI JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY Page 2. r Page 3. NON-CANONICAL ...

Research paper thumbnail of The grammar of mental predicates in Japanese

Language Sciences, 1997

Abstract The current NSM theory regards six mental predicates— think, know, want, see, hear and f... more Abstract The current NSM theory regards six mental predicates— think, know, want, see, hear and feel —as indefinable semantic universals. This paper examines the syntax of their Japanese exponents (omou, sit-te iru, -tai/hosii, miru, kiku and kimoti). Special attention is paid to the syntax and semantics of major complementation types (S no, S koto and S to) found with the majority of these predicates. It is shown that each primitive predicate has a specific set of syntactic frames in which the primitive meaning is expressed, and that the extended meanings which may be expressed in other syntactic environments are specifiable by reductive paraphrase explications.