The Function of English Loanwords in Japanese

Abstract

This paper examines the functions played by English loanwords in Japanese. It is shown that English loanwords have a role that extends far beyond the simple filling of lexical-gaps. Indeed, loanwords frequently take the place of an existing native equivalent where they perform a variety of “special effect” functions. In addition, English loanwords may be employed for euphemistic effect when a native equivalent is considered too direct. Drawing largely on examples of loanword use from advertising, this study considers the role English loanwords play as lexical gap fillers, special effect givers, and euphemisms.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 24 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.