Cosmology of Japanese Culture and Language: A Survey into the Culture Character-Defining Function of Onomatopoeia Words in Japanese

Authors:

Pages: 201-207
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/TKGA7773

Abstract:

This work focuses on the task of demythologizing the established definition of the Japanese culture as “unique”. It analyzes the phenomena found in various fields of Japanese culture, which define its nature. These phenomena can be called by different terms: loci of saturated imagery, imagistic cores, carriers of imagery, loci with an increased image charge, etc. Generally speaking, they are focal points of pictorial intensity. They are small in volume, but once perceived, unfold and present a grand vision to the human imagination. They are powerful stimulators of the imagination that abound in various manifestations of Japan’s culture – both in contemporary life and in the traditional cultural forms of poetry, theater, aroma ceremonies, and music. In Japanese language such imagistic elements are the onomatopoeic words. Relying on the physical-motor information (a consequence of their production in the oral cavity) and the memory and imagination of the listener, who has repeatedly heard and used them in certain situations, the imitative words are not just pure lexical units, but sensory words, referring to auditory, visual, and tactile perceptions that reinforce one’s lexical memory and in the same time imbuing it with a sensory element and animating the situation the word describes.

Keywords:

Japanese culture; specificity; imagistic elements; Japanese language; onomatopoeia; imagery; sensory words; Bulgarian language.

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