The Japanese Language by Haruhiko Kindaichi (Review)

First published in 1957 to address contemporary controversies and myths about Japanese to an educated audience of native speakers, this translation of Haruhiko Kindaichi's Nippongo provides a broad linguistic sketch of the language as it was understood in the post-war period.

Good for: Advanced students of Japanese language or literature; those interested in the approach of traditional Japanese grammar.

Not so good for: Beginning students; structuralist grammar types; those more interested in Japanese culture than language.

Verdict: If one looks past the outdated, Whorfian section on vocabulary and the author's sense of Japanese exceptionalism, this is a lucid explanation of the Japanese language, its varieties and how traditional grammarians have thought about some of the language's most vexing mysteries.

The Japanese Language does something that is difficult to do with a book about language, striking the right balance between technical details and insightful generalities. It starts out on a high note, with several chapters exploring the relationship between Japanese and other languages in Asia. This is followed by a sociolinguistic profile examining differences in spoken Japanese on the basis of sex, status and occupation.  Given the lack of information on social variation in most reference grammars, this section is particularly interesting.

If there is one section where this book starts to show its age, however, it is the discussion of vocabulary. Filled with the sort of unsubtle language = culture conclusions that were popular around this time (think Whorf and company), the middle third of the book is pretty useless.  Especially if you're don't believe that the number of words for "rain" tells us anything about the "Japanese national character" or "Oriental ways of thinking."

The final third of the book, the section on phrase and sentence formation, redeems itself, although I suspect it would be more useful to others. Throughout the book, Kindaichi provides examples from famous Japanese poems, haiku and novels. Although the translator provides romanji and translations, the lack of context (and more precise glosses) makes it difficult for those not fluent in Japanese.

In the end, The Japanese Language is a bit of a mixed bag. It is definitely a product of its time and place, and more recent linguistic research has superseded some of Kindaichi claims (the Forward, it should be noted, does a good job pointing out where the text and modern linguistics disagree). At the same time, modern linguistics uses different logical tools than those used by Kindaichi and his contemporaries. Their insights provide a different perspective on such problems as the topic/subject distinction and the use of the genitive particle "no." Those with a syntactic mind might find valuable insight here.