Guest Lecture by Noriyuki Ishibashi

‘The Meaning and Usage of the Modifying Clause (Noun Clause) with the Nouns, ことkoto’ and ‘のno’. － The meaning of nouns and their function in sentences’. (in Japanese & handout in English)

Followed by Q& A (in both English & Japanese) and refreshment.

4.00 p.m. Friday 23 February (week 6) Basement Teaching Room One, 1 Pusey Lane, OX1 2LE

Admission free. All Welcome! Please contact: hiroe.kaji@ames.ox.ac.uk

The Lecture Nouns “koto” and “no” are frequently used in Japanese sentences as noun clause to express action or factual recognition, and have a wide range of expressive uses, such as so called “~no-da” sentences or main element of the sentence, such as subject, object, or complement. In order to understand it, we will discuss 1. the syntactics and expressive use of the coordinating clause, which is the prerequisite for this, 2. the formation of the nouns “koto” and “no” and the evolution of their meanings, and based on this knowledge, 3. we will examine the mistakes that non-native speakers are likely to make analysing the misuse in composition and other examples.

Noriyuki Ishibashi is a linguist and freelance Japanese language 　　　teacher. After having studied Japanese literature at the University of Osaka, he trained in Japan and the UK to be a teacher of Japanese as a foreign language. He has published several articles and given numerous presentations on Japanese linguistics, particularly about noun clauses and substantives. He is also the head of one of the special interest groups (SIG), Study of Nouns in Japanese, of the British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language.