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2020/2021

Linguistics of East Asian Languages

Code: 101540 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500244 East Asian Studies OB 3 2
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Makiko Fukuda
Email:
Makiko.Fukuda@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
No
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Other comments on languages

Part of Japan (Makiko Fukuda): Catalan, Part of China (Leonor Sola): Spanish

Teachers

Leonor Sola Comino

Prerequisites

None.

Objectives and Contextualisation

The aim of this subject is to introduce students to fundamental encyclopedic knowledge of issues related to two of the main languages of East Asia, Chinese and Japanese. On successfully completing this subject, students will be able to: 

  • Assimilate and understand the principles that govern language variation in East Asian languages.
  • Identify, analyse, differentiate between, summarise and explain the principles that govern language variation in Chinese and Japanese.
  • Determine the values, beliefs and ideologies expressed in oral and written texts in Chinese and Japanese.
  • Apply linguistic, cultural and thematic knowledge to the analysis and comprehension of written texts in Chinese and Japanese.
  • Apply knowledge of the values, beliefs and ideologies of East Asia to understand and appreciate written texts in Chinese and Japanese.
  • Develop a critical way of thinking and reasoning, and communicate effectively, both in their own languages and a third language.
  • Develop autonomous learning strategies.

Competences

  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Developing self-learning strategies.
  • Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  • Identifying, analysing, differentiating, summarising and explaining the principles of linguistic variation in the languages of East Asia.
  • Knowing and comprehending the principles of the linguistic variation in the languages of East Asia.
  • Working in teams in an international, multilingual and multicultural context.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  2. Developing self-learning strategies.
  3. Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  4. Identifying, analysing, differentiating, summarising and explaining the principles of linguistic variation in the languages of East Asia.
  5. Identifying, differentiating and using the different linguistic genres.
  6. Recognizing the various dialects.
  7. Working in teams in an international, multilingual and multicultural context.

Content

The course is structured in two parts, one on Japan and the other on China.

Japan:

  • History of the formation of the Japanese language
  • Some features of the contemporary Japanese language
  • Languages in Japan
  • Language ideologies of Japan
  • Sociolinguistic issues of the Japanese language
  • Language policies of Japan
  • Language diversity of Japan

China:

  • Diachronic and synchronic view of Chinese writing
  • The origins and evolution of Standard Chinese in the different Chinese communities
  • Introduction to contemporary Standard Chinese
  • The languages of China
  • The current sociolinguistic situation in the different Chinese communities
  • Chinese and scientific and technical progress
  • Our interactions with Chinese
  • Chinese and its linguistic neighbours

 

Methodology

The course consists of two parts, one on Japan and the other on China, with 13 sessions each (including assessment), plus a final session for an overall assessment of all the subject’s content. 

Training activities are divided into directed, supervised, autonomous and assessment activities. In the time spent on directed activities, the lecturers will explain the most important content of each unit, based on reading materials previously recommended to students. This will be the ideal time to clarify any general doubts.

Activities

Learning activities are organised into three categories based on the degree of student autonomy involved:

-  Directed activities: carried out according to a set timetable and in the presence of a lecturer (lectures, critical discussions on reading materials, debates on the issues examined in class). 

-  Supervised activities: carried out under the supervision of a lecturer or tutor (recommended readings, critical discussions on reading materials, debates on the issues examined in class). 

-  Autonomous activities: carried out by students without supervision, requiring them to organise their own time and work, either in groups or individually (preparing new materials, reviewing previous materials, reading recommended texts).

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Critical discourse analysis 4 0.16 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3
In-class debate 3 0.12 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3
Magistral lessons 45.5 1.82 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3
Type: Supervised      
Recommended readings 10.5 0.42 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3
Type: Autonomous      
Preparation of exercises proposed by the lecturers 16 0.64 2, 1, 4, 3
Recommended readings 18 0.72 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3
Reviewing of already taught contents 50 2 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3

Assessment

Assessment will consist of a test with open questions for each part of the subject (each accounting for 30% of the final mark) and a multiple-choice test at the end of the semester, which will include all the content covered (40% of the final mark; this test may not be retaken or compensated for). There is no possibility of a resit where this subject is concerned.  

Related matters 

All information on assessment, assessment activities and their weighting is merely a guide. The subject's lecturer will provide full information when teaching begins. 

Review

When publishing final marks prior to recording them on students' transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews in agreement with the lecturer. 

Missed/failed assessment activities

Students may retake assessment activities they have failed or compensate for any they have missed, provided that those they have actually performed account for a minimum of 66.6% (two thirds) of the subject's final mark and that they have a weighted average mark of at least 3.5. Under no circumstances may an assessment activity worth 100% of the final mark be retaken or compensated for.

The lecturer will inform students of the procedure involved, in writing, when publishing final marks prior to recording them on transcripts. The lecturer may set one assignment per failed or missed assessment activity or a single assignment to cover a number of such activities.

Classification as "not assessable"

In the event of the assessment activities a student has performed accounting for just 25% or less of the subject's final mark, their work will be classified as "not assessable" on their transcript. 

Misconduct in assessment activities

Students who engage in misconduct (plagiarism, copying, personation, etc.) in an assessment activity will receive a mark of “0” for the activity in question. In the case of misconduct in more than one assessment activity, the students involved will be given a final mark of “0” for the subject.

Students may not retake assessment activities in which they are found to have engaged in misconduct. Plagiarism is considered to mean presenting all or part of an author's work, whether published in print or in digital format, as one's own, i.e. without citing it. Copying is considered to mean reproducing all or a substantial part of another student's work. In cases of copying in which it is impossible to determine which of two students has copied the work of the other, both will be penalised.

More information: http://www.uab.cat/web/study-abroad/undergraduate/academic-information/evaluation/what-is-it-about-1345670077352.html

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Final test comprising both parts (Japan and China) 40% 1 0.04 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, 3
Test with open questions about the Chinese part 30% 1 0.04 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3
Test with open questions about the Japanese part 30% 1 0.04 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3

Bibliography

JAPAN

Backhaus, P. (2005): Signs of multilingualism in Tokyo — a diachronic look at the linguistic landscape, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 175/176, pp.103-121.

Beckwith, C.I. (2005): “The Ethnolinguistic History of the Early Korean Peninsula Region: Japanese-Koguryō and other Languages in the koguryō, Paekche, and Sillakingdoms”, Journal of Inner and East Asian Studies, vol.2-2, pp.33-64

Coulmas, F. (1989). The writing systems of the world. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Fukuda, M. (2008). “Colonias japonesas en el extranjero: miniatura de la sociedad japonesa”. INTER ASIA PAPER núm.3. Bellaterra: Institut d’Estudis Internacionals i Interculturals; Grup de recerca INTER-ASIA, Bellaterra: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.     

Goelbel Noguchi, M.; Fotos, S.(eds.)(2001) Studies in Japanese Bilingualism, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Goodman, R. (1993). Japan’s International Youth.The Emrgence of a New Class of Schoolchildren. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Gottlieb, N. (2009). Language and Society in Japan. 3rd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gottlieb, N. (2011): Language Policy in Japan. The Challenge of Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hagerman, C. (2009): “English Language Policy and Practice in Japan”, The Journal of Osaka Jogakuin University, vol.6, 47-64.

Hashimoto, K. (2000).'Internationalisation' is 'Japanisation': Japan's foreign language education and national identity, Journal of Intercultural Studies,21:1, pp.39-51.

Kanno, Y. (2003). Negotiating bilingual and bicultural identities: Japanese returnees betwixt two worlds. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

Lee, Yeounsuk (2009). The ideology of kokugo: nationalizing language in modern Japan. University of Hawaii Press.

Maher, J.; Yashiro, K. (eds) (1995). Multilingual Japan. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Onishi, T. (2009): “Dialectology in the National Institute for Japanese Language”, Dialectologia, 2, 37-50.

Senko K. Maynard (1997) Japanese communication: language and thought in context. Universityof Hawaii Press. 

- More references on specific topics will be provided during the course.

 

CHINA

Abbiati, M. La Lingua Cinese. Venecia: Cafoscarina, 1992. Print.

Bisang, W. "Southeast Asia as a Linguistic Area." Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics. Ed. K. Brown. 2nd ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2006. 587-595. Print.

Casas-Tost, H., and Sara Rovira-Esteva. "Orientalism and Occidentalism: Two Forces Behind the Image of the Chinese Language and Construction of the Modern Standard." Journal of Multicultural Discourses4.2 (2009): 107-21. Print.

 ---. "Orientalismo y Occidentalismo: Dos Fuerzas Subyacentes En La Imagen y La Construcción De La Lengua China." Inter Asia Papers 2 (2008): 1-25. Print.

Casas-Tost, Helena; Rovira-Esteva, Sara (Eds.). 2015. Guia d’estil per al tractament de mots xinesos en català. Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura. Biblioteca tècnica de política lingüística, 2. ISBN: 978-84-393-9241-5. DOI: 10.2436/15.8040.02.1. En línia: http://www.gencat.cat/llengua/BTPL/xines.

Chang, Raymond, and Margaret Scrogin Chang. Speaking of Chinese. A Cultural History of the Chinese Language. New York etc.: W.W. Norton, 2001. Print.

DeFrancis, John. The Chinese Language :Fact and Fantasy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986. Print.

Gao, M. C. F. Mandarin Chinese.an Introduction. Melbourne, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.

García Noblejas, Gabriel. China, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2012.

Gu, Y. "Chinese." Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics. Ed. E. K. Brown. 2nd ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2006. 343-350. Print.

Hannas, W. C. Asia's Orthographic Dilemma. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997. Print.

---. The Writing on the Wall: How Asian Orthography Curbs Creativity. Univ of Pennsylvania Pr, 2003. Print.

Kane, Daniel. The Chinese Language: Its History and CurrentUsage. North Clarendon: Tuttle Publishing, 2006. Print.

Martínez Robles, David. La Lengua China: Historia, Signo y Contexto :Una Aproximación Sociocultural. Barcelona: Editorial UOC, 2007. Print.

Moore, O. Chinese. Univ of California Pr, 2000. Print. 

Norman, Jerry. Chinese. Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Print.

Rovira-Esteva, Sara. "Chinese Linguistics in Spain: Historical and Institutional Review." Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics Online. Brill, En premsa. Print.

---. "La Lingüística no Tiene Quien Le Escriba o 10 Años De Soledad. Condiciones Para La Investigación En Lingüística China En España: Historia Reciente y Perspectivas (Cap. 3)." La Investigación Sobre Asia Pacífico En España. Granada 2006. Ed. Pedro San Ginés. Colección Española de Investigación sobre Asia Pacífico (CEIAP), 1 ed. Granada: Editorial de Granada, 2007. 55-75. Print.

Rovira-Esteva, Sara. 2010. Lengua y escritura chinas: Mitos y realidades. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra.  

- More references on specific topics will be provided during the course.