This paper examines the Japanese word kawaii. Japanese women frequently use kawaii to express positive feelings towards objects or people. Scholars suggest that Japanese women are making kawaii a part of their gender identity. From a linguistic perspective, kawaii is not lexicalised in other languages. Although the kawaii phenomenon has been thoroughly examined, there has been no rigorous semantic analysis. In this study, the framework of the natural semantic metalanguage approach was applied to explicate the meaning of kawaii. The analysis indicates that the core meaning of kawaii is explained as ‘when people see this thing, they can’t not feel something very good, like people often can’t not feel something very good when they see a small child’. The kawaii syndrome reveals a Japanese cultural characteristic that puts emphasis on being ‘gender appropriate’ in society. The analysis has implications for understanding gender construction and expression in non-Western cultures.

This paper presents an analysis of three Japanese words —ne,yone, anddaroo. These three expressions are often interpreted as tag questions in English. Although these words are semantically closely related, they are not always interchangeable. The subtle differences between them are difficult to grasp, especially for language learners. Numerous studies have been undertaken in order to clarify the meanings ofne,yone, anddaroo. However, opinions vary among different scholars, and definitions for these markers are not fully established. This paper applies the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach. It proposes new explications in terms of semantic primes. The proposed semantic formulae clarify the differences between the three expressions and serve as practical tools: Tools which indicate criteria that can assist in choosing an appropriate word for a given situation.

This paper investigates the semantics of three Japanese evidential markers -rashii, yooda and sooda. These three words are often used in similar situations and interpreted in English as 'it seems' , 'it appears' , or 'it looks like' . The expressions are semantically closely related, but sometimes they are not interchangeable. Thus the question arises how to articulate the subtle differences between them. Previous studies have attempted to explicate the differences by using explanatory terms such as 'direct' or 'indirect' to describe the content of information, and 'objective' or 'subjective' to describe the attitude towards the information. While these terms are convenient to capture the meaning simplistically, they illustrate only part of the words' usage, and also the definitions apply equally well to other evidential markers. This study is the first explication of the meanings of these markers using metalanguage and the framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage Theory (NSM Theory) proposed and developed by Anna Wierzbicka and colleagues (Goddard & Wierzbicka 1994, 2002 Peeters ed. 2006; Goddard ed. 2008). By analyzing the deficiencies of the previously presented definitions, and examining actual usage examples drawn from modern Japanese literature, the article applies semantic primes to explicate the meanings of rashii, yooda and sooda. The meanings of each expression are illustrated by cognitive scenarios such as 'I think I can say something like this about X' , or 'I think this about X at the moment' . The resulting semantic formulae clarify the differences between the three expressions. They also have utility for assisting second language learners in decisions about using the three terms.

This paper presents a contrastive semantic analysis of the English nostalgia, the Italian nostalgìa and the Japanese natsukashii adopting the methodology of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. It is argued that: (i) emotion terms of different languages reflect different and culture-specific conceptualisations of human feelings; (ii) the Anglo conceptualisation of feelings is not valid for all cultures; (iii) linguistic analysis is central to the analysis of human feelings. The paper challenges the claim made by some psychologists that the English word nostalgia expresses a feeling which is “pancultural” and criticizes the use of English emotion terms as the basis for discussions on human feelings.

This paper examines six Japanese psychomimes —zuki-zuki, kiri-kiri, shiku-shiku, chiku-chiku, hiri-hiri, andgan-gan— that express subtle differences in states or sensations regarding “pain”. It is generally recognized, however, that many languages lack words with the same meanings as these Japanese psychomimes and that their meanings are difficult to capture precisely. The definitions in Japanese-English dictionaries, for example, are not sufficient to explain the exact meanings and there is also the problem that each Japanese expression can correspond to several English verbs. This study applies the framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach to explicate the meaning of the six Japanese psychomimes. It makes reference to a corpus of naturally-occurring examples compiled from publicly available sources from physicians, patients, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies. The analysis indicates that each psychomime conveys a vivid metaphorical meaning. The quality of the pain is suggested by reference to an imagined scenario of something moving inside a part of the body or touching part of the body. This imagined ‘something’ can be understood as something ‘sharp’ or as something similar to ‘fire’ or to ‘metal’. The use of psychomimes is an effective and efficient way for expressing and understanding “pain” in Japanese.