『デジタル大辞泉』掲載の「日本」を含む複合語の特徴

Abstract

The word “日本” can be read in two ways: “Nihon” and “Nippon.” This study not only analyzes the connotation, but also the characteristics of both “Nihon” and “Nippon” from extracting headwords including the word “日本” in “Digital Daijisen” provided by Shogakukan. From the 482 headwords including the word “日本,” 84.4% are read as “Nihon,” 13.3% as “Nippon,” and 2.3% as both “Nihon” and “Nippon.” Amongst the headwords read as “Nihon” and “Nippon,” the majority of the word composition lists “日本” in the front making up 70% and only 5% in the back of the word. Based on categorization of the headwords, the percentage from the top lists in the order of organization, book, geological name, standard, university, and tradition. Words categorized into standard, tradition, organism, Japanese language, Christianity, and Japanese-made products are represented solely using “Nihon” which distincts the characteristics of the usage of “Nihon.” Contrastingly, all postal-related headwords uses “Nippon,” as well as 90% of bank-related words. Judging from the fact that only 13.3% of the headwords are listed as “Nippon” in the dictionary mentioned above, it is possible to say that postal and bank-related words are the characteristics of the usage of “Nippon.” Next, looking at the word structure of each headword, “Nihon” was used in the front of the words in the following categories: university names, words that express Japanese native and distinctive traditional culture, animals designated as Japanese National Monument, and Japanese indigenous organism species; “Nihon” was used in the middle of the words in book names starting with “大日本,” historical and geographical books, dictionaries and encyclopedias, and book names on regions in Japan including the region name; “Nihon” was used in the ending of the words in words representing the region and the regional characteristics. Meanwhile, looking at the usage of “Nippon,” it was used in the front of the headword in banks and post offices established before and after the World War II; in the middle in words including “大日本帝国”; and in the ending in political party names formed after 2005. Lastly, for compound words represented as both “Nihon” and “Nippon,” the word is located in the front when it is used with words expressing supremacy; in the ending when it is used with words to express the four cardinal points of Japan; and no examples of “日本” used in the middle. In conclusion, compound words pronounced as “Nihon” are not swayed by the time period and are related to Japanese traditional culture, indigenous organisms, and selected books, while words pronounced as “Nippon” are often used to describe the Great Japan and political parties, as a means of support for nationalism during the wartime, economic recession, and earthquake disaster.