昭和年間に生まれた新語・流行語に関する考察

Abstract

This study investigates 812 new words and popular terms that emerged during the Showa era, analyzing their distribution by parts of speech, word types, semantic fields, and retention in modern times. Firstly, in terms of parts of speech, nouns accounted for 73.5%, followed by phrases and sentences at 20.8%, with only a small percentage represented by adverbs, verbs, adjectives, adjectival verbs, and interjections. Secondly, regarding word-type distribution, Sino-Japanese words (words of Chinese origin) were the most prevalent, making up 26.2%, indicating their significant role in the creation of new expressions. On the other hand, native Japanese words constituted only 10.2%, reflecting a growing need for new words and popular terms created with sources outside of traditional Japanese vocabulary. Next, in the semantic field, “words representing things” constituted the largest category at 47.4%, followed by “words representing people” (16.7%) and “linguistic expressions” (15.1%). Comparatively, “words describing attributes” (7.0%) and “expressions for appearance and character” (4.4%) were less common. These distributions mirror the social characteristics and interests of people during the Showa era and provide insight into the cultural context of that time. Finally, regarding their retention in modern language, 57.3% of Showa- era new words and popular terms have survived to the present day, with words representing things and people showing particularly high retention rates. Loanwords have an especially high retention rate of 88.6%, while hybrid words and phrases or sentences are less likely to be established.