日英中3言語の「甘い」の比較

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  • A Comparison of Words for ‘Sweet‘ in Japanese, English, and Chinese

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Jantima（1999）points out that the Japanese adjective amai（sweet）can be used in the negative sense of ‘insufficiently precise/strict’, which is not observed in Thai or English. To identify the possible source of the difference, the present study examines the meaning of amai and of the corresponding expressions in English and Chinese（sweet and 甜, respectively）, as well as their antonyms. Consultation with monolingual and bilingual dictionaries has led to the following findings:（ⅰ）Amai, sweet, and 甜 share the basic meaning of ‘containing sugar’ and have the connotation of comfort. While all the three languages allow the semantic extension of the target word to the nonpositive meaning of ‘pleasant on the surface with possible danger lurking behind’, only amai in Japanese has the negative meaning of ‘inadequate for the lack of precision’.（ⅱ）The antonym of amai is karai, which means ‘containing such stimulative substance as salt, spice, or an excessive amount of alcohol’（ⅲ）English has two antonyms of sweet, namely, bitter and sour, both of which are unpleasant characteristics. There is no English word precisely corresponding to karai, with salty or hot as the closest synonyms.（ⅳ）The antonym of 甜 is 苦, meaning ‘bitter’ and ‘painful’.The results show that the antonyms of the English sweet and Chinese 甜 describe unpleasant or even painful characteristics, and therefore sweet and 甜 can only convey the meaning of pleasant characteristics. This is in contrast with the Japanese amai, which implies the lack of stimulative substance as salt, spice, or alcohol. Where such substance is considered a necessary ingredient, the lack thereof can lead to a negative meaning of insufficient rigor.

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