「西洋事情」の文章-2-

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  • 『西洋事情』の文章 二
  • セイヨウ ジジョウ ノ ブンショウ 2
  • A Study of the Style of Seiyo Jijo II

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The writing of Yukichi Fukuzawa is commonly regarded as being more readily comprehensible to modern readers than that of his contemporaries. This paper attempts to determine whether such a popular observation can be analytically substantiated. Chosen for comparison are Fukuzawa's Seiyo Jijo and Keiu Nakamura's Saikoku Risshihen, from each of which the initial 500 words are taken up for analysis. The study has yielded the following findings: 1) Compared with Saikoku Risshihen, Fukuzawa's Seiyo Jijo uses a less rigidly formal and less elaborate lexicon. This is true not only of the Sino-Japanese vocabulary but also of the native wordstock. 2) His choice of particles and verbal suffixes reflects a similar kind of simplification. 3) A larger segment of his lexicon falls within the range of colloquial use of his time as recorded by Hepburn's Waei Gorin Shusei, a Japanese-English dictionary noted for its comprehensive treatment of the Japanese usage of that period. 4) Fukuzawa's lexicon enjoys a higher rate of survival in present-day Japanese than Nakamura's.

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