Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 14(2), 2024. ISSN: 2232-3317, http://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/ala/ DOI: 10.4312/ala.14.2.25-64 The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi in L1 and L2 Written Compositions Divna TRIČKOVIĆ Faculty of Philology University of Belgrade, Serbia divna.trickovic@fil.bg.ac.rs, divna.trickovic@gmail.com Abstract The paper aims to tackle two neglected issues in teaching Japanese as a foreign language – the pluralization of nouns and the differentiation of synonyms – by analyzing three Japanese words that correspond to the meaning “people”. We examined the usage of these words in compositions written by intermediate-level foreign students and native Japanese speakers that were compiled in the corpus “A Country Easy to Live In.” Although these words appear in the sentences of both groups, our analysis reveals that in Japanese, the meanings of singularity and plurality are marked and that distinguishing them poses challenges to students. We also show that the distinction between the plural meaning of “people”, expressed by the nouns hitobito and hitotachi, needs to be given more attention in Japanese language teaching. Keywords: collectivity, foreign language teaching, Japanese noun semantics, plurality, synonyms Povzetek Članek obravnava dve zapostavljeni vprašanji pri poučevanju japonščine kot tujega jezika, pluralizacijo samostalnikov in razlikovanje sinonimov, z analizo treh japonskih besed, ki ustrezajo pomenu ‘ljudje’. Preučili smo rabo teh besed v sestavkih, ki so jih napisali študenti japonskega jezika na srednji ravni in naravni govorci japonščine, zbranih v korpusu ‘Država, v kateri je lahko živeti’. Čeprav se te besede pojavljajo v stavkih obeh skupin, naša analiza razkriva, da sta v japonščini pomena ednine in množine označena ter da njuno razločevanje predstavljata izziv za študente. Prav tako pokažemo, da je treba pri poučevanju japonščine več pozornosti nameniti razlikovanju med množinskim pomenom ‘ljudje’, ki ga izražata samostalnika hitobito in hitotachi. Ključne besede: kolektivnost, poučevanje tujega jezika, pomen japonskih samostalnikov, množinskost, sinonimi 26 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ 1 Introduction The word hito means ‘person’ or ‘people,’ while hitotachi and hitobito only mean ‘people,’ making them synonyms.1 The difference from the majority of previously analyzed synonym problems lies in the fact that the first word represents a hypernym for a large number of words ( hito: hitotachi, hitobito, ningen, jinrui, etc.), while the other two are reserved for only a segment of its broader meaning that refers to the plural – which is generally unmarked in Japanese. It is commonly stated that Japanese does not grammaticalize number as a category and that a single noun can indicate both singular and plural. Discussions on plurality in Japanese language teaching generally end with this observation. However, if hito can mean the same as hitotachi or hitobito, and as we will see, this receives almost no attention in Japanese language textbooks, how do students comprehend the difference in number between these words? The number category in the Japanese language is most thoroughly explored in the field of semantics, particularly in comparison to the English language, which we will touch upon in this study.2 Our goal is to understand the lexical use of these words and highlight issues in teaching Japanese as a foreign language from the perspectives of lexicology and applied linguistics, utilizing material provided by a corpus of foreign and Japanese students’ written short essays on the theme “A Country That Is Easy to Live in” (onwards SUMIYASUIKUNI-corpus; https://sumiyasui.jpn.org/). For this purpose, 86 compositions by students at an intermediate level of Japanese proficiency from German- and South Slavic-speaking regions, on one side, and Japanese students, on the other, were used. This material illustrates semantic nuances based on the syntactic behavior of the analyzed nouns through the process of acquisition of the 1 Note: All translations into English of words and works originally in different languages were done by the author of this paper. The modified Hepburn transcription system is used for Japanese. 2 In the Serbian and broader regional context of the former Serbo-Croatian linguistic domain, significant contributions to the study of number and gender of nouns designating human beings were made by Milka Ivić (1995; 2006; 2008), whose work has served as inspiration for this research. The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 27 Japanese language. Due to its emphasis on the lexicon’s semantics revealed in sentence examples, our approach is akin to cognitivism. Although we do not mention linguistic anthropocentrism as a universal phenomenon, words in different languages do not cover the same semantic space and boundaries of such spaces are determined in relation to other words in the same language, somewhat like countries on a world map whose existence relies on their internal organization and international recognition. The notion that the meaning of a word is influenced not only by its syntactic presence but also by other words it associates with, particularly derivatives and synonyms, is prevalent in cognitive and ethnolinguistic studies in Serbia, primarily due to the influence of the Polish linguistic school (Bartminjski, 2011; Ristić & Lazić Konjik, 2020). According to this approach, ‘person’ cannot be viewed in the same way as ‘apple’ for the simple reason that a word is influenced not just by its utterance but also by the lexical network formed by combining words from the same derivational nest and semantic field, which define it in relation to other similar or related words. In this study, we will investigate the relationship between the three aforementioned words. Therefore, we will examine the current state of L2 Japanese instruction, address the general issue of quantity in the Japanese language, and, finally, present the analyzed corpus and the results of our analysis. 2 Category of number in the instruction of L2 Japanese learners The words hito, hitobito, and hitotachi pose a problem in teaching Japanese as a foreign language for two reasons: firstly, due to issues with plurals and, secondly, because these three words are synonymous. Both issues are notably neglected in the teaching of Japanese as a foreign language, which we will attempt to address here. There is a natural tendency for elements of one’s native language to be unconsciously incorporated into the learning of a foreign language, leading to transfer or language interference (Lado, 1964; Suzuki, 1978, p. 12). The native languages of the students who participated in the essay writing project belong to the Indo-European language family, which has a grammaticalized category of number, unlike Japanese. Therefore, it can be expected that these students will need more explanations or practice 28 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ regarding the expression of singular or plural in the Japanese language. However, currently, this is not the case.3 Namely, the absence of any reference to the grammatical category of number in Japanese textbooks or grammar books is more of a rule than an exception. Thus, neither in SHKNG nor in MNN, for example, are the properties of nouns specifically addressed, and the plural is only briefly mentioned at the lexical level. For example, in MNN-SHK1, the suffix tachi appears in the 22nd lesson with watashi ‘I’, watashitachi ‘we’, but it is not stated that this suffix can be used with other words. In SHKNG, tachi appears in the third lesson with a note that it is a plural suffix, but without further explanation. Classifiers and numbers are treated as lexical and syntactic units, but the issue of plurality in Japanese is not addressed. Regarding the grammar of the Japanese language, apart from occasional mentions that, unlike European languages, Japanese nouns do not distinguish between singular and plural forms,4 the concept of number as a linguistic term is almost entirely neglected. The category of number is mainly mentioned in relation to pronouns (e.g., Makino & Tsutsui, 1999, pp. 28-32). McClain (1981, p. 150), a grammar handbook of Japanese written in English, states that in exceptional cases, plural is indicated by plural suffixes 3 For illustration in this study, we utilized textbooks, dictionaries, and grammar books of the Japanese language commonly used for international teaching purposes in countries participating in the SUMIYASUIKUNI-corpus project, Serbia included. (Abbreviations of the titles of the textbooks and dictionaries used here are listed at the end of the text, before the References.) However, our observations are based on a much broader review of materials, where no significant deviation from the findings presented here was noted. 4 For instance, under the ‘noun’ ( meishi) entry, Matsumura (1971, p. 829) states that “[...] Rather, it must be considered that Japanese nouns lack distinctions of gender, number, and case, in contrast to Indo-European languages.” Similarly, Higashinakagawa and Shinonome (2003, p. 24) note: “Japanese nouns do not exhibit distinctions of gender or number as found in Western languages. When it is necessary to clarify that a noun is plural, suffixes may be added, or the same word may be repeated (reduplication) but this method of forming plurals is limited to certain nouns.” Additionally, we would like to draw attention to the fact that agreement in number and gender in languages characterized by such features is not always strictly adhered to (for further discussion, see Ivić, 2008, pp. 13-38; Ivić, 1995, p. 105) and “the difference between singular and (non-count) plural [is] not always grammaticalized according to the same principle” (Ivić, 1995, p. 128). The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 29 attached to nouns or pronouns or by repetition of the same word but does not pursue the further implications of this. On the other hand, it can generally be observed that Japanese language textbooks from elementary to intermediate levels do not pay enough attention to potential and actual lexicological issues, especially synonyms. Most textbooks list new words with minimal explanations of their meanings. Examples of usage are limited to those provided in grammar exercises or illustrative dialogues focused on grammar, thus, they are necessarily very restricted both in terms of the number of examples and the types of contexts in which words may appear. Suzuki (1978) reported similar findings already in the 1970s. However, we estimate that no significant progress in the area has been made since, although the author offers a potential solution by pointing out at translation equivalents and their sourse situations.5 Therefore, it is not surprising that when students are introduced to a new word, they are often not told that the new word does not completely align with a word in their native language used for translation.6 5 “For the most part, the traditional method of teaching foreign languages has not been concerned with a consideration of the structural framework of language. It has tended to point out so-called equivalents of individual items (i.e., “This word should be translated this way in this particular context”), even though these equivalents may be applicable in only a few instances. The most typical examples of this approach are, unfortunately, found in dictionaries. If I look up break in an English-Japanese dictionary I happen to have handy, I find a list of such Japanese verbs as (1) kowasu, (2) oru, (3) yaburu, (4) kiru, etc. Usually, the larger the dictionary, the longer the list, with as many as ten to twenty verbs corresponding in one way or another to break. It is no wonder that students become confused. Since each of the Japanese words such as waru and oru corresponds to break only in a very limited way, it is not sufficient to give examples of when correspondence occurs. It is equally necessary to point out when it does not occur. Otherwise, (…), we will not be able to prevent inappropriate generalizations. So far, however, no dictionary has taken this preventive measure“ (Suzuki, 1978, pp. 14-15). 6 Furthermore, this lack of awareness extends to the various levels of meaning inherent in words in their native language, leading them to overlook the need to seek appropriate equivalents for these different nuances. For instance, the Serbian word ‘život’ (life) corresponds to several Japanese words such as jinsei, seikatsu, inochi, etc. However, students often perceive these Japanese words as synonyms due to their equivalence with the same translated term in Serbian (Markovic et al., 2015), thus obscuring the distinctions among them. Consequently, we tend to interpret the term 30 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ For example, in the SHKNG vocabulary, the word hito appears in the 1st lesson with the meaning ‘person,’ while the word hitobito only appears in the 25th lesson with the meaning ‘people, everybody,’ without comparing it to the previously learned word hito. In MNN, hito is listed in the 5th lesson, and hitobito only appears in the intermediate-level textbook, MNN-CHK, in the fourth lesson with the translation ‘people,’ appearing, for instance, in the sentence (p. 47) Sekaijū no hitobito ga heiwa o negatte iru no de aru ‘People all over the world are wishing for peace.’ But it is not mentioned that, for example, the given sentence could also work with hito and that it would not introduce a significant difference in meaning. In other words, it is not specified anywhere that the word hito also means ‘people’ and not just a single person or a man, nor is it explained how these two nouns differ. The same also holds for other synonyms.7 In Japanese-Japanese dictionaries, definitions for hito primarily list words like ningen and jinrui ‘humankind/mankind’, going through other meanings by the size of the dictionary, with no special focus on the meaning of plurality. This is the case, for example, with KGJT and KJN. First entries under hito in the KKSC Japanese-English dictionary, are: “ jinrui humankind; man; mankind; human beings; people; humans […]” — including the plural form right at the beginning of the definition alongside the singular. The individual meaning is highlighted in the second place (“2 kojin a person; an individual; a being; a human being […]”8), and the ‘synonym’ in an expanded sense, encompassing all words that may have the same translated equivalent in the target or native language, thereby creating confusion in the acquisition process. A potential method for addressing this issue of synonyms in the target language through the analysis of online corpora integrated into teaching is illustrated by the example of the words katei and kōtei, both meaning ‘process,’ in Tričković (2024b). Nevertheless, this issue requires much more attention and exploration. 7 At the initial learning stage, this simplified approach may be justified. However, it seems that by the intermediate level, it becomes necessary to revisit the acquired vocabulary, particularly focusing on general, abstract nouns rich in meaning. Many of these meanings, being linguistically and culturally conditioned, remain unnoticed without a contrastive analysis with another language (Trickovic, 2024a). 8 In this context, an interesting meaning is highlighted where the term hito corresponds to jibun, i.e., the first-person pronoun. The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 31 third entry refers to the plural form of people (“3 sekai no hito people; hoka no hitobito other people; others […]”).9 In the KGJT Japanese-Japanese dictionary, the term hitobito is defined solely as ① ( ―) ōku no hito (ōzei no hito) ’many people’; and ② (― ) meimei no hito (-ni yukiwataru) ‘each person’. In KJN, the definition is similar but slightly more detailed. In the Japanese-English dictionary KKSC, hitobito is translated as “people” and “each person.” The term hitotachi is not listed in any of these dictionaries. Based on the entries in the dictionaries, it is evident that the term hito encompasses a broader semantic range, with significant variations in meaning, while hitobito is specialized for expressing the plurality of people, which can be understood as either an indivisible plurality (a group as a whole) or a divisible one (the meaning of “each person” implies the possibility of segmenting parts regardless of the actual number of parts). Neither textbooks nor dictionaries nor grammars available to students provide guidance on when this specification of meaning is necessary, i.e., when hito : hitotachi : hitobito can or cannot be used interchangeably as synonyms, and what conditions dictate the exclusion of one of them. (Evidence of their interchangeability is observed in our test sample, which will be discussed in detail later in the analysis, where potential substitution of hito : hitotachi : hitobito is indicated in over 30% of instances.) Furthermore, this matter involves a slightly different phenomenon than merely a question of synonyms. The words hito, hitobito, and hitotachi are synonymous due to the absence of the grammatical category of number, and the fact that when the term hito is used non-referentially, it denotes a type, and thus, a plurality, thereby equating it with the words hitotachi and hitobito. The question that arises, therefore, is: if the grammatical difference, which is natural to students (as their native languages exhibit number distinctions), is not explicitly emphasized in instructional materials, and the difference in usage between synonymous words is not highlighted, how do learners perceive this distinction and what meanings are evident in their usage of these terms in compositions. 9 A very similar correspondence is observed in KKSD as well. 32 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ 3 Category of number in Japanese The grammatical category of number in Japanese is based on the semantic or logical category of quantity, representing a crucial element in understanding the world around us as humans. Typically, it is expressed in the dichotomy of singular/plural, while some languages also differentiate dual or paucal (small number) forms. Mingazova et al. (2016, p. 8389-8399) indicate that the noun number category is double-based, distinguishing not only between singularity/duality/plurality but also between segmentation/collective nouns levels, where plurality and collective nouns represent indefinite quantity, while others are definite. Segmentation is sometimes referred to as individuation/individuated reference, while the lack of number marking is termed zero segmentation or number neutralization (Mingazova et al. 2016, p. 8389-8399; Yasutake, 1989, p. 22). In Japanese, there is generally no grammaticalized category of number, and nouns do not agree with other words in number. However, plurality can lexically be expressed in the following three ways. 1. Through the use of classifiers and numbers. 2. By employing special plural suffixes such as tachi and ra, although their usage is very limited. 3. By duplicating words (Japanese jōgo), as seen in the case of the word hitobito, which is also a non-productive process. The question of the use of numbers with classifiers—which places Japanese in the group of classifier languages (Sudo, 2016; Iida, 2021; Erbach et al., 2017)—will not be explored in this paper. Instead, when analyzing the usage in student compositions later in the paper, we will address plural suffixes and nominal reduplications. The above three methods of expressing plurality in the Japanese language—numerical classifiers, plurality suffixes, and nominal reduplications—highlighted by Yasutake (1989, p. 15) as concepts where animacy, referentiality, and collectivity play important roles—do not coincide with each other. Their non-cooccurrence "points to the essentially semantic nature of these devices" (Yasutake, 1989, p. 17), which is why studies on plurality in Japanese primarily stem from the field of semantics and still have little influence on Japanese language textbooks. Since the subject of our analysis pertains to words indicating human beings, the concept of animacy, as an implicit premise, will not be further examined in this paper. Furthermore, due to the essay’s topic involving inhabitants of a The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 33 country where living is easy, the use of singular referential usage is not expected. However, we will still need to address the concept of collectivity. Regarding classifiers and the fact that Japanese is categorized as a classifier language (Yasutake, 1989, p. 16; Erbach et al., 2017, p. 235), it is important to note that its fundamental characteristic is taken to be the lack of distinction between mass and count nouns, which is typical of Indo- European languages. Typically, Japanese is compared in this domain to English, where countable nouns—usually common nouns denoting something that can be counted—and uncountable or mass nouns—which include material and abstract nouns denoting something that cannot be segmented into countable units—are distinguished. Traditionally, it is assumed that “count nouns individuate, but mass nouns do not” (Inagaki & Barner, 2009, p. 112), and they are not differentiated in Japanese without context or specific syntactic indicators (Iida, 2015, p. 64). While there is evidence suggesting that the division of Japanese nouns does not deviate much from the division into countable and uncountable nouns in English,10 we are unable to delve deeper into this debate in this paper. However, it is important to note that many Japanese nouns, although they may not necessarily indicate the difference between singular and plural, can do so and can, therefore, be classified as countable or uncountable. When comparing Japanese nouns with respect to countability, Erbach et al. (2017) observe a distinction between nouns such as isu ‘chair’, yūbinbutsu ‘postal items,’ and yuki ‘snow,’ where isu is countable while yūbinbutsu and yuki are not. In this case, yūbinbutsu represents a set, while yuki denotes substances, leading the authors to conclude: “The one difference between e.g., Japanese and English is that, since Japanese has a highly restricted (and even then optional) use of plural morphology, lexically simple Japanese nouns have number neutral extensions (that include entities and sums thereof)” (Erbach et al., 2017, p. 242). Let us consider the following example. Since both, hito and ringo, given in the cited example below, are common nouns, they share a large number of properties. Therefore, Yasutake’s observation that in the 10 “Nominal denotations in Japanese are not so different from those in non-classifier languages like English (Sudo, 2016, p. 2).“ The existence of the division of nouns in Japanese into mass/count is evidenced through the analysis of classifiers, as discussed in (Iida, 2021). 34 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ example “ Watashi wa ringo wo tabeta” it is difficult to “determine whether ‘ ’ ringo should be translated as singular or plural, and whether it is necessary to use a definite or indefinite article”, applies to the noun hito as well in many cases. However, this ambiguity is not inherently Japanese, since in Japanese, as is stated at the same source, the statement can be (and usually is) interpreted “as describing the ‘type of fruit eaten.’ The actual number of apples eaten, whether singular or plural, is considered irrelevant to the speaker’s intention” (Yasutake, 1988, pp. 64-65). In other words, in Japanese, it is generally irrelevant whether we are referring to one apple or more. However, the information can still be expressed with an additional word. The noun hito thus falls into the category of countable nouns, i.e., nouns that can be associated with a specific number, but its basic meaning is ‘human(kind)’. This optionality in Japanese is considered the key characteristic. Unlike Indo-European languages where the obligatory dichotomy is at the level of singular vs. plural, in Japanese, it is about whether the quantity matters or not, where the second member is marked syntactically or by context, even if it is individuated, i.e., singular.11 Therefore, while in European languages, singular is unmarked and plural is marked in Japanese, both categories of are marked. ,. When it comes to indefinite, uncountable plural, there are two ways of expressing it. Multiple entities can form a set known to have a certain number of members, or entities can be viewed as a substance with the same basic characteristics (as we saw previously in the example of yūbinbutsu and yuki). Regarding the meaning of a set with a certain number of members, in addition to material and abstract nouns, collective nouns that have a singular form but a plural meaning are also classified as uncountable nouns. Considering the meaning of a set with a certain number of members, nouns such as ryōshin ‘parents,’ kyōdai ‘siblings,’ kazoku ‘family,’ etc. should also be considered here, as they always imply defined sets whose members are in a mutual relationship (see the concept of transitive or relational nouns in Ivić (2006, pp. 9-17)). 11 “This observation [that the plurality inferences of the reduplicated plural nouns behave exactly like those of English plural nouns] poses a challenge to the theories of plurality inferences that rely on singular nouns, as Japanese simply lacks singular nouns” (Sudo, 2017, p. 27). The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 35 According to the logic of European languages, one might think that, compared to the example given earlier, hito would belong to the same group as isu ‘chair’, unlike minzoku ‘nation’ or kyōdai ‘siblings’, which would correspond more to yūbinbutsu ‘postal items’, while words like ningen ‘human being’ or jinrui ‘humankind’ would correspond to yuki ‘snow.’ However, this reasoning must consider the previously stated fact: number-neutral extensions include entities and sums (Erbach et al., 2017, p. 242). In other words, on the unmarked side, there is no singular as in European languages, but rather a type, implying some form of collective meaning, which can be numerically segmented as needed. Consequently, hito, besides the concept expressed through isu, can equally correspond to the concepts of yūbinbutsu and yuki. On the other hand, unlike the examples such as ringo ‘apple,’ the word hito inherently has a lexicalized plural meaning in the nouns hitotachi ‘people,’ and hitobito ‘people.’ This points to the existence of two examples of lexical plurality, which have not been sufficiently investigated. Based on all the above, we conclude that students of the Japanese language have grounds to consider the nouns hito (which can denote both singular and plural), hitotachi, and hitobito (which signify plural) as synonymous, which poses a potential usage and acquisition challenge. Through the analysis of sentences with these words from the SUMIYASUIKUNI-corpus and an examination of other words from the same semantic field, we will attempt to determine the extent of this issue. 4 Analysis 4.1 Student composition corpus and the method of analysis Despite the potential of using L2 learner corpora in language research and foreign language studies (Lee et al., 2018; Noda & Sakoda, 2019; Lee et al., 2021), such investigations are often limited to error analysis. They can also be utilized for other purposes such as the development of multicultural competence (Murata et al., 2022; Trickovic & Miyanoya, 2024) etc. During the initial analyses of the SUMIYASUIKUNI-corpus, it was noted that the following words frequently appear in the essays of students from Germany and Serbia, as well as native speakers of Japanese: seikatsu, shakai, kuni, jōken, hito, hitobito, jibun, taisetsu, 36 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ and hitsuyō (Murata et al., 2022, p. 279). While some of the mentioned words have been analyzed in other papers (Murata et al., 2024; Murata et al., 2023; Trickovic, 2024a), this time, our attention focuses on the pair hito : hitobito, with the addition of the word hitotachi, precisely because both words often appear in the essays. We analyzed 20 essays from Japanese students and 66 essays from foreign students at an intermediate level of Japanese language proficiency, established on the basis of an initial test (more on the corpus itself in Murata et al., 2024). The corpus includes essays from 20 students from the German- speaking region, while the rest are from the Western Balkans area, whose languages are related and share numerous similarities (Croatia 20, Serbia 19, Slovenia 13, and Bosnia and Herzegovina 4). We treated all essays by Japanese language learners as a single group. After each example, we noted its origin as indicated in the corpus. All compositions are numbered and prefixed with the initials of their respective countries of origin (e.g., BOS for Bosnia and Herzegovina, CRO for Croatia, GER for Germany, JAP for Japan, SLO for Slovenia, SRB for Serbia). In the analysis of sentences from the essays, we focused on the meanings of the words hito and hitobito, as well as the word hitotachi. Other words with similar or related meanings were also not completely excluded from consideration. During the analysis, we did not focus on usage errors but rather attempted to lay the groundwork for future exploration of new questions in the area of understanding numbers in the Japanese language and the need for a different approach to vocabulary when teaching Japanese as a foreign language. For this reason, examples will be presented in their original form with partial (sometimes assumed due to ambiguities) translations of only the highlighted parts (emphasized and underlined by us). We anticipate that in the sentences produced by foreign Japanese language learners, there will be an overlap of two segmentation systems regarding numerosity: the singular vs. plural dichotomy and number neutral or irrelevant (meaning of type) vs. number relevant. Our aim is to gain better insight into both systems and draw attention to the usage and meaning of the words hito, hitobito, and hitotachi, which are not solely visible through the analysis of the Japanese language. In the 20 compositions produced by Japanese students, the word hito was used 31 times, and hitobito was used 17 times. We excluded The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 37 examples where the character hito was part of other words, such as ningen, jinkō, nihonjin, etc., although we will refer to some of them during the analysis. The word hitotachi is used only once. In the 66 compositions by foreign students, the word hito was used 148 times, and hitobito was used 69 times, following the same principle. Additionally, hitotachi appeared eight times. From the excerpted sentences, we sampled 78 examples of usage for verification by native speakers regarding the interchangeability of these terms and the accuracy of their usage, marking acceptability, and better choice as follows: where one of the analyzed words was used in the composition, we provided all three options. The instruction was to put a question mark for uncertain choices, an exclamation mark for preferred ones, cross out the inappropriate ones, and leave all potentially interchangeable choices. Although the results were similar, they were not identical, and both of our tester participants reported being indecisive many times about whether something was acceptable or not.12 Consider examples (1)-(3): (1) (GER65) Sono hito / hitotachi / hitobito to tomodachi ni nareba hitori janakute, issho ni muzukashii mainichi o norikoeru koto ga dekite, seikaku ga tsuyoku natte, kibun ga agarimasu. ‘If you become friends with those people, you won’t be alone.’ (2) ! 1 (JAP03) Hito! / Hitotachi / Hitobito wa hitori dewa ikite ikenai node, seikatsu shite iku naka de no hitotsukiai wa sumiyasusa ni kan'yoshite kuru to omou kara desu. ‘A person/people cannot live alone.’ 12 Note: All translations of the sentences are by this paper’s author, solely for illustrative purposes, and pertain only to the highlighted portion of the original sentence as relevant to the given analysis. 38 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ (3) ? ! BOS08 Sumiyasui kuni wa arayuru shurui no hito? / hitotachi / hitobito! ga ukeireru beki desu. ‘… should accept all kinds of people.’ This pilot testing showed the need to repeat the interchangeability test of the words hito, hitobito, and hitotachi with a larger number of participants and a slightly differently designed survey, for example, only with examples from native Japanese speakers. Therefore, we will not extensively present the results obtained from this sampling, but will mention some general and significant observations we arrived at. 4.2 The noun hito If we consider only the noun hito, we can agree that it primarily conveys information about the kind or type, while the meaning of singular or plural is discerned in relation to other parts of the sentence or based on context, as suggested in the literature. In this sense, it is logical that referential use and the meaning of singular are marked in relation to the non-referential meaning of type. Yasutake (1989, pp. 22-23) states that the referential use of unmarked animate nouns “refers to a single animate being,” while non- referential use “simply designates a class of being,” which “can be regarded as a case of grammatical depersonification (or in-animation).” This also means that along with referential use, the meaning of singular is rarer and marked, as demonstrated by examples of sentences in student compositions. Namely, although one might expect that in compositions on the topic of a country where living is easy, referential use of the singular word ‘person’ would be rare, there are very few examples where we questioned whether the meaning might be singular. In those cases, the potential meaning of singular was determined by the rest of the sentence, and similar examples were found in both groups. Consider examples (4)-(9): (4) (JAP01) Gengo de kurō shite iru hito ga jibun dake de nai. ‘I am not the only person struggling.’ The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 39 (5) … JAP16 Kore mo hito ni yotte dono kikōtai ga au ka wa kawatte kuru to omou ga,... ‘… it differs depending on a person …” (6) (GER68) Shiawase ni nareru jōkyō mo hito ni yotte chigaimasu. ‘The situations also differ from person to person.’ (7) (CRO09) Sumiyasui kuni to iu no wa, hito ni yotte chigau to omoimasu. ‘I think that differs from person to person.’ (8) (BOS08) Anzen de fuantei na kuni ni sumitai hito wa imasen. ‘There is no one who wouldn’t like to live in a ~ country.’ (9) (SLO03) Hito ga sunde iru kuni wa, jibun no jinsei ni ōkina eikyō o ataemasu. ‘The country where one lives has a significant impact on one’s life.’ In the analyzed examples, the meaning of one person with the classifier, hitori, is more often associated with the idea of independence, isolation from society, or loneliness, rather than merely denoting singularity. The word hitori appears only once in Japanese compositions and eight times in student compositions. Consider examples (10)-(15): (10) (BOS05) Watashi mo sono hitori desu. ‘I am also one of them.’ (11) 1 (JAP03) Hito wa hitori dewa ikite ikenai node, seikatsu shite iku naka de no hitotsukiai wa sumiyasusa ni kan'yoshite kuru to omou kara desu. ‘a person cannot live alone’ 40 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ (12) (GER59) Mazu wa, hitori no hito toshite seikatsu ga dekiru yō ni shigoto o suru hitsuyō wa arimasu. ’a person to be able to live alone’ (13) (GER65) Sono hito to tomodachi ni nareba hitori janakute, issho ni muzukashii mainichi o norikoeru koto ga dekite, seikaku ga tsuyoku natte, kibun ga agarimasu. ‘to become a friend with that person and not to be alone’ (14) (SER06) Kazoku toka tomodachi ga iru to jibun wa sekai de hitori dewa nai koto mo taihen daiji da to omoimasu. ‘not to be alone in the world’ (15) 1 (CRO04) Dōji ni, kodomo-tachi no gurūpu kara hada no iro ga koi otoko no ko mata wa onna no ko no hitori bunri shita koto o mienai. ‘one kid to be separated (from a group of kids)’ Unlike the compositions of Japanese students, some of the compositions of Japanese L2 learners show a clear need to distinguish between the individual and the social and trouble in doing so. This is evident in the use of the words kojin ‘an individual’, kojinteki ‘personal’ (a total of 9 occurrences in student compositions). 13 On the other hand, with the meaning of the individual, as opposed to group, we did not notice the use of the noun hito. See examples (16)-(19): 13 In any future examination of expressions specifying individuals, such as kojin, ( ) jibun(jishin), and similar terms, it would be beneficial to do so both contrastively and to verify whether these expressions can be used in Japanese as ‘emphatically structured determinative expressions,’ akin to ‘lično’ in Serbian (Ivić, 2008, pp. 169-172). The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 41 (16) (GER60) Sunawachi, kojin ga jibun no aidia o jitsugen dekiru kuni ka, jinkaku hattatsu ga dekiru kuni ka ni yori, ningen ga kurashite iru. ‘a person to be able to express his idea’ (17) (GER55) Kono yōna jōken ga mitasarete iru to inoto ni kakawarazu, mikuroreberu de, tsumari kojinteki na keiken de, sumiyasui kuni no teigi ga hito ni yotte hijō ni kotonatte iru to omou. ‘by a personal experience’ (18) (GER69) Demokurashī no naka de kokumin no kojin wa jibun no iken de seiji ni tazusawaru koto ga dekimasu. ‘a single/each citizen’ (19) (CRO36) Tsugi ni, hitobito wa jibun jishin o kojin toshite ninshiki suru dake de naku, minasan ga hoka no hito mo karera no kanji mo iru mono no sonzai mo ninshiki suru beki da. ‘people to be conscious of themselves as individuals’ In the analyzed compositions of Japanese students, the word kojin does not appear at all, but tasha or tanin ‘another person; others’ do. One of them appears in the same sentence as the only occurrence of hitotachi, where sono hitotachi refers to others ( tasha) and later to jibuntachi ‘themselves,’ not to an individual person. See example (20): 42 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ (20) (JAP01) Sumiyasui kuni no shakai wa tasha o ukeire, sono hitotachi ga jibun-tachi no komyuniti o keisei suru dake de naku, ippan no meinsutorīmu shakai ni mo sanka dekiru samazama na sapōto o teikyō suru shutai da to ryūgakusei toshite omou. ‘society to accept others, so that others can form community of their own’ On the other hand, the word tasha does not appear in the foreign students’ compositions, but hokano hito appears 10 times. Interestingly, among them, three times it is explicitly mentioned in the context of helping another person (helping another person is not limited to these examples), as shown in (21) and (22). (21) (SER30) Minna wa michi o sōji shite, shigoto o shite, hoka no hito ni tetsudatte, ii koto o shite, sonna koto wa hontō ni taisetsu da to omoimasu. ‘to help other person’ (22) (SLO08) Sō nareba, nayami ga aru toki, hoka no hito ga tetsudaeraremasu. ‘other person/people can help’ The need to express the relationship between one person and another is perhaps most visible in the following example, where we see that the word hito is used to indicate both sides, but it is still emphasized by the adverb otagaini: (23) (SLO01) Hito ga otagai ni tetsudau to seikatsu ga kantan ni narimasu. ‘If people help each other …’ Without emphasizing the existence of two sides, the idea of helping others is expressed in a slightly different way in the compositions of Japanese people: The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 43 (24) (JAP01) Shikashi, motto hiroku ieba, komatte iru hito ni te o sashinoberu kuni wa sunawachi sumiyasui kuni to naru. ‘to offer a helping hand to someone in need’ (25) (JAP07) Sono naka demo tasha o sonchō shi, tomo ni kyōsei suru koto ya, komatte iru hito o tasukeru koto ga jissen dekiru hitobito ga ōi kuni de wa fukai na keiken mo sukunaku sumu to kangaeru. ‘to help a man in trouble’ In the above examples, we can see that under komatteiru hito, both the speaker and everyone around them can be designated. The term komatteiru hito can be interpreted as a general designation for a group of human beings and thus can be understood as both singular and plural (a person in trouble/people in trouble/anyone who is in trouble), or as a specified collective (sub)category. These examples reflect the tendency to separate individuals, which is possible in the students’ native languages. This is in contrast with the nature of Japanese, which does not place an emphasis on ‘us’ vs. ‘others’ but on ‘a person/humankind’, ‘anyone’ belonging to the group ‘in trouble’. Similarly, the designation of species, which in languages with both singular and plural noun forms can be expressed through the use of the non-referential singular and the plural form alike, can also be found in the following examples produced by both analyzed groups. See examples (26)- (34): (26) (JAP05) Hito ga ikite iku ue de tsuneni hitsuyō to naru shokuryō ya mizu ga te ni hairi yasui to iu koto wa, hito ga shakai ni oite seikatsu shite iku tame no saiteigen no jūyō ga mitasarete iru koto de aru to ieru. ‘A person/people to live always need(s) ~’; ‘for a person/people to live in a society’ 44 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ (27) (JAP18) Sono tame, hito no idō o sumūzu katsu anzen ni okonaeru yō, kōtsū infura ga totonotte iru hitsuyō ga aru to omou. ‘for transport of a person/people to take place smoothly and safely’ (28) (JAP17) Yuki ga furanai kuni ni umareta hito wa, Nihon no fuyu ni hajime wa daikōfun suru kamoshirenai. ‘A person/people born in a country where it doesn't snow’ (29) (GER09) Soshite, tonari no hito ni tetsudatte kudasai to kiku koto ga dekimasu. ‘one can ask for help from the person/people next to you’ (30) (SER23) Kenryoku ga aru hito wa hōritsu o ran'yō sureba imi ga arimasen. ‘a person/people with authority’ (31) (CRO33) Sumiyasui no kuni de wa hito ga kaoku o kōnyū no kanōsei ga aru. ‘a person/people can buy a house’ (32) (GER65) Shikashi, nan demo kau koto ga dekiru dake de hito wa jiko jitsugen wa dekimasen. ‘a person/people not to be able to achieve self-actualization’ (33) (GER56) Hokenshō o motte inai hito wa isha de takai daikin o shinakereba narimasen. ‘a person/people who do(es) not have health insurance’ The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 45 (34) (CRO06) Takusan no riten ga aru kedo, kane ga aru hito ni totte donna kuni mo sumiyasui kuni da to omou. Mata, kane ga nai hito ni totte donna kuni mo suminikui kuni da to omou. ‘for a person/people with/without money’ A larger number of the aforementioned and other examples with this meaning, according to the sample test, could be replaced with the word hitobito (but not with the word hitotachi), thus demonstrating the possibility of a plural interpretation of the originally used word hito, as shown in (35)-(38). (35) (JAP06) Tsumari, sumu to wa hito / hitotachi / hitobito ga hitotsu no basho o kimete, soko ni todomari, hibi o sugosu koto na no da. ‘a person/people decides/decide on one place’ (36) (SLO03) Hito / hitotachi / hitobito ga ijū shi, ryokō shi, ryūgaku shimasu. ‘a person/people migrate(s)’ (37) (GER09) Kōen ya mizuumi nado de hito / hitotachi / hitobito wa yasumu koto ga dekimasu kara. ‘a person/people can rest’ (38) (SER11) Watashi no iken de wa, hito / hitotachi / hitobito ga ii seikatsu dekiru tame no kuni ni hitsuyō na koto ga mittsu arimasu. ‘for a person/people to have a good life’ Although we noticed that the students’ usage demonstrates the same conceptualization of the word hito when it refers to the human species without numerical specification, there are also examples like this one, which we would initially interpret in the same way, as a numerically indefinite 46 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ expression of the species. However, this is incorrect usage and hitobito would be more appropriate. (39) (CRO14) Sono kekka, sumiyasui kuni wa seifu ga hito / hitotachi / hitobito no sewa o suru kuni da to omoimasu. ‘the government takes care of a person/people’ This kind of example suggests that the word hito cannot independently carry an explicit meaning of plurality, as would be required here.14 In the majority of the analyzed examples, where hito referred to multiple people, thus, implying a plural meaning that cannot be interpreted as singular, this meaning was signaled either logically or syntactically. Logical clarity that it refers to a plurality was related, for example, to words like nihonjin ‘Japanese (person)’ or genchino hito ‘local person’, which, unless referring to a specific individual, always imply a group of people defined by some common characteristic, such as living or originating from the same geographical area (Japanese people, locals, etc.). Syntactic indicators included phrases such as ōzei ‘many people; a great number of people’, or adjectives like ōi ‘many; a lot(s) of’, sukunai ‘few; little’, and so on; and instances where the word hito is adnominally modified to designate a group. See examples (40)-(45): (40) (JAP07) Futatsume ni, Ajiajin o minarete ite, gaikokujin ni taishite hiroi kokoro o motte sesshite kureru hito ga ōi koto da. ‘there are many people’ 14 On the other hand, if hitobito is used here because understanding of plurality is necessitated, we wonder if there is a specific number beyond which this becomes obligatory, such as two or more in English, or over four in Serbian. However, we did not find studies on which we could rely for interpreting the necessity of this particular plurality specification. The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 47 (41) (JAP11) Bankoku kyōtsūgo de Eigo wa mochiron, Chūgokugo ya Marēgo ga ikikau kuni de wa, kōkyō kōtsū kikan demo fukusū no gengo anaunsu ga nagare, genchi no hito nominarazu, kankōkyaku ni totte mo wakariyasui kankyō ga totonotte iru. ‘easy to understand not only for local people’ (42) (JAP11) Kono yō ni, tettei shite rūru o kimete, kokumin o shitagawaseru chikara ga aru kuni wa sumiyasui kuni toshite kaigai no hito ni mo ninchi sareru no dewa nai ka to kangaeru. ‘recognized even by people from overseas’ (43) (JAP12) Mata, Nihon kara atarashii kuni de seikatsu suru sai, atarashii kuni no kokumin, kyojūsha, kinrin jūmin ga dono yōna hito ka wa, jūyō de aru. ‘what kind of people the neighbors are’ (44) (JAP18) Mittsume da ga, watashi wa ie igai ni hito ga zokusuru komyuniti ga nakereba naranai to kangaeru. ‘communities other than home where people belong’ (45) (JAP03) Futatsume wa, sono kuni no hito to no kankei ga ryōkō de areba aru hodo sumiyasui to kanjiru to omoimasu. ‘the relationship with the people of that country’ In all the above examples, there is little ambiguity regarding whether the sentence refers to one person or multiple people, but the plurality of individuals is collectively determined, based on the associated group indicated and which can be numerically specified. Among foreign students, 48 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ we observe the usage with the same intended meaning of the word hito. See examples (46)-(51): (46) (SER27) Wakai hito wa sono chansu o ukerareru no mo ikenai. ‘young people’ (47) (SER28) Kyūryō ga takai hito mo kyūryō ga hikui hito mo gohan o tashō ni ataeru koto ga dekiru yō ni. ‘people with high income and people with low income alike’ (48) (SER32) Soshite, daigaku no ato de, ozei no hito wa shigoto ga arimasen. ‘a lot of people’ (49) (CRO07) Ōku no hito nara, takusan okane o kasegu koto wa inochi no mokuteki desu ga, seikatsu ni seikō suru tame ni, okane wa hitsuyō janai to omoimasu kara, Supein e itta hō ga ii desu. ‘many people’ (50) (CRO03) Samazama na kenkyū ni yoru to, fukushi no yoi kuni ni sunde iru hito wa, kōfukukan o kanjiru koto ga hijō ni ōi sō da. ‘people living in ~ country feel a sense of well-being very often’ (51) (SLO09) Sumiyasui kuni no naka wa ii hito ga ōi desu. ‘many good people’ A considerable number of examples from this group of meaning with the originally used word hito are indeed interchangeable with hitotachi or hitobito, as shown in (52)-(55): The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 49 (52) ! ! (CRO34) Yoi kuni wa yoi hito! / hitotachi / hitobito! ga aru to omoimasu. ‘a good country has good people’ (53) ! ! (GER16) Kuni no hito! / hitotachi / hitobito! to hanasenakattara, sono kuni ni sunde iru koto wa muri da to omoimasu. ‘if you can't talk to people of a country’ (54) ! (BOS05) Kyōiku o uketa hito! / hitotachi / hitobito ga sukunai kuni wa hatten dekimasen. ‘a country with a few uneducated people’ (55) ! ! ! ! (SER11) Mazushii hito! / hitotachi / hitobito! mo inai shi, byōki no hito / hitotachi / hitobito mo inai kuni wa risōteki na kuni ni chigai arimasen ga, sore wa arienai koto desu. ‘country without poor people and sick people’ Based on the above, we conclude that in our analyzed corpus, both Japanese and foreign students use the term hito as a generic term, which can be understood as both singular and plural. Foreign students intend to specify the singular or mutual relationship between two individuals. Furthermore, the term appears solely in its plural sense when, with the help of modification or some specification, it signals that it refers to a particular group of people with same characteristics (for example, living in the same place). In other words, it suggests that there are multiple individuals who meet the same conditions, suggesting the possibility of numerical segmentation. In these cases, it appears that the words hito, hitobito, and hitotachi are often interchangeable though it is not clear whether this interchangeability is conditioned by any factor, such as a specific number of people, for example. How familiar foreign students are with this interchangeability we will attempt to elucidate in the following section. 50 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ 4.3 The noun hitobito The noun hitobito is formed by duplicating the same root word, hito. Words created in this manner are called jōgo in Japanese, and this morphological process is unproductive (Sudo, 2017, p. 27), meaning there are few similarly formed words.15 “These nouns are plural and incompatible with singular reference” (Sudo, 2017, p. 27), and they differ from tachi in that they cannot have an associative meaning (Nakanishi & Tomioka, 2004), “and can only refer to homogeneous groups, each member of which is described by the noun” (Sudo, 2017, p. 27). The literature further highlights that they are not used simultaneously with a numerical classifier or plural suffix (Yasutake, 1989, p. 17). It is also stated that, even though they can originate from different parts of speech, once formed, they tend to refer to statefulness (jap. jōtaisei) and to behave as adverbs (Matsumura, 1971, p. 325). In the case of hitobito, there are a total of 69 instances of its usage in compositions by Japanese learners, and 17 instances in those by native speakers. At first glance, it is noticeable that some Japanese language learners use only hito, others use primarily or exclusively hitobito, while the third group employs both forms in their compositions. 16 Specifically, in 12 compositions, there is either exclusive or predominant use of the noun hitobito, and generally an overuse of words with plural or even collective meaning.17 15 To list just a few others: yamayama ‘mountains’, but also ‘very much’; ‘have a great desire (to do)’ etc.; kuniguni ‘nations’; ‘every nation [country]’; hibi ‘every day’; ‘daily’; ‘from day to day’, etc. (KKSD). 16 Among Japanese compositions, there are only four compositions where only hito appears, and three where hitobito is predominantly used, with only one out of 20 compositions using the word hitotachi. 17 In one composition, the word jinkō ‘population’ is used six times, seemingly to emphasize the collective aspect of the people within the context discussed. Example: . ? Sarani kuni no sundeiru jinkō wa shinsetsu de omoshiroku nakereba narimasen. Tenki wa you nara to, jinkō ga manzoku shiteiru deshō? Tatoeba Myunhen wa totemo ookina machi desu. Jinkō ga zenzen jikan ga arimasen kara machi no ki ha isogashi desu. (GER62 ‘the population living in the country’…‘the population will be satisfied’…‘the population has no time at all’. The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 51 Regarding the dichotomy of “it doesn't matter how many there are (species meaning)” versus “it does matter how many there are (singular or plural),” for the word hitobito in the compositions of both analyzed groups, we observed a gradation of meanings from (1) an indefinite multitude in the sense of species meaning to (2) the meaning of a specific group of people as a potentially countable set, with the possibility of the existence of multiple identical or different groups. There are also transitional cases, so the boundaries among these meanings are not strict.18 Here are translations and interpretations of the examples provided, showing instances of the use of hitobito in the meaning of an indefinite multitude of people as a kind (species meaning), as in (56)-(59): (56) (JAP10) Hitobito wa, seikatsu no tame ni okane ga hitsuyō de aru node, rōdō o hoshimasu. ‘people need money to live’ (57) (SER08) Hitobito wa seikatsu no tame ni jūbun na kyūryō ga irimasu. ‘people need a sufficient salary for living.’ 18 The division of nouns into countable and mass nouns, which include collective nouns, in the Serbian language, for example, involves a third form for some countable nouns. This third form denotes an indefinite, uncountable multitude. According to the criterion of animacy, these nouns are divided into collective nouns—representing multiple beings as one group (such as deca ‘children’, braća ‘brothers’, gospoda ‘gentlemen’)— and aggregate nouns, which represent ‘multiple non-living concepts as a collection of an indefinite number’ (like cveće ‘flowers’, lišće ‘leaves’ (Mrazović, 2009, p. 229)). These exist alongside plural forms that are countable. Thus, there are cvet (singular) ‘a flower’, cvetovi (countable plural) ‘flowers’, and cveće (uncountable plural) ‘flowers’; or list (singular) ‘a leaf’, listovi (countable plural) ‘leaves’, and lišće (uncountable plural) ‘leaves’; and stanovnik (singular) ‘a citizen’, stanovnici (countable plural) ‘citizens’, stanovništvo (uncountable plural) ‘citizens’, etc. Similar divisions are also present in other South Slavic languages (including Slovenian, Croatian, and Bosnian). These languages are the mother tongues of two-thirds of the authors of the compositions from the analyzed corpus. Therefore, it is not surprising that the concept of the same form for both countable and uncountable plurality was familiar to the students as they display it in the sentences with hito and hitobito. 52 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ (58) (GER15) Ii keizai jōtai ga aru node, hitobito no jōtai mo dandan yoku narimasu. ‘the condition of the people gradually gets better.’ (59) (CRO07) Takusan bīchi ga atte, itsumo tenki ga yokute, hitobito mo kiyasui desu ne. ‘the people are friendly.’ These examples demonstrate how hitobito is used to refer to people in a general, broad sense, highlighting the collective or uncountable multitude aspect, as previously discussed. Following are the examples showing instances of hitobito referring to specific groups of people, which highlights the plural sense in terms of a set or a group: (60) (JAP01) Mawari to chigau mitame no hito ga jibun dake de nai. Soshite bokoku no bunka o kyōyū shite itari, rikai shite kuretari kyōmi motte kuretari suru hito ga iru. Sonoyōna hitobito to no deai de odoroku hodo kurashiyasuku naru mono da. ‘meeting such people’ (61) (JAP11) Shingapōru wa Chūgoku no kakyō ya Marēshia no hitobito ga ōku utsuri sunde naritatsu iminkoku de aru. ‘many Chinese expatriates and Malaysian people moved and live’ (62) (CRO10) Hitobito ga issho ni tabemono o tsukutte, nomimono o nonde, ki o raku ni shite, kyūka o sugoshite iru. ‘people are making food together’ The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 53 (63) (SER20) Yori kyōiku o uketa yūnō na hitobito to tomo ni, kuni wa han'ei shi, seikatsu suijun wa kōjō suru deshō. ‘with educated and competent people’ (64) (SLO14) Tokuni toshi no hitobito ga gaikokujin ni koe o kakeru ni hayai shi, tomodachi o dekimasu. ‘people from the city’ (65) (BOS08) Sumiyasui kuni wa arayuru shurui no hitobito ga ukeireru beki desu. ‘~ should welcome all kinds of people.’ These examples show that hitobito was used to refer to groups defined by shared characteristics, nationality, or other specific traits, emphasizing the set-based meaning of plurality. It is notable that among the examples with hitobito, unlike the use of hitotachi, a higher number of errors is not observed in student compositions. However, the meanings associated with hitobito are also seen with the word hito. In the substitution test, hitobito is more frequently replaceable with hito than with hitotachi. Out of 23 sentences originally using the word hitobito in the test, over 15 times it was possible or even preferable to replace it with hito. Examples thereof include (66)-(69): (66) (JAP05) Sorera ga te ni hairiyasui hodo, hito / hitotachi / hitobito wa yōi ni shakai seikatsu o okuru koto ga dekiru. ‘people can lead a social life more easily.’ 54 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ (67) ! (SLO14) Mata, inaka no hito! / hitotachi / hitobito wa gaikokujin ni jibun no bunka, shūkan nado o shōkai suru no ga ureshikute, jimoto no ryōri o ogoru mo ōi desu. ‘countryside people’ (68) ! ! (SER15) hito! / hitotachi / hitobito wa kazoku ya jibun jishin no tame ni shigoto o suru hitsuyō ga arimasu. hito! / hitotachi / hitobito wa shiawase ni naru tame ni kenkō de aru hitsuyō ga arimasu. ‘people need to work … for people to be happy’ (69) ! (CRO14) Gyaku ni, sabetsu ga tsuyoi kuni ya shakai de, sabetsu sareta hito! / hitotachi / hitobito wa isshōkenmei ganbatte mo, shōnin sarete inai baai mo aru to omoimasu node, sō iu kuni wa zenzen sumiyasukunai to omoimasu. ‘discriminated people’ These examples illustrate the flexible use of hito, hitobito, and hitotachi, highlighting that while hitobito often conveys a more defined set or group, it is often replaced by the more general hito without loss of meaning. On the other hand, although hitotachi is a noun that, like hitobito, is intended to denote plurality, it could not replace hitobito in 16 to 19 cases (out of 23 in the test sample). This is a very suggestive result that warrants further exploration. See examples (70)-(73) below: The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 55 (70) (JAP05) Korera wa iu made mo naku, ikiru koto ni chokusetsu kakawaru hitsuyō fukaketsu na mono deari, korera ga hito / hitotachi / hitobito ni totte kōka sugitari jinkō ni taishite ryō ga sukunasugitari suru to, sono shakai ni sumizuraku naru gen'in to natte shimau. ‘they become too expensive for people’ (71) (SER30) Mochiron, daiji na koto wa hito / hitotachi / hitobito da to omoimasu. ‘what is important is people’ (72) (SLO01) Mazu, hito / hitotachi / hitobito wa shinsetsu da to omou node, ii pointo desu. ‘people are kind’ (73) ! (GER68) Sumiyasui jōkyō wa hito! / hitotachi / hitobito ni totte sorezore chigau to omoimasu ga, taisetsu na ten wa anzensei da to omoimasu. ‘the conditions for livability differ for each person/people’ The above examples highlight that hitobito is favored over hitotachi because it more clearly signifies a general group in the context of our examined sentences. It is also noteworthy that hitobito may not necessarily require adnominal modification, as demonstrated in examples (70)-(73). However, the distinction in usage between hitobito and hitotachi underscores the subtle differences in how these plural meaning words engage with the concept of collectivity in Japanese. 4.4 The noun hitotachi The semantic representation of human collectivity has found lexical expression in the Japanese language, giving rise to terms such as hitotachi with a plural suffix, and hitobito, resulting from noun reduplication, which was discussed in the previous chapter. Literature suggests that the plural suffix does not merely denote plurality but imparts 56 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ a collective meaning to the head noun,19 which must represent a living entity and be appropriately socially stratified. For instance, sensei- tachi does not always equate to ‘teachers’ as it may include individuals who are not teachers but are associated with a school environment (Yasutake, 1989, pp. 24-25). In other words, plural suffixes can have both additive (same set members) and associative (a group represented by the noun) meanings (Tatsumi, 2017, p. 233; Nakanishi & Tomioka, 2004). In corpus compositions, hitotachi is much less frequently used (eight instances among foreign students and one among Japanese). Student essays typically use it only with an additive meaning, thereby conveying a sense of plurality; it is characteristic that some students feel the need to emphasize the plural sense, hence repeating it multiple times in a composition. Moreover, a number of participants exclusively use words with plural meaning, with a preference for hitobito over hitotachi. Although this analysis will not delve deeper into error analysis, it is evident that there is often either incorrect (over)usage of hitotachi or usage that would be identical to that of hito or hitobito. The following two examples include the original use of the word hitotachi in student compositions. (74) (GER65) Senkyo ga aru to jibun no iken de seiji ni eikyō o dekite, seijika ni hito / hitotachi / hitobito wa daiji da to omou koto ga arawareru kanōsei ga arimasu. Sore de, senkyo sareta gikai wa kanryōshugi no koto o kakuritsu shite, hito / hitotachi / hitobito wa mainichi no yotei o tateru koto ga dekimasu. ‘people are important for politicians’ … ‘people can plan their daily schedules’ 19 “Plurality suffixes in Japanese do not mark simple plurality in the sense of two or more single entities, but rather they function semantically as a collective noun formative“ (Yasutake, 1989, p. 24). The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 57 (75) … … (CRO11) Mazu saisho ni, hito / hitotachi / hitobito wa minna sorezore chigau node, daremo ga jibun ni totte sumiyasui to omouyō na kanpeki na kuni wa nai. ... Ippō de, isogashii toshi o konomu hito / hitotachi / hitobito mo iru node, senshinkoku no hō ga sumiyasui. ... Sō sureba, jibun no kyōgū ni fuman o motsu hito / hitotachi / hitobito ga sukunaku nari, hanzai o okasu hitsuyōsei mo sukunaku naru darō. ‘since everyone is different’ … ‘people who prefer bustling cities’ … ‘fewer people being dissatisfied’ The use of these suffixes is limited20 and marked21, as can be observed from the fact that in a test sample of 78 utterances, hitotachi was rejected or questioned as a possible replacement in 45 cases by one tester and 54 by another. In all instances where hitotachi was deemed acceptable, the use of both hito and hitobito, or just one of these, was also acceptable. In no examples was hitotachi prescribed but, rather, only offered as acceptable. Additionally, as observed in examples (52), (53), (54), (55), (67), and (69), and in contrast with examples (66), (68), (70), (71), (72), and (73), it appears that hitotachi is more commonly associated with a known, specific group of people, i.e., it is more referential. This is syntactically indicated by a preceding modifying phrase. These observations underscore the need for further examination of the nuanced differences in the plural meanings and syntactic behavior of these terms. 5 Conclusion and final remarks While seemingly sharing common characteristics, it is evident that the noun hito ‘a person/people’ differs significantly from ringo ‘an apple/apples’ 20 “[…] four basic conditions on their usage, i.e. the animacy constraint, the applicability to proper names, the politeness scale and the overall infrequency“ (Yasutake, 1989, p. 17). 21 “Plurality suffixes are used in Japanese only when the speaker/writer is particularly conscious of the plurality of the referent or there is a contextual need“ (Yasutake, 1989, p. 20). 58 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ in its importance to speakers, as reflected by its status as a hypernym for a number of words, some of which relate to community forms. Some of these community-relevant words denote countable groups (such as kazoku ‘family,’ ryōshin ‘parents,’ kyōdai ‘siblings,’ but also gaikokujin ‘foreigners,’ jinkō ‘population’), while others are perceived more like mass nouns (such as ningen ‘humanity,’ jinrui ‘mankind’). Given the importance of the individual-society relationship, it is unsurprising that the language has so many words defining this relationship. This relationship with other words distinguishes hito from most other Japanese nouns. The significance of hito is also highlighted by the extensive derivational network formed around it, which includes the two plural- signifying words analyzed here, hitotachi and hitobito, as well as the word kojin ‘individual’, which conveys a singular meaning. The analysis of lexical meanings is often featured in cognitive studies, which have also served as a model here. While other nouns may not be able to express plural meaning without the aid of numbers or adverbs, the word for person has two, but this fact has not received much attention in textbooks or linguistic studies. Moreover, as we have seen, plurality in Japanese is not a focal point in teaching Japanese as a foreign language, except at the lexical level. Discussions about the number category in Japanese typically occur in the field of general linguistics and semantics, primarily in comparison with English. These studies have shown that the dichotomy singular vs. plural present in European languages shifts in Japanese to number irrelevant (stating kind) vs. number relevant, where the latter category is marked and includes both singular and plural. This study analyzed a SUMIYASUIKUNI-corpus of compositions by Japanese language students, alongside compositions by Japanese students on the topic of “A Country That Is Easy to Live in” to see whether the concepts and meanings associated with hito, hitobito, and hitotachi align among students of Japanese, even though they are usually not specifically told about them in the educational process. We hoped this comparison would highlight some aspects of the Japanese language that remain unnoticed if viewed in isolation. The corpus analysis showed that hito is used among both Japanese and Japanese language students with the following meanings: non- referential singular (species), countable plural (referring to a specified The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 59 group), and uncountable plural (referring to a species). It can be assumed that this alignment results from similar capabilities of common nouns in the native languages of the students. However, it is evident that there are uncertainties in using terms that would signal singular or plural, which was expected since, as we have demonstrated, its usage is marked in Japanese. In particular, the singular in the sense of an individual separated from society or set against it, as well as the relationship implying two parties, two persons (e.g., someone helping someone), proved challenging for the students. Additionally, the plural meaning of the word hito has proven to be limited to cases where it takes on a collective meaning, whether it is in non-referential use generally referring to a species, in syntactic or adnominal modification (for example, with ōi ‘many’), or in a lexical manner (alongside names of countries, locations, etc.). The corpus analysis regarding the word hitobito revealed the expected meanings of plurality, ranging from the general meaning of a species to the meaning of a group with (countable) members of the same characteristics. In many cases, hitobito proved interchangeable with hito, but not with hitotachi. On the other hand, there are examples where the only acceptable solution was hitobito, leaving it unclear whether the implied or assumed number of people is what influences the necessary choice of hitobito or if some other factor plays a role. The results concerning the noun hitotachi are particularly intriguing. In the analyzed corpus, this noun was rarely a possible alternative to hito and hitobito, and it was often the most incorrect choice among students. It was also evident from the substitution test that hitotachi and hitobito are much less interchangeable than hitobito and hito, which was an unexpected result since both hitotachi and hitobito denote only a plurality of people. The nature of the difference in the plurality conveyed by these two nouns requires further examination. It can generally be stated that all the meanings observed among native speakers were also present in the students' examples. However, although error analysis was not conducted, there was a noticeable overuse of words with plural meanings by some students. This overuse indicates that some students could not precisely express their intended ideas due to an insufficient understanding of the relationship between the individual and society in the language. 60 Divna TRIČKOVIĆ Furthermore, this study has opened new questions about the meaning of singular and plural in Japanese, particularly with nouns related to human beings. These questions warrant separate analysis from other instances of number distinction (e.g., different groups of words used to name human beings and their communities). We also believe it is necessary to conduct further investigations of the interchangeability of the three words analyzed here, hito, hitobito, and hitotachi, using a specially designed questionnaire that would reveal much more about the expressed meaning of plurality and the boundaries and overlaps of these words as synonyms. In particular, it is essential to explore further how the plural meaning words such as hitotachi and hitobito differ and what conditions necessitate the choice of hitobito (such that it cannot be replaced by hito) and vice versa. The question of the number category in the Japanese language might also be well examined in comparison with other systems, not just those manifested in the English language. Further research in this area could provide deeper insights into the cognitive and social aspects of language usage in different linguistic communities. Acknowledgments We would like to express our gratitude to Miyuki Ichimura from Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University in Turkey, and Una Belušević from the Fluenté Language School in Serbia for their assistance in testing the correctness and interchangeability of the sample. We would like to express our gratitude to other colleagues who also participated in the SUMIYASUIKUNI project, particularly Yumiko Murata and Jae-ho Lee who initiated it, as well as to all the students whose essays made this research possible. We also wish to thank the reviewers for their considerable efforts in reviewing this paper and for all their valuable suggestions. The Use of Japanese Words Hito, Hitobito, and Hitotachi … 61 Abbreviations and references for textbooks and dictionaries SHKNG [Shokyū nihongo] Japanese Language Online Resource. (n.d.). Retrieved March 31, 2024, from https://jplang.tufs.ac.jp/ MNN ( 1 (2018),2 (2001) & 1 (2015) ) Edited and written by Surīē nettowāku. 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