This word caught my attention because the word "oshare" is a word of Japanese origin not a loan word. So it would be expected to be written in hiragana おしゃれ, not katakana オシャレ. The choice here to write the word in katakana instead of hiragana could be out of the need to make the word cooler. Especially because it is used next to an english word. The page also has pictures of foreign people and fashion companies on it so it's possible the wanted to emphasize that idea and write "oshare" as if it was a foreign word in katakana.
キレイ
In a beauty companies ad in the same magazine I found the word "kirei" written in katakana. Which is a similar situation to above in that "kirei" is a word of Japanese origin meaning beautiful or pretty. Also interesting was right after it they used the word kawaii (meaning cute) but chose to wrote that in hiragana. In this case though it appears to me that they wrote the word in katakana as an attention getter. I say this for two reasons. One is that the magazine reads right to left from the front but each page itself actually reads left to right. Therefore キレイis actually the first word you see on the page. Which brings me to my second reason is that this page is an ad. Success of an ad depends on people reading it and being interested in there product. They don't have a chance unless they find some way to catch your attention. Leading to a possible explanation for why they chose to write "kirei" in katakana and not in hiragana like they did with "kawaii".I think each textbook is different in explaining katakana because of their audience. A elementary school or highschool textbook would have more information about why katakana words are used and when versus a textbook that seems to have an older target audience, such as college aged or business people learning japanese, which could explain why some of the books go into a more historical explanation than a modern usage explanation.
フリーにさんの二つの例はざっしのこうこくですからビジュアールがたいせつだと思います。
ReplyDeleteAs you say, because both of the examples come from magazine or advertisement, the use of katakana could be related to visual impact. In advertising, a catchy look is important, and I think katakana does have a "modern look".
オシャレ and キレイ are both words that I see often written in katakana, especially オシャレ. I think what you said about it being for emphasis as well as to give it a "cool" look makes a lot of sense!
ReplyDeleteYou found very interesting examples. Especially the one with キレイ and かわいい written together in the same ad is excellent. I mostly agree with your analysis, but do you think there is a connection between the use of Katakana and the connotation of the words?
ReplyDeleteAnd yes. Textbooks vary in the amount and quality of the information provided on Katakana. What do you think you should do as a learner in order to learn the use of Katakana better?
I look forward to reading your next post!
TA:Chikako Takahashi
@Danielle I agree I think a lot of time they are used for their "look". I can see why they do that but I have always found the way hiragana looks more visually appealing interestingly enough.
ReplyDelete@Sarah That's interesting that you have seen that a lot other places. I wonder if its used in relation to similar things like how it's used in fashion above.
@chikako I think that connotation most likely does play a role into the usage of the words. I am not sure what they necessarily wanted to get across with it but it could be about it being cool.
I think that as a learner the best thing to do would be to learn from as many different sources as possible so that you have a varied knowledge.
Neat catch with キレイ and かわいい! I am wondering if "pretty" has a connotation of minimalism that it doesn't necessarily have in English because kirei also means clean. In that case, katakana has "clean" lines while hiragana has adorable curly-cues.
ReplyDelete-ムラサキ