Год выпуска: 1975 г.
Автор: Edward E.
Daub, R. Byron Bird
Издатель: The University of Wisconsin
Press
Формат: DjVu
Качество: Изначально
компьютерное (eBook)
Кол-во страниц:
438
Язык: английский
Учебник предназначен, прежде всего, для учёных
и инженеров, которым необходимо читать
научно-техническую литературу на
японском, но может быть полезен и более
широкому кругу читателей, желающих
повысить навыки перевода подобных
текстов. Предполагается, что обучающийся
уже владеет базовой японской грамматикой
в размере одного учебного года. В
учебнике встречается около 500 иероглифов,
наиболее часто применяемых в физике,
химии и биологии вместе с соответствующей
лексикой. Уроки организованы так, что
читатель запоминает необходимые кандзи
путём многократного повторения. Также
даются полезные грамматические
конструкции, часто встречающиеся в
научно-технических текстах. Большая
часть текстов взята из японских учебников
старшей школы и достаточна элементарна
для технически образованного читателя.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE 3
EXPLANATORY NOTES 6
LESSONS 1-25 11
APPENDIX A KANJI FREQUENCY LISTS 407
APPENDIX В
THE FIVE HUNDRED KANJI TABULATED
ACCORDING TO ON READINGS 416
APPENDIX С
THE FIVE HUNDRED KANJI TABULATED
ACCORDING TO STROKE COUNT 420 APPENDIX D
THE FIVE HUNDRED KANJI TABULATED
ACCORDING TO NELSON'S RADICALS 424
APPENDIX E READINGS OF MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSIONS
429
APPENDIX F INDEX TO CONSTRUCTION EXAMPLES 431
APPENDIX G INDEX TO EXPLANATORY NOTES 433
APPENDIX H DICTIONARIES AND REFERENCE WORKS 436
PREFACE
Japan is one of the leading technological nations in the world.
Although its scientific and engineering achievements have been most
impressive, few scientists and engineers have developed the ability
to read the literature of their Japanese counterparts. There are
several reasons for this: (a) the extensive efforts of the Japanese
to learn Western languages and their willingness to share their
research results in those tongues; (b) the
complexity of the Japanese language for foreigners; and (c) the
absence of appropriate instructional materials for scientists and
engineers. These points are discussed here briefly.
Although much of Japan's scholarly research has been published in
English and other languages, there remains a vast literature of
patents, handbooks, engineering journals, government reports,
and transactions of technical meetings which is not normally
translated. Furthermore there is substantial interest in graduate and
postdoctoral study in Japan, joint US-Japan research projects, and
multinational industrial ventures. All these activities serve to
emphasize the need for providing more people with the opportunity to
learn that part of the Japanese language which is vital to them,
namely the technical part.
The Japanese used in modern technical writing is
not nearly as difficult as that encountered in the literary or the
spoken language. Written technical Japanese is considerably more
direct in grammar and style than the literary language with its
delightful nuances and tantalizing ambiguities. Large segments of
Japanese grammar, such as humble and honorific verbs, irregular
"counters", words for family relationships, the verbs for
giving and receiving, the formulas for polite requests, and the whole
hierarchy of greetings and apologies are entirely absent. Moreover,
surprisingly, causatives, desideratives, alternatives, the -masu
conjugation, and other verb forms do not occur frequently. The
basic grammar needed to read scientific texts is remarkably limited
and can be easily mastered. The big hurdle—and
this cannot be minimized—is
the development of a recognitional knowledge of the Chinese
characters, the kanji.
Until the publication of this book there has been no reader designed
specifically to meet the needs of the scientist or engineer.
Concerned with the efficient use of his time, the technical man may
wonder which of the approximately 2000
kanji he should learn first in order to gain access to Japanese
technical literature. In the preparation of this book, therefore, we
have stressed the mastery of the five-hundred most important kanji,
and the scientific vocabulary which can be constructed from
them.
The organization of lessons is such that the reader will learn these
characters as a result of relentless repetition. To insure that we
are introducing the most important kanji, we have made use of
frequency counts which have been made
4 Comprehending
Technical Japanese
on physics,
chemistry,
and biology texts.
We believe that the mastery of the five-hundred kanji emphasized in
this book will provide a very sound basis for technical reading.
Assuming that the student has had a one-year
course in beginning Japanese (basic grammar, the two
капа systems, and the use of a kanji
dictionary), we have structured the lessons in the following way:
1. At the beginning of
each lesson a tabulation of the 20
new REQUIRED KANJI with ON and кип
reading which are of importance for scientists and engineers is
presented. These required kanji should be learned thoroughly; the
reader is expected to recognize them in all subsequent lessons.
Next to each kanji two numbers are given. The
upper one refers to the kanji designation in F. Sakade, A Guide to
Reading and Writing Japanese, Tuttle, Rutland, Vt.
(1959). The lower one refers to the number
of the character in A. N.
Nelson, The Modern Reader s Japanese-English Character Dictionary,
Tuttle, Rutland, Vt. (1962).
The Sakade book gives the stroke order and the most important
readings; the Nelson reference gives a complete listing of the
readings as well as a number of compounds.
2. Next the READING
SELECTION, using the twenty new kanji, is given. Many of these texts
are taken from high school books, which are less difficult and less
formal in style than research journals or reference works. The
subject material is rather elementary and hopefully the topics
selected will also be of general interest. A vocabulary list, romaji
version of the text, a complete translation, and explanatory notes
accompany the reading selection. For this part of the lesson no
effort is spared to help the reader.
Note that the vocabulary introduced in the reading
selection willnot be repeated in later parts of the lesson or in
subsequent lessons. Furigana will always be appended to kanji not
previously included as required kanji so that the reader need not
master these kanji and may concentrate on the required twenty in each
lesson.
3. In each reading
selection several constructions appear which recur frequently in
technical reading. We single these out and give several examples
further illustrating their use. These CONSTRUCTION EXAMPLES should be
studied with great care, and any new vocabulary words introduced here
should be learned thoroughly, for they will not be repeated
subsequently.
4. Next several
SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS are included. For these additional
vocabulary is given but no other assistance. The new words introduced
here need not be memorized. Many of these readings are taken from
college
Preface 5
level textbooks, reference works, and technical journals. Their
purpose is to provide additional experience in kanji recognition and
comprehension.
5. The final essay is a
TRANSLATION TEST. Here furigana are added to non-required kanji, but
otherwise no help is given. The reader is on his own here—he
may have to use a dictionary or grammar book to perform the
translation. In this translation test each of the twenty required
kanji for the lesson will appear at least once.
Thus each lesson progresses from elementary texts with considerable
assistance, to more difficult readings with some vocabulary aids, and
then on to a fairly realistic translation task with no help at all.
The final essay should serve as a guide to the student in judging his
mastery of the lesson and in deciding whether to move on to the next.
Although written primarily to assist the engineer and scientist in
learning to read technical literature, the book may be useful to some
technical people who are interested only in acquiring vocabulary for
conversation purposes. Such people can take a "short
course" by using just the romanized readings and the vocabulary
lists. In addition several other groups of people might find this
book helpful: technical librarians, who wish to translate titles and
tables of contents; language majors, who want to train themselves to
do technical translation; and students from non-English-speaking
countries who plan to study technical subjects at Japanese
universities.
Our primary purpose, however, is to provide the
means for courageous scientists or engineers to learn to read
technical Japanese by hard work. We trust this book will guide them
through those first critical stages of learning to comprehend written
technical texts and hope that the riches of Japanese scientific
thought will be their reward.
N. I.
Madison, Wisconsin
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge financial support and encouragement
provided by the Office of International Studies and Programs,
the Engineering Experiment Station, and the Graduate School of
the University of Wisconsin. In addition some financial aid was made
possible to one of us (RBB) through the William F. Vilas Trust
Estate. We are greatly indebted to Mr. and Mrs. Eiichi Hamanishi for
preparation of the manuscript, to her for the calligraphy and typing,
and to him for advice and proofreading.
N.
Inoue, unpublished compilation.