Language and Information Sciences

Language can be regarded not only as a reflection of society and culture but also as itself constitutive of much of the character of social and cultural life. In line with this view, sociolinguistics is the field of study devoted to investigating the relationship between language, society and culture. It deals with language variation according to region, sex, and age, and analyses both verbal and non-verbal human behaviour.

In particular, "language contact" and its linguistic outcomes constitute a major line of enquiry in this field. Geographical and social mobility, as well as political and cultural upheavals, are not only instrumental in the creation of bilingualism or multilingualism at a macro-level, but also lead to lexical, syntactical, phonological, and morphological changes in languages in contact at a micro-level. Furthermore, as "languages in contact" may also mean "cultures in contact" in history, "language contact" can be seen as an interdisciplinary study drawing on the fields of sociolinguistics, history, and cultural studies.

In addition to our work in these areas, the department also offers a special postgraduate course on Japan-Korea Language Ecology, in which the focus is upon the investigation of social and cultural relationships between Japan and Korea through language.

Faculty

Language, region, sex and age:

ITATSU Yuko, KAWASAKI Yoshifumi, MATSUMOTO Kazuko, TANAKA Shin'ichi, TERASAWA Jun, YOSHIKAWA Masayuki

Communication and language:

FUJII Seiko, KATO Tsuneaki, USAMI Yo, WATANABE jun-ya

Language contact and change:

ITATSU Yuko, IWATSUKI Jun'ichi, KAWASAKI Yoshifumi, MATSUMOTO Kazuko, TANAKA Shin'ichi

Bilingualism and multilingualism:

IWATSUKI Jun'ichi, MATSUMOTO Kazuko, OGOSHI Naoki, USAMI Yo, YOSHIKAWA Masayuki

Japan-Korea Language Ecology:

MITSUI Takashi, OGOSHI Naoki, TSUKIASHI Tatsuhiko, KAWASAKI Keigo