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Assistant Professor Motoki Oe
Assistant Professor Motoki Oe is a member of Japanese Language Education and Japanese Culture Studies course. His research focuses on contemporary Japanese.
What do you specialize in?
My field of research is Japanese linguistics, and I’m researching the grammar of contemporary Japanese. Every researcher uses different terms when explaining ‘grammar’, but in my case, I define it broadly meaning regularity seen when constructing a sentence. I try to explain the grammar patterns from multilateral angles, comprehensively by investigating syntactic theory, and semantic pragmatic theory.
What kind of research do you focus on?
These last few years, I have been focusing on grammar in spoken Japanese. Specifically on Japanese particles, such as sentence-final particles(shu-joshi), interjectory particles(kanto-joshi), focus particles(toritate-joshi), and topic particles(teidai-joshi), with strong relations with speaker’s mental attitude. I’m also doing research on grammar when the sentence is specially assembled when speaking, such as repetitive and to curse someone. I’m trying to reveal how speaker’s attitudes are incorporated in grammar by understanding such grammar patterns.
What is the real pleasure and significance of your research?
There are times when one sentence sounds fine and normal especially when talking. It is understandable since human activity and language corresponds. However, there are times when we can find the reason in such fluctuation. When I’m able to understand the fluctuation, I feel as if I understand human a little bit. I believe the best part about research is the humanness. Occasionally, the language's fluctuation can be obstacles when communicating, and I believe that studying the language from various angle will remove the obstacles. I think the purpose of studying language has more value in contemporary society that we can connect with people easily via internet.
What do you expect from graduate students at Kanazawa university?
It is important to narrow the studies. However, by narrowing your studies too narrow and by only doing your own studies, research may become dreary. I hope they would think where their research stands in the bigger view including society itself and interact with other fields as well. I welcome students who want to research by trying to see different scenery by standing on the shoulders of giants.
