日语的所见与视点——从「見立て」看日本文化和日本语言

Japanese View and Viewpoint——Taking a Viewpoint of Japanese Culture and Language from Mitate

日本人也就是日语母语者有一种在认知语言学中称之为〈主观识解〉的倾向。把自己置身于事态之中,通过身体直接体验去认识事态。这与客观地把握事态、甚至把话者自身也以俯瞰的视点去认识的西方语言大相径庭。日本人的这种视点特征体现在各个方面,特别以绘画和庭院、建筑为代表的视觉艺术最为典型。本文拟探讨这种视点特征如何反映在文艺以及日语表达上。日本视觉艺术的关键词之一「見立て」与〈所见〉有密切相联。所谓「見立て」就是以眼前实际看到的"近景"和由此拟看到的"远景"的双重视像构成。这种特点也体现在日语中,因此日语与视觉艺术存在着〈相同性〉。

Japanese native speakers show a tendency toward ＂Subjective Construal＂, which is a technical term from Cognitive linguistics. Those who show this tendency are likely to feel present in the moment of an event, neither trying to objectify themselves, nor to take sight of themselves from a bird＇s-eye view. As this occurs, we can find a difference in the viewpoints between these speakers and those who have a tendency toward＂Objective Construal＂, such as English and German speakers. In the case of Japanese speakers, we can also see an effect to characterize various fields of Japanese culture, typically visual culture, such as pictures, gardens, and structures. In this paper, I will explain how the features of this viewpoint are reflected in Japanese literary art and Japanese grammar. One of the famous keywords of Japanese visual cultures is＂Mitate＂,which has a close relationship with view.＂Mitate＂consists of two images,＂kinkei＂, close-range view, and＂enkei＂, distant view. Japanese language shares this construction, and I demonstrate the homology of Japanese visual cultures and Japanese language.