从“赠答”的词汇发展看日本赠答文化的变迁

History of Evolution of Japanese Gift-giving Culture from the Perspective of Etymology

日本是一个十分讲究赠答礼仪的国家,在不同的场合,面对不同的人,礼物的形式和还礼的方式都会有所区别。与此相关联,日语中表达赠答含义的词汇也就格外丰富。语言是文化的载体,也是反映文化的一面镜子,通过研究日语赠答词汇的语源,可以发现这些词汇真实反映了不同时代赠答文化的特点。

Japan is a country that is very particular about the gift-giving etiquette,where the forms of gift,as well as the ways of giving agift in return,are different according to different occasions and different persons.Therefore,the Japanese words concerning gift-giving are exceptionally abundant,roughly more than a hundred different kinds of expressions in this regard.Language is a vehicle for culture,reflecting the cultural essence in a concrete way.By studying the origin of Japanese words about gift-giving,this paper weaves the different characteristics of gift-giving etiquette into a timeline.By analyzing the representative Japanese words reflecting each certain gift-giving period,the author manages to outline the evolutional history of Japanese gift-giving culture.