English influence on Japanese popular music : a case study of language contact

要旨

The present study is a case study on language contact, examining features and functions of English elements widely present in Japanese popular music.Study is of descriptive nature and has both quantitative and qualitative elements.The questions which the study attempts to find answers for are the following: 1) What is the essence and function of English elements, including both code-switches and loanwords, in Japanese contemporary popular music?2) How do the subject matter of the lyrics and the song genre affect the choice of language in the lyrics?While a decision was made to use the term 'code-switching', the concept is questioned slightly in the Japanese case as, rather than being 'pure' English, the English elements in question tend rather to be created in Japan, thus making them a Japanese variety of English.The data consists of two albums (, Now and One) by a Japanese pop group Arashi.The total number of songs examined is 29.The method of analysis used is a descriptive analysis which considers the different functions, both grammatical and otherwise, that English elements serve in the Japanese data of lyrics.Database containing all instances of code-switches and loanwords was created, after which the data was categorized and analysed.Also observed were the placement of English elements in the lyrics, as well as the subject matter and genre of the songs in relation to the code-switches.Great majority of the loanwords were found to be nouns.With the code-switches the number of nouns, adverbs and interjections is the largest.Concerning the quantity of English elements, the study reveals the number of code-switches in Arashi songs to be even higher than expected.20.78% of the data consists of English code-switches.The number of loanwords on the other hand is surprisingly low compared to the usual distribution of loanwords in the Japanese language.The following functions of English elements in the lyrics were identified: Westernization, re-enforcing the message through repetition, orthographic play, rhyming, and offering alternatives to language use.While English code-switches are present in all parts of the songs, there is a concentration of them in the refrains.As for the subject matter and genre of the songs, subject matter appears to have less influence on the extent of code-switching than genre, though neither appears to be a major factor.Results of the study appear to be fairly reliable as they are rather straightforward and run parallel to the results of other studies of similar nature.The study can thus hopefully offer quite an accurate picture of the nature and functions of English elements in Japanese popular music.

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