Tokieda Motoki

Linguist and Doctor of Literature. Born in Kanda, Tokyo. Graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1925 (Taisho 14). After serving as a professor at Keijo Imperial University, he was a professor at the University of Tokyo from 1943 (Showa 18) to 1961 (Showa 36). He then became a professor at Waseda University. His research began with exploring the attitudes, consciousness, and methods of Japanese language research before the Edo period, and his research has been more oriented toward establishing basic theories rather than empirical research, and his research fields cover almost all areas of Japanese linguistics. His works that summarize Japanese language research before the Edo period include "History of Japanese Language Studies" (included in "Iwanami Lecture Series on Japanese Literature", Vol. 2, "Outline of the History of Japanese Literature", 1933) and "History of Japanese Language Studies" (1940). His "View of the Essence of Language as a Mental Process" (Literature, No. 5, 6, 7), published in June and July 1937, brought to the forefront the "Language Process Theory," which sees language as human behavior itself. From then on, based on this view of the essence of language, he published papers covering a wide range of fields, including grammar, semantics, writing, phonetics, linguistic aesthetics, and honorific language, which were compiled in 1941 as "Kokugogaku Genron." His grammatical theory was subsequently systematized in works such as "Nihon Bunpo: Colloquial Language Chapter" (1950), "Nihon Bunpo: Literary Language Chapter" (1954), and "Bunsho Kenkyu Josetsu" (1960). He also took an active interest in the fields of Japanese language issues and Japanese language education, and made public his own unique views on each of these. "Kokugogaku Genron" was developed into "Kokugogaku Genron: Zokuhen" (1955), which was intended to be a systematic description of the history of linguistic life, but was left unfinished.

[Kazuhiko Suzuki October 19, 2018]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

国語学者。文学博士。東京・神田生まれ。1925年（大正14）東京帝国大学卒業。京城(けいじょう)帝国大学教授を経て、1943年（昭和18）から1961年（昭和36）まで東京大学教授。以後早稲田(わせだ)大学教授。江戸時代以前の国語研究の態度、意識、方法を探索することを研究の出発点とし、その研究は、実証的研究というよりも、基礎的理論を樹立するという方向にあり、研究分野は国語学のほぼ全領域にわたっている。江戸時代以前の国語研究を整理したものに『国語学史』（『岩波講座　日本文学』第2「日本文学史概説」所収。1933）、『国語学史』（1940）がある。1937年6、7月にわたって発表された「心的過程としての言語本質観」（『文学』5ノ6、7）によって、言語を人間行為そのものとみる「言語過程説」が正面に打ち出される。これ以後、この言語本質観に基づいて、文法論、意味論、文字論、音声論、言語美論、敬語論等の各分野にわたっての論文が発表され、1941年に『国語学原論』としてまとめられた。以後、文法論は、『日本文法　口語篇(へん)』（1950）、『日本文法　文語篇』（1954）、『文章研究序説』（1960）などによって体系化された。国語問題、国語教育の分野にも積極的な関心をもち、それぞれ独自の見解を公にしている。『国語学原論』を発展させたものに『国語学原論　続篇』（1955）がある。言語生活史の体系的記述が企図されていたが、未完に終わった。

［鈴木一彦　2018年10月19日］

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