I'm considering submitting a panel on Japanese usage that falls outside of what typical textbooks cover. Honestly, the difference between Japanese as encountered in the classroom versus the actual language that's spoken (both IRL and in somewhat-exaggerated anime and video game styles) has been a long-time fascination (and frustration) for me, and I thought a panel covering such usage could be fun.
The target would be people who have at least a basic (at least one semester, probably?) familiarity with Japanese grammar. I plan to spend some time covering at least some ground on:
- Contractions, such as totte oku -> tottoku, wakaranai -> wakaran -> wakan, suru no -> sunno, etc
- Alternative copulas ("desu"/is): ja, jaru, ssu, cutesy-overused-desu-style (think Sumomo from Chobits), "nyaa" for anime cats, ...
- vowel changes, like naranai -> narane~, kusou -> kuse~
- Archaic patterns, such as "ki" suffix in adjectives (like "aoki" instead of "aoi"), ultra-formal adjective-copula statements such as "ureshuu gozaimasu" instead of "ureshii (desu)", and non-modern usage of the "-tari" verb suffix.
Also, I'd ideally like to show examples of some of these patterns in
very brief (< 10s) clips from anime.
With that in view, I have a question for staff (or perhaps knowledgeable panel veterans), and a request:
- Staff: Can you please clarify (or point me at clarification) your policies on showing movies during a panel? The panel application form states that if I show a video, the con organization must request permission to show it. Does this apply even when I am only planning on showing clips lasting in the single digits, to demonstrate a sentence with interesting grammatical features, arguably falling within the scope of "fair use"? And if so, are there certain anime publishers the con finds it easy to obtain rote permission from, so that I should concentrate my material-finding elements on sources from that publisher? And, does it help if I only play audio from those brief clips, omitting video (I'd prefer to avoid that, but it's better than just me and static text on a projector...)
- Everyone: I expect that finding material for this talk might well be a time-consuming task. I have some specific examples in mind, but apart from that I'll probably have to trawl through a lot of material (anime, and maybe some video games and books) to find more. If other folks would like to help me find great examples to showcase and discuss, I'd really, really appreciate it! If you have any such material to send my way, or would like to collaborate with me in gathering it, please don't hesitate to contact me at <micah at addictivecode dot org>. Thanks!
Whether or not I actually decide to do such a panel this year may in fact hinge on such support - otherwise I may choose to wait until next year, so I can be sure to prepare the necessary material without stressing myself out (I lead a fairly busy life).
