A Contrastive Analysis of Functionally Equivalent Routine Formulas in Japanese and German: Towards a More Reliable Comparison of Linguistic Expressions

Abstract

The aim of this study is to consider the possibility of a more objective comparison of equivalent expressions of two languages. In comparing linguistic expressions of two languages, especially in cognitive linguistics, translations have been often used. However, comparisons using translations can be problematic. In this study, problems of translation-based comparison are discussed and a new method for a more objective linguistic comparison of two languages is proposed. Some results of the studies based on this method are also described as case studies.