Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to examine how 15 Japanese women conceptualized their first pregnancies. Focused on two terms, sazukaru (to be given by the supernatural being) and tsukuru (to make as the human conduct). Informants (26-39 years old ; residing in Metoropolitan areas) were intreviewed mainly with unstructered and semi-structured questions. The main findings included the following : (1) the word Tsuhuru was more often used than sazuharu as a conversational term, (2) when women explained their terms, they tended conversely to use the term sazukaru, and (3) informants used the word sazukaru with various meanings depending on context. These two terms are not mutually exclusive as they have been unclerstood and discussed by the preceding researchers, but their meanings are related to two separate phases. They seem to coexist in the lexicon of an individual.
