This paper experimentally discusses the relationship between the deictic and the nondeictic usages of Japanese indexicals, namely, ko-, so-, and, a-forms. Two hundred and sixteen Japanese native speakers were divided into three groups according to their differences in their deictic usages of the three indexicals. They were asked to make well-formedness judgments on various Japanese sentences including the three indexicals in nondeictic interpretations. A decision tree analysis was performed for these judgments with the three indexicals and the individual differences in the deictic usages as independent variables. As a result, the main effect of the three indexicals and the interaction between the three indexicals and the individual differences of the deictic usages were significant for ko- and a-forms. Further, the correlations between the judgments on the three nondeictic expressions varied in accordance with the individual differences in the deictic usages. These results suggest that some of the governing principles for the deictic and the nondeictic usages are common while some for the nondeictic usage vary according to the individual differences in the deictic usages.

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This paper analyzes data on the titles of Japanese books, gathered by means of National Diet Library Search. The books fall into two categories: ordinary books and bestsellers. As for the former, 2082 samples have been taken from eight areas in Nippon Decimal Classification for the years from 2003 through 2012. As for the latter, 400 titles have been obtained for the years from 1973 through 1982 and from 2003 through 2012. The objects and methods of analysis are common to both categories: we have separated main titles and subtitles, and for each of them we have examined the frequencies of several kinds of characters used, the linguistic structures of the titles, and the modalities in the titles. Further, we have considered the effects of the areas on the statistics regarding ordinary books and those of the periods on the statistics regarding bestsellers. Of statistical significance are the following: as for ordinary books, there are effects of the areas on the length of titles, the frequencies of the kinds of characters used, the linguistic structures of the titles, and the modalities in the titles, both for main titles and subtitles. As for bestsellers, there are effects of the periods on the length of titles and the modalities in the titles for main titles, and those on the frequencies of the kinds of characters used for subtitles. Lastly, taking wakaru as an example, we argue that different areas may have different reasons for using a particular expression as part of a book title.

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This paper is the fi rst installment of a series of introductory essays on graph construction in Microsoft Excel. Focusing on bar graphs and column graphs, I use screenshots to show how to move from initial data output to optimizing display for black and white printing, and introduce additional options that may be used to emphasize key trends in the data.

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