This paper discusses how the meaning of compound verbs of the form V-nuku can be understood in terms of the core meaning of nuku ‘pull out, remove'. Himeno (1999) indicates that most instances of V-nuku are syntactic compound verbs in which the verb nuku undergoes semantic bleaching. For example, in hashiri-nuku ‘run all the way to the end', nuku indicates accomplishment, whereas in nayami-nuku ‘go through agonies' (e.g. before making a decision) it indicates an extreme degree. The difference between the meaning of nuku as a simple verb and its semantic contribution to V-nuku compounds makes it difficult for L2 learners to guess the meaning of V-nuku from the meaning of nuku.

This paper suggests that the core meaning of nuku should be described as "move object X from inside to outside of place Y against a resisting force." This core meaning of nuku will help L2 learners guess the meaning of V-nuku because it will explain a part of every instance thereof.

Learners of Japanese as a second language tend to misuse dakeda ‘is just ...', as in otōto wa 10-sai dakeda-kara nomenai "As my brother is just ten years old, he is not allowed to drink." A previous study says that dakeda is impermissible in a noun sentence when it follows a predicate nominal indicating the quality of the subject.

In this paper, I note that some examples of dakeda come after a predicate nominal indicating the quality of the subject. X+dakeda presupposes a set of X+non-X, and denies the presupposition, as in "Breakfast is just a banana."

Denying the presupposition of a set of X+non-X exists implies that there is no non-X, but only an X. However, dakeda in a question cannot presuppose a set of X+non-X. As far as dakeda following a predicate nominal indicating the quality is concerned, X+non-X becomes "The subject is X and at the same time it is non-X," which does not make complete sense. For example, dakeda in the above sentence, meaning "My brother is just ten years old," is impermissible because it is impossible to presuppose that my brother is ten years old and at the same time twenty years old.

In Japanese language teaching and previous studies, final particle mono is said to be used mainly to justify or excuse, and to be used mainly by young women and children. This paper verifies this characterization based on the usage of native speakers, and also investigates the usage of non-native speakers. The results are as follows: 1) Use of mono to justify or excuse is not frequent, but its uses to show and request understanding/agreement and to promote the listener's understanding have a high frequency of use. 2) The tendency that young women are the main users does not exist in every usage. 3) The meaning of final particle mono is to keenly show grounds that demonstrate the validity of preceding utterances/situation. 4) Non-native speakers, even advanced-level speakers, seldom use final particle mono. Not using mono to show listeners' understanding/agreement can be a hindrance to smooth communication. These results lead us to the consideration that in Japanese language teaching the usage to show the listener's understanding is appropriate for the first introduction of final particle mono.

In this study, we reconsidered various research articles that analyzed conversational data as "conversational data analysis," which is a more comprehensive framework. Then, we analyzed the chronological trends of 170 research articles that utilized conversational data analysis in the Journal of Japanese Language Teaching (Nihongo Kyōiku) Volumes 1-153.

First, we analyzed chronological trends of the articles according to the following points: 1) ratio of articles, 2) data situations (native/native, native/non-native, or both), 3) kinds of data. Adding to these results, we closely examined the items that each article analyzed, while considering the historical and social conditions of Japanese language education of each period. As a result, we found that the ratio of conversational data analysis articles has been increasing, and the analyses in each article have become more specialized and detailed since the 1980s. Moreover, the articles that insist on applying the results of conversational data analysis to educational practice have been increasing since the 1980s.

Based on these results, we suggest the importance of cooperation and sharing the knowledge of conversational data analysis among various research fields in order to apply the results of specialized and detailed research to increasingly diverse educational practice.

In this study, we asked twenty Japanese and twenty Russian teachers of Japanese, and twenty other native Japanese speakers, to evaluate the pronunciation of Russian-speaking learners of Japanese, and analyzed their evaluation criteria as well as their comments after evaluation. The results show that Japanese teachers displayed more critical evaluation vis-à-vis typical learners' pronunciations but were more lenient when Japanese allophones were observed. On the other hand, Russian teachers were more critical when evaluating pronunciation characteristics due to the influence of Russian stress accents or phones, but tended to be tolerant of pronunciations in which / N/ before a vowel is realized as [n], resulting in the loss of a mora, such as hono yomu (ほのよむ/honojomu/) instead of hon o yomu (ほんをよむ/hoN o jomu/).

In this study, the author examines three foundation course textbooks used in economics faculties as a data source, to verify the effectiveness of "Basic Technical Collocations in Economics", a list of 527 collocations that can serve as usage examples of technical terms, selected from junior and senior high school textbooks in subjects related to economics. As a result, the 527 collocations were grouped into 184 collocations that were used in the same form in the data source, 115 that were used in a synonymous form, and 228 that were not used.

In the 184 collocations found in the same form, the collocates of terms were verbs and nouns in roughly equal numbers. As for classification by origin, there were almost three times as many Sino-Japanese as native Japanese words. The 115 collocations found in synonymous forms corresponded to 88 collocations and 27 compound words in which the parts of speech, classification of origin, etc., of collocates differed from the "Basic Technical Collocations in Economics" selected from school textbooks. For the 228 collocations that not used, 180 terms with the same form were used in social studies literature not included in the data for this study. These might therefore be used in specialist textbooks other than the data source. Given the above observations, the 527 "Basic Technical Collocations in Economics" appear to be effective for specialized learning in economics.