Katakana Analysis

In Monday's class, we have looked into various types of Katakana usages such as onomatopoeia, emphasis, and loanwords. Each of us were supposed to bring 5 different katakanas and it turned out that most of them were catch phrases or titles used in consumer goods such as cookies and school supplies. Just from one candy bag, we found several katakanas used for mostly emphasis and loanwords. It seems quite reasonable how each company tries to appeal to consumers through concise and easily noticeable words in a market with perfect competition ( a market with many firms producing homogeneous good).

Loanword/ Emphasis-
ミルクを　たっぷり　つかいました。This is a phrase written on a bag of candies. ミルク meaning milk is the only word that is expressed in katakana in the sentence. Although they could have used ぎゅうにゅう in kanji, they chose katakana in order to make an emphasis on a keyword. Also, may be kanji would make little kids less recognizable and would convey a sense of "old".

Emphasis-
Another example is the famous car company トヨタ (Toyota). The name toyota is originally from a family name Toyoda. Therefore, it seems right to write in kanji. However, Toyota chose to write in katakana トヨタ instead of トコダ. The reason is that トコダ has 10 steps in writing which gives a sense of completeness. Not only トヨタ with 8 steps has a meaning that it will always grow towards a complete status but also is easier to pronounce. So, the major reason to write in katakana seems in order to make an easier approach to foreigners in foreign markets.

Usage of katakana seems to have no definite boundary; probably this is why none of Japanese textbooks has a concensus on explaining katakana. Katakana for large part are used for loan words and how people create and use these words vary. In fact, I think it make sense to have no set rules for katakana because katakana is a door for Japanese connecting Japanese language and culture with all the other existing foreign ones which means infinite possibilities.

Daily Schedule

こんにちは。
わたしは　まいにち　９じに　classが　あります。
わたしの　うちは　９６th　st　へ　あります。
ちかてつで　がっこへ　いきます。
げつようびから　もくようびまで　にじよんじゅっぷんに　にほんごの　classが　はじまります。さんじよんじゅうごふんに　おわります。
それから、１６８stに　ある　labへ　いきます。じっけんを　します。
8じに　うちへ　かえります。
しゅくだいを　します。
そして、ねます。