Hasada, Rie (2008). Two virtuous emotions in Japanese: Nasake/joo and jihi. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.) Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 331-347). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.102.20has
This study applies the Natural Semantic Metalanguage methodology in order to explicate the meaning of two Japanese “virtuous emotions” which express the idea of ‘wanting good things to happen to other people’. Nasake/joo and jihi have been selected for detailed semantic analysis. Nasake/joo is a very important concept in Japanese society. It refers to one’s consideration or compassion for others. Another “virtuous emotion” word is jihi which has often been used as a complement of joo. However, this chapter shows jihi can be completely distinguished from nasake/joo. The apparent meaning of these two “virtuous emotion” words is spelled out in an NSM framework, which clearly shows their similarities, as
well as their differences.
