Genre of seasonal greetings in Japanese culture

Abstract

In Japan, even now, the genre of seasonal greetings is widespread, which has no analogues in Russia or Europe. Such genres may have lexical specificity; often their units belong to non-equivalent vocabulary. Such words cannot be translated into another language with one word or phraseological unit without losing or adding information, and a “descriptive” translation can be extremely inconvenient and wasteful, not stylistically appropriate, and some components of meaning may be lost or, conversely, added. Postcards are written according to a certain template and sent expressing feelings in connection with the beginning of one or another of the 24 seasons of the year. They can be joyful or sympathetic depending on the weather typical for the season. The genre, apparently, correlates with the peculiarities of the Japanese picture of the world. Based on a simple analysis of vocabulary, it is obvious that Japanese speakers are constantly associated with the sea, maritime climate, marine fishing; as for cattle breeding it is not very common there. Particular attention to natural processes from weather to inarticulate sounds is often characteristic of the Japanese language. In addition to expressing feelings in connection with the seasons, onomatopoeia and imagery are of particular importance to it; such vocabulary can appear in a variety of genres. 

Keywords

• season
• weather
• japanese
• post-card
• joy
• sympathy
• onomatopoeia