工学部紀要人文・社会編 抄録（Vol.24 No.2）

In this paper, I examine where nanka in ordinary conversations comes from. Here, I take into consideration the relationship between nanka and "concept" (Halliday 1994:59) in "information unit" (ibid.). From analysis and discussion, I point out (1) nanka is not "a habit of saying" to make introductory remarks, but discourse marker which follows new concepts for hearers and (2) nanka is born of metaphorical grammaticalization from pronoun and metonymic one from adverbial particle to discourse marker. Moreover, I make clear the process of grammaticalization concerning nanka. That is, nanka is derived from pronoun expressing what is unspecified. Later, influenced by adverbial particle, it marks the whole utterances after nanka as something vague and is used in order to connect to clear contexts before nanka. Then, it is grammaticalized as an expression that implies the speaker's attitude to or judgement on what remains vague after nanka.

This paper introduces the themes chosen by students for a research project in English courses at Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics (TIP), the syllabus of the English courses, and the results of the evaluation of the courses. The choice by the students will suggest the English teaching profession about the preference for the themes dealt with in classrooms.

This paper reviews teacher feedback to student writing in ESL composition. I will start by introducing Vivian Zamel's article (1985), which triggered the active movement of feedback research (section 1), then focus on the nature of teacher feedback and how students receive it (section 2), later I will address some studies which investigated the effectiveness of teacher feedback (section 3), and finally suggest how the teachers can improve their feedback and how students can make the most of it (section 4).

This paper considers the difference of concept of the harmony in Japanese everyday interaction. Japanese culture has been discussed that it is quite unique. Harmony is one of the unique characteristics, the keynote, especially in the Japanese interaction. Actually, the origin of the word 'harmony'is a Latin word. So it is not a concept that is peculiar to Japanese culture. This paper first compares the origin of the concept of harmony in each culture and shows differences between Japanese 'wa (harmony)' and the word 'harmony' in English sense. Then, it examines the singularity of Japanese harmony in interaction. Then I illustrate the English interaction that seems to have common nature of Japanese harmony. It can be suggested that during the interaction, Japanese people try to maintain harmonious atmosphere in the context, not limited to human relationships. Harmony can be fulfilled by participants' patience and tolerance.

Scholars of American literature have produced innumerable interpretations on Nathaniel Hawthorne's masterpiece The Scarlet Letter. Notably, each different approach to the work has revealed a different viewpoint hidden within the story. Here, the story is to be analyzed in relation to the lifelong inner angst of author Nathaniel Hawthorne.
This new approach shows the main characters to be individuals into whom the depth of Nathaniel Hawthorne's psychological mindset has been projected. Arthur Dimmesdale, a young minister, reflects the author's internal struggle over his ancestor's past involvement in the judgement of witches, including at the Salem witch trial in 1692. Chillingworth, a diabolical man, represents Nathaniel Hawthorne's sense of guilt, and shows his commitment as an artist to observing people's inner souls. Hester's freethinking manner and way of life can be seen as Nathaniel Hawthorne's strong determination to become an independent artist, and one who is never to fall victim to the stains of the past and society. Nathaniel Hawthorne's longing for British culture is reflected in Pearl.
The particular end that each character meets can also be interpreted as carrying its own unique message. Nathaniel Hawthorne is very negative about Chillingworth; the author shows no sympathy for his own inevitably sinful fate of peeping into people's inner souls. The implications of Dimmesdale's death after his final confession on the scaffold are somewhat ambiguous. It is uncertain whether he was saved or severely judged. More likely, there is a mixture of both elements, and his death clearly shows us that the sinful lifestyle of Nathaniel Hawthorne's ancestors must end. Hester ultimately returns of her own free will to the puritan society of Boston, after having lived for a while in the Old World with her daughter Pearl. Hester's return tells us that Nathaniel Hawthorne's desire for freedom includes the possibility of serving the puritan society. Pearl is the only character alive at the end of the novel, happily married, and possibly in England. Nathaniel Hawthorne's decision to live as an artist includes aspirations of British heritage.
Dimmesdale's inherited strong animal nature is the root of the persecuting spirit in the history of the author's' ancestors. Therefore, the scarlet letter A in the story can be interpreted as the initial letter of the word 'animal.'

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new teaching method of English writing, "rule-based teaching method." This method makes it possible that students learn writing rules of an English letter, narrative, paper and so on, and grammatical rules of how to make proper use of English articles, tense, and aspect. That is to say, teachers have to abandon the conventional method by which they teach their students Japanese-English translation, and have to teach writing and grammatical rules particular to English.

Listener's verbal or non-verbal signals are known as backchannel expressions. They are translated "Aizuchi" in Japanese, which are understood as the same as English backchannel expressions in general. It is however, Maynard (1989), Mizutani (1983), and LoCastro (1999) explained that Aizuchi and English backchannels have several differences in frequency, occurrences, and their meanings. In this study, we will focus on the basic structural level of Japanese Aizuchi and backchannels in American English.
The data for this paper are obtained from natural conversations between English and Japanese university students. There are two findings that will be explained and discussed. First, we found that Japanese Aizuchi has much more variety than English backchannel. Second, it is found that one of the basic types of Japanese Aizuchi "sou" has flexible forms, which are connected by sentence final particles (SFPs).
As regards thinking about the performance level of Japanese Aizuchi, we saw several pragmatic style-shifts to make listener's creative meanings in Japanese conversations. Such Japanese behaviors might be the result of emphasizing pragmatic and functional aspects than Americans in the use of listeners' utterances.

For the people in the ancient Japan,nature herself was not God,but some natural products were their gods. Natural products had not their creator; they were not the creator and yet not creatures. They were matter and or non-matter. Therefore gods of the ancient Japanese were matter and or non-matter. And yet they were not gods of the Animism.