Outline of collaborative research

This study aimed to advance contrastive semantic-pragmatic research between Japanese and Spanish, focusing on conditional sentence structures. Despite their distinct linguistic origins, both languages exhibit features such as subject omission and flexible word order. However, there has been little research comparing these languages on conditional sentences. While English if-clauses have been extensively studied for their context-dependency, Japanese and Spanish conditional structures offer valuable perspectives on this issue. Japanese employs forms like to, ba, tara, and nara to reflect a variety of speakers' reasoning process, while Spanish si-clauses contain context-dependent nuances not found in English.

The project was a collaborative effort between linguists from the University of Santiago de Compostela, University of the Basque Country, and Japanese universities, addressing the English-centric bias in this field. In Spain, the project leader and Prof. Jiménez met regularly, refining data collection and analysis for Spanish corpora. Later, the project leader and Dr. Castroviejo explored Spanish conditional data in online meetings.

Results were presented in Japan at the Kansai Spanish Language Study Group and culminated in a public symposium in February 2023 at Ritsumeikan University's Kinugasa Campus, featuring Prof. Jiménez as the keynote speaker and ensuing expert discussions.

This event encouraged dialogue on Japanese and Spanish grammar and led to future research plans, and there is a publication of symposium findings in preparation at Ritsumeikan University.

Papers, etc.

Non-peer reviewed

• “Use of Spanish si conditional forms by native speakers of Japanese and their dependence on the context,”『論究日本文学』vol. 117, January 2023

International conference presentation

• A Comparative Study of Tense and Modality in Conditional Clauses in Standard Japanese and the Dialects of Kyushu. International Symposium on Japanese Studies, (Re)-imagining and (re)-translating Japanese culture organized by The Center for Japanese Studies of the University of Bucharest and Graduate School of Language Education and Information Science, Ritsumeikan University. March 31, 2023.

Domestic conference presentation

• Setsuko Arita (2023). Oraciones imperativas acompañadas de una oración condicional en japonés y español.
• Kuniyoshi Nakai (2023). Reflexiones sobre las estructuras de las oraciones compuestas del español: coordinadas, subordinadas y bipolares.

Symposia, seminars, etc.

International symposium presentation

• Simposio sobre gramática contrastiva del japonés y el español. (bilateral symposium)
  Organizado por Universidad Ritsumeikan FY2022 Programa de Promoción de Estudios Internacionales. 16 de febrero, 2023.