Nakajima, Fumio (1904-1999)
Terasawa, JunProfessor, University of Tokyo
Tanabe, Harumi
Professor, Seikei University
Professor Fumio Nakajima’s field of study centered on English linguistics, covering
English grammar, semantics, the history of the English language, etymology, English
language education as well as close reading of various literary works from Old English
to Modern English. This versatility of his is a reflection of philological attitude in his
day in which literature, linguistics and related disciplines were all inseparable. He wasparticularly excellent in organizing projects such as publishing Eigogaku Raiburari[English Linguistics Library], a series of booklets introducing overseas English
linguistics studies into Japan, which helped to train numerous English linguists in Japan.
He demonstrated his ability as administrator, acting as dean and president on campus,
and president of academic societies outside campus. He indeed proved himself to be an
almighty Renaissance figure over a wide range.
Biography
Born in Nihombashi, Tokyo in 1904, Nakajima entered the Tokyo Prefectural First
Junior High School in 1917. In his third grade he had a chance to have English lessons
from Itsuki Hosoe, who later became an eminent English grammarian. In 1921–24 hestudied at Tokyo Metropolitan First Senior High School. Strongly influenced byProfessor Sanki Ichikawa’s Eibunpo Kenkyu [The Study of English Grammar], Itsuki
Hosoe’s Eibunpo Hanron [The Universal Grammar of English], the works of Sweet,
Jespersen and Brugmann, he had already decided to pursue English linguistics. In 1924,
he entered the Imperial University of Tokyo (later the University of Tokyo), majoring in
English linguistics in the Department of English, the Faculty of Literature, and enjoyedattending the classes of Professors Sanki Ichikawa, Torajiro Sawamura and Takeshi
Saito. The title of his graduation thesis was ‘The Structure of English’.
After the graduation, Nakajima became a lecturer at Keijo Imperial University, Korea in1928, where he taught for 17 years as associate professor from 1931 and as professor

from 1939. From 1929 to 1931, he was granted overseas academic leave and whilestaying mainly in London visited various historic sites in Europe and the USA. In
London, he attended R. W. Chambers’ class of Old English and A. H. Smith’s Middle
English class. Coming back to Japan after the World War II, he was appointed asprofessor in the Department of English, the Imperial University of Tokyo, in 1947 andretired in 1965. Then he moved to Tsuda College (currently Tsuda University), joining
the Department of English as professor and acted as president in 1973-80 until hisretirement.
Professor Nakajima performed prominent roles outside the universities. First, he wasappointed to be president of Nihon Eibun Gakkai (Japan Society of English Literature)in 1952–74. In 1960 he worked as Secretary of the Advisory Committee for the Trainingof Teachers of Foreign Languages and chaired the Working Committee, funded by theFord Foundation, the task of which was to dispatch Japanese university teachers to theUniversity of Michigan for promoting studies in linguistics and English language
education in Japan. He stayed in the USA half a year for preparation of this project.
Next year, in 1961, the Shakespeare Society of Japan was reorganized with Professor
Nakajima elected as the first president. His presidency continued until 1975. He wasenthusiastic in the field of English language education and in 1961 he took up a position
as president of the Language Laboratory Association (currently the Japan Associationfor Language Education and Technology) until 1974. To culminate his scholarlyachievements, he was admitted to be a member of Nihon Gakushi-in (the JapanAcademy) in 1974 and held the membership until his passing in 1999.

Academic Publications
Professor Nakajima’s publications are numerous, their wide scope extending fromEnglish linguistics and literature to English lexicography, teaching English as a foreign
language and Japanese linguistics. In consideration of the nature of this essay, however,
we would like to focus on his contributions to the history of the English language.

In 1951, Professor Nakajima published Eigohattatsushi [A Historical Development of

the English Language] with Iwanami Shoten. Following the introductory chapter (‘AHistory of English and its Background’), Chapter 2 lucidly describes the growth of thevocabulary with reference to the social history of England. Chapter 3 turns tophonological change in English. One of the consequences of sound change is theweakening and loss of inflectional endings, which is the topic pursued in Chapter 4. As
the loss of inflection results in the introduction of other grammatical means (e.g. fixedword order compensating for the loss of case and agreement endings), the final chapter
naturally deals with the syntactic developments in English.

Prior to Professor Nakajima’s work, there were four books on the history of English
published in Japan, three of which happen to bear the same title of Eigohattatsushi:
Ujiaki Nagai (1900), Motoi Kurihara (1910), Kenji Kaneko (1932), and Sanki Ichikawa(1940). 1 While these four works devote different chapters to the linguistic
characteristics of Old English, Middle English and Modern English, Professor
Nakajima’s Eigohattatsushi gives a continuous account of the phonological,
morphological and syntactic developments from Old English through Modern English.
This format of presentation enables us to easily follow the linguistic developments inthe course of the history of English. Another important feature of Professor Nakajima’sbook is its treatment of syntactic change. Except for Ichikawa (1940), the term togoho‘syntax’ rarely appears in the earlier works on the history of English published in Japan.
In light of the fact that in 1950s few studies of English historical linguistics areconcerned with syntax, the inclusion of a chapter on syntax showed Professor
Nakajima’s prescience. We hasten to add that there is no mention of syntax in Karl
Brunner’s Die englische Sprache: Ihre geschichtliche Entwicklung (1st ed. 1950–51),
which was published in almost the same year as Professor Nakajima’s book.

1Ujiaki Nagai, Eigohattatsushi. Kyoto: Bunkodo-shobo, 1900; Motoi Kurihara,Eigohattatsushi. Tokyo: Hakubunkan, 1910; Kenji Kaneko, Eigohattatsushi. Tokyo:Kenbunsha, 1932; Sanki Ichikawa, Eigoshi Gaisetsu. Tokyo: Kenkyusha, 1940.

In 1979, Professor Nakajima fully revised his Eigohattatsushi. While the first edition
devotes less than a page to American English and makes no mention of World Englishes,
the revised edition appropriately responds to a new phase in the history of English byadding subchapters entitled ‘The Establishment of American English’ and ‘Englishes inthe World’. While he admits some weaknesses of English as an international language(e.g. discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation), Professor Nakajima makes apertinent remark that the cosmopolitan nature of vocabulary, abundance ofmonosyllabic words and simplified inflection make the English language suitable for alingua franca.

Another important contribution by Professor Nakajima to the historical study of English
is the publication of a concise dictionary of etymology. Eigogogenshojiten[Kenkyusha’s Little Dictionary of English Etymology] (1962), co-edited with Yoshio
Terasawa (one of Nakajima’s pupils), is the first etymological dictionary published inJapan. Although the number of words listed is limited (c. 2000 words), the etymologicaldescription in each entry is precise and of high academic standard. In addition, if a(borrowed) word is first attested in and after Middle English, this dictionary provides auseful list of Old English words to denote the same or similar meaning, so that we cansee at first glance lexical change for a particular semantic field in the history of English.
This unique feature, which does not seem to be found in etymological dictionaries
published abroad, is taken over to the full-fledged dictionary of etymology edited byYoshio Terasawa (Eigogogenjiten, 1997).

Finally, the following two works by Professor Nakajima are relevant to the history of
the English language: Eigo: Bunpo to Kansho [English: Grammar and Appreciation](1951) and Kindaieigo to sono Buntai [Modern English and its Stylistic Features](1953). The former contains chapters or sections entitled ‘Spelling and Pronunciation inEnglish’, ‘Bible and English’, and ‘Shakespeare and English’. In the latter, Nakajima

traces a history of English prose style by providing detailed notes to excerpts fromthirty-one authors (from Sir Thomas Malory to Jane Austen) and the Authorized
Version.

Anecdotes
One of his students in the graduate school of the University of Tokyo, recalled that
Professor Nakajima was ‘a tall, handsome man, looking nice in his grey suit, and spokein his lively native Tokyo accent’.2 In class, he invited his students to the world ofacademia, through reading Chaucer, Thomas More and delivering a course on thehistory of the English language. At home, according to his wife Chizu, he was ‘soclumsy as to be unable to hammer a nail properly’3 but extremely gentle towards her,and her perfect support made it possible for him to indulge himself entirely in hisstudies.
After having moved to Tsuda College, every year from 1968 to 1977 he enjoyed
travelling extensively in Europe and North America with his wife and some members ofTsuda College Alumnae Association, welcomed by the numerous linguists he hadalready known. His entire life was devoted to the study of English linguistics and thepromotion of English language education during the turbulent period before and afterWorld War II.
(The account of his biography is based on his brief biography in Nakajima Fumio Kyoju
Kanrekikinenronbunshu [Festshcrift for Professor Fumio Nakajima on his Sixtieth
Birthday], Kenkyusha Shuppan, 1965.)

2

Michiko Hoshino, ‘Tsuda-no-Omoide (Memoir from Tsuda), Nakajima Fumio-sensei
to Chizu-fujin (Professor Fumio Nakajima and his Wife Chizu)’, Tsuda Tayori (Letterfrom Tsuda), Vol. 64, No. 11, pp. 34-35, 2013.
3Chizu Nakajima, ‘Shosai-Meguri, Mattaku Mugai (Visit to a Study, TotallyHarmless)’, Kenkyusha Geppo (Kenkyusha Monthly Report), Dec. 1. 1954.