鳥取環境大学紀要
第２号（2004.2）pp.81 −86

A Study of Language Transfer in the Case of the Loan Word Recycle

SUZUKI Shigeyuki

本論文では｢転移｣に関し扱った。言語的に異なる範疇に属する英語と日本語であるので、一般的には｢転移｣は生じづらいと考えられている。だが、言語的に離れている両言語であっても、学習者が心理的に近いと感じることのできる状況においては、「転移」が生じるのである。その際には、中核的要素の有無が転移発生のきっかけを作るのである。外来語の｢リサイクル｣を一例として実験を行い、「転移」の発生を調査した。
転移、中核的要素、心理的類型、リサイクル
Abstract ： This paper discusses language transfer from Japanese to English. Since the two languages are in
linguistically different categories, it seems that language transfer rarely occurs. The fact is that it does occur in acertain situation. Transfer is more likely to happen in accordance with the learner's perception of NL-TL distance.
Whether or not a language learner adopts a transfer strategy in such linguistically distant languages as Japanese andEnglish is up to his/her psychological perception of the languages. In the case of distant languages, core elements also
play an important role for the learner to perceive the TL to be close enough to transfer. This is to be proved by anexperiment.
Keywords transfer, core elements, psychotypology, recycle

deficit when they feel both languages are similar enough

1. Introduction
in his bookto each other. In instances where the L2 learners feel

Linguistics Across Cultures (1957). Since then many linguists

some element to be very particular to the NL, however,

have been discussing language transfer. This view went fromthey may be unlikely to assign those elements to TL

full acceptance to non-acceptance and then again to fullequivalents when they produce the TL.

Lado first introduced the termtransfer

acceptance. Gass and Selinker define the phrase language
Language transfer, which is also called cross-linguistictransfer in their book (2001, p.456) as follows:

influence by Kellerman and Smith (1986), is further argued by
The use of the first language (or other languages known)

Gass and Selinker (2001, p.131). They maintain that there arein a second language context

three interacting factors in the determination of languagetransfer.

Shibuya elaborates this in his article (2003, p.31)(a) a learner's psychotypology, how a learner organizes
In cases where L2 learners lack knowledge of some form

his or her NL

in the TL but have to use the TL they may be prepared to(b) perception of NL-TL distanceconvert NL into TL forms to circumvent the knowledge(c) actual knowledge of the TL− 81 −

鳥取環境大学紀要

第２号

Psychotypology is understood as the learner's perception ofThe Xs in this figure indicate the extent to which the NL is

NL-TL distance: how the learner views the structures of the TL

expected to influence the L2. What should be noticed here is,or how close or remote the learner feels the TL to be.

just as discussed so far in this paper, the degree of language
closeness is based on a learner's perception of the two

2. When does language transfer take place?

languages. The figure also indicates the greatest likelihood ofShibuya (2003) states that transfer is more likely to happen intransfer is in core elements, regardless of the perceived distanceaccordance with the learner's perception of NL-TL distance.

of the NL and the TL. The second area of probable transfer isThat is to say, it does so with the learner's perception of thebetween languages perceived as close, regardless of core versus

psychotypology. Just like the word perception implies,

noncore elements.

psychotypology is the degree of language closeness based on a

Linguistic typologies between English and Japanese,learner's perception of the distance between the NL and the TL.

determined objectively by such things as structural similarities /It does not necessarily mean the actual distance of the two

dissimilarities of the two languages, are so widely different thatlanguages. This psychotypology israther subjective,

the psychotypology determined by a learner's perception wouldindividual, and language-based (Shibuya, p.35). It could be

likewise be believed to be widely different. Such being therephrased that a learner's psychotypology is not static. It willcase, the occurrence of transfer from Japanese to English

change as his/her knowledge about that TL grows.

should be infrequent. Does that mean transfer does not takeGass and Selinker (2001) revises Kellerman's model ofplace from Japanese to English? Are there any core elements

language transfer. In the figure revised by them, Kellerman'sbetween Japanese and English? Are there any possibilities forconcept of coreness is explored. They go so far as to say thatJapanese speakers to perceive English as close?

they can predict where transfer will and will not occur. Theycontinue:

The purpose of this paper is to further examine the notion oftransfer as outlined by Gass, Kellerman, Selinker and Shibuya
by extending the research to a new sample group and toThe greatest likelihood of transfer is in core elements,

explicitly test if the notion is truly applicable to the Japaneseregardless of perceived distance. The second area oflearners of English.

probable transfer is between languages perceived as close(e.g., Spanish/Italian, Dutch/German), regardless of the

3. Hypothesis

status of core versus noncore elements. (Gass andSelinker, p.131)

English is an Indo-European language, whereas Japanese iscategorized as an Asiatic language. They are not typologicallyclose to each other at all. Just as discussed so far, between

The following figure clearly illustrates as to where transfer willthose languages that are typologically far from each other theand will not occur.

chances of transfer are believed to be quite low, except for thecore elements explained by figure 1. Does a Japanese learner
Close

Distantof English seldom ever transfer his/her ability of the NL to theTL?

Core

Non-core

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The author would like to draw the reader's attention to the

XXXXXXXXXX

fact that in the case of Japanese loan words from English, theXXXXXXXX

transferability of Japanese to the TL is higher than might be

XXXXXX

expected. Perceived NL-TL distance for the language learners

XXXX

can be said to get closer in the case of loan words.

XXPsychotypology is also said to get closer when considering loanXwords from English.
Kimura (1979) maintains that Japanese uses approximately

Figure1 (Gass and Selinker, p.131)

7000 English words. It is easily estimated that the number ismuch higher now than when Kimura wrote the article.
Psychotypology between Japanese and English is not close at all− 82 −SUZUKIA Study ofLanguage Transfer

in the Case of the Loan Word Recycle

when those two languages are taken into consideration as afact, however, that is missing in this statement is that, as iswhole. It, however, is naturally believed that psychotypology

quoted from Kimura before, the Japanese language has lots ofgets closer when loan words are to be the focus ofloan words from English. This helps a Japanese learner ofconsideration. It is, therefore, hypothesized that for loan words

English to feel English to be a psychotypologically closefrom English, a learner's transferability will be high, because

language to Japanese. Let the author draw the reader's attention

they believe such loan words as they use in everyday

to the following statement by Gass and Selinker (2001, p.129).

conversation are originally English and therefore they are usedcorrectly. Loan words should be discussed differently from

What is crucial is that the degree of language closeness isother original Japanese words.

based on a learner's perception of both the distance (notnecessarily the actual language distance) between the4. Experiments

languages and on the learner's perception of theorganization of his/her NL.

Thirty-three university students were chosen for thisresearch. All of them finished six years of English study atboth junior high and high school, and another year at college.

From this statement it is rightly said that a learner's perception

They are currently university sophomores. Even though at theirinfluences transferability of the NL toward the TL. Loan words

college they have three ninety minute classes a week, thefrom English are believed by Japanese to be English words

respondents motivation to learn English could be supposed tooriginally.

be not high because English is neither their major nor minor atpsychotypology) of Japanese-English distance should be very

school. They were twenty males and thirteen females.

close in the case of loan words from English. SomeThe katakana word chosen for this research is リサイクル(recycle in English). リサイクル is a loan word from English

So people's perception (namely, theexperiments were conducted to prove that transfer is likely withJapanese loan words from English.

widely used amongst most Japanese. Japan's most prestigious
dictionary of the Japanese language carries the word リサイク

4 - 1 Question 1

ル as a loan word from English.

In this question respondents were asked to write the Japanesekatakana word リサイクル where they thought appropriate.

（資源の節約や環境汚染防止などのために）不要The actual instructions given to them in Japanese are translated

品・廃棄物などを再生利用すること。

into English as follows:（広辞苑 p.2792）
A loan word リサイクル is commonly used these days.
Please write the katakana word リサイクル in theIt says:

parentheses where you would think appropriate to be use.

To recycle is to treat things that have already been used sothat they can be used again.

The actual questionnaire given to the respondents in Japanese is
Recycle is widely used as a loan word amongst Japanese, whilein the appendix section of this paper.

the use of the word reuse is still foreign to them. This is
supported by the fact that the above dictionary does not carry

4 - 2 Question 2the word. So it will be the case that respondents use the loan

In this question the same questions were given to theword リサイクル where reuse (not recycle)should be used. Itstudents. This time, however, they were asked to put theis presumed that the katakana word リサイクル is used in

English word recycle where they thought it appropriate. TheJapanese as a polyseme with two meanings. Common belief

instructions in Japanese are understood in English as follows:

among Japanese people is that English is far from Japanese. Infact they are in different categories. In that sense, people

When the following Japanese sentences are translated into

believe without realization that the psychotypology of the two

English in which parentheses do you think it islanguages are far from each other, therefore the chances ofappropriate to put the English word recycle?

transfer from Japanese to English are remote. One important− 83 −

鳥取環境大学紀要

第２号

Answers for other questions in Q1 are リサイクル (recycle in4 - 3 Question 3
In this question respondents were asked to make explicit thedifferences in English between recycle and reuse. The

English). Recycle is defined like this in the same dictionary asabove:translated version of this question is as follows:
If you recycle things that have already been used, such as
In English there are recycle and reuse. Are there any

bottles or sheets of paper, you process them so that theydifferences or none in their meanings? Please write yourcan be used again.

answer. If you have no idea, leave it blank.

(Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary, p.1206)

In Japanese a katakana word リサイクル is used as aIn Question1 2),3),4) the students wrote with high percentage

polyseme. It not only conveys the meaning of recycle inthe katakana word リサイクル, which should be the correct

English but of reuse. That is because reuse is not yet one ofanswer for those questions. Here let the author draw thethose loan words that are commonly used in this country, andreader's attention again to the fact that リサイクル is aso is different from recycle. From this it is easily assumed thatpolyseme as a Japanese loan word, because reuse in katakana

the katakana word リサイクル acts as a core element of thehas not come into the world of loan words in Japan. Therefore,

two languages. If this is the case, these questions will

as high as 42% of the respondents thought it okay in the firstsignificantly show that transfer is sure to be adopted by atwo questions to say リサイクル, which is inappropriate forlearner just as figure 1 suggests.

the original meaning of the English word recycle.

5. Results(2) Question 2
To avoid observer's paradox (Labov, 1981) in question 2,5 - 1 Data acquired from the experiments.
Question1

Question2

participants were instructed to work only Q2 and asked not to1) (a) 42.4%(14people)

42.4%(14people)

go back to Q1. In Question 2 the questionnaire given to the(b) 42.4%(14people)

39.3%(13people)

respondents was exactly the same as Q1 except for the2)

63.6%(21people)

48.4%(16people)

instructions on the top of the page. Here the questions were3)

87.8%(29people)

72.7%(24people)

made so as to draw out the respondents' knowledge of the4)

69.6%(23people)

63.6%(21people)

English word recycle and to learn if it is transferred from theJapanese katakana word as questioned in Q1.
Surprisingly enough, as in Q1, nearly as many students

5 - 2 Data Analyses

answered recycle as the appropriate choice of word in 1) (a), (b)(1) Question 1
In question1 1) (a),(b) if you read the question sentenceof Q2. More specifically in (a) 42.4%, and in (b) 39.3% of thecarefully the answers for both (a ) and (b) should not be therespondents wrote the English word recycle. This is exactly thekatakana word リサイクル. As many as fourteen students out

same number of respondents as in Q1 with just one differenceof thirty three answered リサイクル for (a) and (b). If it is inin (b) in which thirteen responses were obtained. What isEnglish like in Question 2, the answers are definitely reuse,crucial in here is that transfer did occur from Q1 to Q2.

because the sentence says in Japanese that the shapes of bottles

As is discussed above, in English recycle and reuse are twoand cans are unchanged and used again as they are, whichdifferent words used differently. But for those of theimplies to use reuse not recycle. Let the author quote arespondents who answered both Q1 and Q2 in the same way,dictionary definition of the English word reuse to make surethe katakana word リサイクル is evidently transferred andthis is true.

then the English equivalent is used as is in Q2. What is drawn
from the results obtained by Q1 and Q2 is that transfer strategy

When you reuse something, you use it again instead ofis adopted by respondents as Gass and Selinker suggest (figure

throwing it away.

1 in this paper). The katakana word リサイクル acts as a core

(Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary, p.1241)

element of the two linguistically distant languages. Their figuretells that even between two languages far away from each other,− 84 −

SUZUKIA Study ofLanguage Transfer

in the Case of the Loan Word Recyclein the case of core elements transferability will be high. Thislanguages, for certain lexical words that are used frequently incan be concluded thanks to the results acquired from Q1 andkatakana transfer strategy is being employed by Japanese

Q2. Their figure reflects the reality and that transfer strategy isspeakers of English. It is indeed certain that the respondents

used by Japanese learners of English.

surely employed transfer strategy, but the reason why they did
has not been made clear by this survey because no interview
was done. If the psychological aspects of the respondents are(3) Question 3
The last question Q3 was conducted separately from theother two questions to make sure that the students know themade clear, that will pedagogically be a big illumination in thestudy of second language acquisition.

difference between recycle and reuse in English. The question
originally done in Japanese is read in this way in English:
References
English has recycle and reuse. Are there any differencesCollins Cobuild English Language Dictionary. (1988) Collins

in their meanings? (or the same?) Write your opinion.

ロッド・エリス(牧野高吉：訳)(2003)『第 2 言語習得のメカニズム』ちくま学芸文庫
As many as twenty-eight (84.8%) students responded

Gass, S. & Selinker, L. (2001) Second language acquisition.

unanimously that there is a difference and the difference is justLawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey.

like the dictionary definition that is mentioned earlier in thisKellerman, E. & Sharwood Smith, M. (Eds.) (1986) Cross-paper. Among those who answered Yes, there is a difference

linguistic influence in second language acquisition.
Elmsford, NY: Pergamon.

in English between recycle and reuse , 39.2% of therespondents chose リサイクル in Q1(a) and 28.5% in Q1(b).

Kimura, T (1979) Language is Culture: Culture- based

As for Q2 (a), it was 50%, and Q2 (b) 35.7%. What is clear

Differences in Japanese and English. In Taylor, H

here is that even though 84.8% of respondents know that(Ed.) English and Japanese in Contrast. New York:

recycle and reuse are not the same in English, they transferred

Regents Publishing Company.

the polysemic meaning of the katakana word リサイクル into

Labov, W. (1981) Sociolinguistic Patterns. University ofPennsylvania Press. Philadelphia.

the English word recycle.

Lado, R (1957) Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press.

6. Conclusion
Gass and Selinker maintain that

Considerations ofShibuya, K (2003) Investigation oftransfer strategy

andsimilarity/dissimilarity are central to a learner's decision-

constraints on transfer in the case of Japanese learners

making process .(2001, p.128) In this sense the respondents

of English as a foreign language. Studies in English
Linguistics and Literature. No.13 p.31-51

who used their knowledge of the katakana word リサイクル
to transfer it into the English equivalent must have believed

新村出(1998)『広辞苑』第 5 版

リサイクル and recycle to be similar to each other. And their

鈴木繁幸(1993) ｢ある状況における副詞 here 及び there の研究｣

psychotypology was close enough to adopt a transfer strategy『渦』第 15 号

岩波書店 p.2792
p.91-100

玉崎孫治「最近の Language Transfer 論」田中晴美ほか

based on their intuitions.
The main purpose of this paper was to conduct a survey
about transfer strategy. It is now proved that even between(1987)『言語習得と英語教育』英語教育協議会(ELEC) p.247-264

Japanese and English, which are linguistically distant（2003 年 12 月 17 日受理）

− 85 −

鳥取環境大学紀要

第２号

Appendix(The questions were actually given in three separate sheets.)

問い 1）
外来語の「リサイクル」という語は、今日では広く一般的になっています。
次の文章中の（）内で「リサイクル」が入ると思うところに、「リサイクル」と書いてください。

１）日本では「ビンビール」のビンは５円で引き取られ、洗浄後再びビールを詰め込むことによって、ビンの((a))が行われますが、缶ビールの缶が引き取られ、それをそのまま洗浄後再びビールを詰め込むことで、缶を((b))することはありません。

２）ペットボトルをつぶして出すことによって（）しやすくなると考える自治体があります。

３）近頃ではごみとして収集されたペットボトルを（
４）自動車の廃車の部品の中には､形を変えて(男）し、洋服が作られています。
)されるものが多くなってきた。

女

問い２）下の日本文を英訳した際に（）内に入れる語として recycle が入ると思う（）内にrecycle と書いてください。
１）日本では「ビンビール」のビンは５円で引き取られ、洗浄後再びビールを詰め込むことによって、ビンの((a))が行われますが、缶ビールの缶が引き取られ、それをそのまま洗浄後再びビールを詰め込むことで、缶を((b))することはありません。

２）ペットボトルをつぶして出すことによって（）しやすくなると考える自治体があります。

３）近頃ではごみとして収集されたペットボトルを（
４）自動車の廃車の部品の中には､形を変えて(男）し、洋服が作られています。
)されるものが多くなってきた。

女

問い３）
英語には recycle という語と reuse という語がありますが､意味にどのような違いがあると思いますか（or 同じ？？）。思うところを書いてください。

男

女

ご協力ありがとうございました。

− 86 −