Fields of Phonology and their Units in Japanese Phonology

I shall divide the units that are dealt with in the scientific research of language into four classes, two each, as considered from two different standpoints : 1. the quantitative unit, 2. the qualitative unit, 3. the atomic unit, 4. the unit as a component to the system in question, That which is dealt with in our science of language is the unit as it is related to quality, and moreover as a component of the system, equaling the second and the fourth units mentioned above. Such a unit can not be gotten first as the result of analysis, or rather the student gets the concept by intuition, so to speak, before it is analyzed. Some units which are prepared in the science of language and in phonology as one of its fields are heterogeneous in relationship to each other and have no continuous correlation. When the language is taken up as the object of study, the unit in question is different. For instance, just as the unit set up concerning Japanese phonology does not apply to English phonology, neither does grammatical unit of the Japanese language agree with the unit in English. The fundamental concerns in studying Japanese phonology are : Syllabic phonology…………………………the syllable Word-phonology……………………………the phonological word The former should correspond to the morphology and the latter to the syntax in grammar. In addition to these, as the field corresponding to the word-formation in grammar, there are the phonemics whose unit is the phoneme, but it takes no leading part in Japanese phonology. The syllable in the Japanese language is what is pronounced in the rhythm that the Japanese native speaker recognizes psychologically to be simultaneous : and when pronounced carefully, the clear pauses can be placed in front and at the end of the syllable. It is regarded as a unity that can no longer be analyzed by the consciousness of the general speaker into phonemes, as is shown and supported by the syllabic character (Kana), with which the Japanese language is written. When the phonological word in Japanese is examined morphologically, as a rule, it is seen to have two elements in its construction--the sememe and the morpheme--. It is pronounced continually, in the pattern of careless pronunciation, between which there comes no pause. Just as the morphology and the syntax should be treated as separate in grammar, so it is desirable for us to deal with phonology as the distinctive field by drawing the line between syllabic phonology as phonology of "Langue" and wordphonology as phonology of "Parole"