Herb and all:
I used to do research in Japanese libraries years ago. As I recall,
classification was based in part on Japanese phonology, not the written
form of the word or topic. You had to know the sound of the word or
phrase and its corresponding written form, which could be either
hiragana, katakana, romaji, or kanji (Chinese characters). Keep in mind,
you also had to know your topic and related classification headings.
There are books that provide these classification headings and you can
see an example in English whenever you look at the LOC headings in a
library's computerized reference info.
It has been many years since I have been in a Japanese library, but I
did not have much trouble finding things. My Japanese was not that good,
but I knew enough basic linguistics, Japanese, and the library
classification system to figure it out. Ironically, the most difficult
thing to do was getting permission to enter the libraries at different
universities around Tokyo. You needed a letter of introduction from your
university. Sometimes they would deny you permission to enter. The
Japanese had a very different idea about the free flow of ideas. No
doubt things have changed.
My first published paper was on Likert scales, which I wrote entirely in
Japan using Japanese libraries with English holdings. Consider that
before Mr. Likert invented these ubiquitous measurements in the 1930s,
they did not exist. I was able to find his original paper published in
1932 at the U of Tokyo library along a back wall in a hidden area. Once
I found the paper, it was a eureka moment because I could not have
completed my paper without the original. I also did research using
Japanese sources for my work as a newspaper reporter. I had to find
statistics about the the Japanese educational system, population
demographics, and immigration data, which were all published in Japanese.
Likert scales, like classification schemes, such as the Library of
Congress headings or the numerous systems of grammar, are social
constructs, subject to constant revision and eventual extinction. There
is an erroneous perception by the public that grammar descriptions are
rule-governed and fixed. Unfortunately, some pedagogical grammar
textbooks aimed at undergraduates reinforce this belief, especially when
they discuss one-off usage rules like inflammable vs. flammable.
Mike Busch
> And of course it depends on the alphabet, so Hebrew and Arabic would
> alphabetize following the order of their alphabets. Chinese
> alphabetizes by the number of strokes in a character. I have no idea
> what Japanese or Korean do with their mixed writing systems.
>
> Herb
>
> *From:*Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] *On Behalf Of *Beth Young
> *Sent:* Monday, August 25, 2014 7:33 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* Re: Alphabetizing
>
> When I worked at a public library, we would have listed J. Navy first.
> (You alphabetize word by word, secondarily by letters within a word.)
> But there are complications. Here's a link to the ALA filing rules:
> http://www.ala.org/tools/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet27
>
> Of course the whole alphabet is arbitrary, so you could probably use
> any system you wanted, as long as it enabled you to find things again.
>
> Beth
>
> Dr. Beth Rapp Young
> Associate Professor, English
> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> University of Central Florida
> "Reach for the Stars"
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:*Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Geoffrey Layton
> [[log in to unmask]]
> *Sent:* Monday, August 25, 2014 6:14 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> *Subject:* Alphabetizing
>
> I have never seen an alphabet question on the list, but there's a
> first time for everything:
>
> If you're alphabetizing /J. Navy/ and /Jade/ (two colors), which comes
> first?
>
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