Writing system · morphography
Morphology
Kanji are orthographic units that characteristically align with morphemes via their phonological exponents — not freestanding idea-symbols, and not syntactic operators.
Honda’s unified model
Honda (2019) surveys morphographic vs morphophonic theories and proposes a compact model:
= formal building blocks of simplex / complex written signs
→ representing phonological exponents of morphemes
→ morphology via phonology (not free-floating ideas)
This covers both transparent compounds and opaque / phonographically assigned items without treating graphs as pure ideas.
A mixed writing system
| Script | Typical job |
|---|---|
| Kanji | Content words / stems (SJ, native, hybrids) |
| Hiragana | Particles, inflection (okurigana), many function words |
| Katakana | Loans, onomatopoeia, emphasis, scientific names |
| Rōmaji | Latin script for acronyms, design, some pedagogy |
Kanji are a major subpart of the signary, not the whole writing system.
Joyce’s morphographic principle
Orthographic units primarily represent morphemes and are arranged to match morphological structure. For two-kanji compounds, Joyce (via Nomura, cited in Honda) lists formation patterns that are mostly morphologically motivated:
| Pattern | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Modifier + modified | 国道 | country + road → national road |
| verb + complement | 登山 | climb + mountain → mountain climbing |
| complement + verb | 外食 | outside + eat → eat out |
| associative pairs | 親子 | parent + child |
| synonymous pairs | 変化 | change + change → change |
| derivation | 不明 | un- + clear |
| phonetic borrowing | 葡萄 | grapes (ateji / exception) |
On / kun dual strata
The same graph packages different lexical strata and phonological shapes. Clinical and psycholinguistic work (cited in Honda) supports dissociable pathways — but readings are spell-out routes, not argument slots.
Scalar compositionality
Semantic transparency of compounds is greater-or-lesser, not either-or (Honda citing Körtvélyessy et al.):
| More compositional | More opaque / bleached |
|---|---|
| 国道 ‘national road’ | 勉強 ‘study’ (hist. strive + strength) |
| 登山 ‘mountain climbing’ | 挨拶 ‘greeting’ (compositionality lost) |
| 変化 ‘change’ | 葡萄 ‘grape’ (phonetic borrowing) |
See worked examples · compounds for the fossil zone and non-claims.
Okurigana — inflection lives in kana
Inflectional verbal morphology is largely spelled in kana after a kanji stem. The productive morphosyntax of tense, aspect, and politeness sits outside the kanji graph — further evidence that graphs are not Infl heads.
Ideography critique (sidebar)
DeFrancis–Unger Critique + Lurie (2006) historiography: characters track speech units (syllables / morphemes), not disembodied concepts. Honda: despite persisting popular belief, kanji are closely related to phonological, morphological, and semantic properties of the Japanese lexicon. Project rule — do not treat kanji as idea-writing that bypasses syntax.