Doctor Uchida applies English linguistics to education and has compiled numerous dictionaries and reference books. This young linguistics scholar aims to promote true globalization by developing future leaders. He is a man of ideas who created a piece of software for analyzing odds for his own amusement during his student days; when he was mad about horse racing and used the technology from this software to create his own software that provides training in writing in English.
Dr. Uchida was born in Fukuoka Prefecture and raised in Nara. His father is a university professor of linguistics who has compiled many dictionaries and was a great influence on him while growing up. From a very young age, Dr. Uchida harbored a sense of curiosity wondering why the meanings of words in Japanese and English differed from one dictionary to another, and went on to enter the English Studies program at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Department of European and American Studies I (as it was named at the time). Excelling in both the literary and military arts, he enjoyed his student years to the fullest as a keen member of the kyudo (Japanese archery) club. In 2013, Dr. Uchida obtained his Ph.D. in Language and Information Sciences at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo. He returned to his alma mater, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, as a lecturer in 2010 and was appointed to his present position at Kyushu University in 2014. His main works include the “O-Lex English-Japanese Dictionary” (Obunsha) and “LINKAGE Expand Your Vocabulary: 800 Words and 1700 Linkages” (Z-Kai). In addition, he was involved in creating a textbook used by 40% of public and private high schools across Japan. Moreover, Dr. Uchida feeds back the results of his research more widely into front-line education by such means as compiling his own educational software and using it in his classes. He also tirelessly engages in interdisciplinary research and is currently conducting collaborative research with game creators at Seaman AI Lab. Dr. Uchida will be a full-time member of the academic staff at the new School of Interdisciplinary Science and Innovation, which is due to open in April 2018, and also serves as a member of the Public Relations Committee.
As an energetic young researcher, Dr. Uchida, who chatted good-humoredly with us, takes the initiative in organizing events and partnering with other fields. He is also involved in the School of Interdisciplinary Science and Innovation which will open its doors in 2018
The books in which Dr. Uchida has had a hand are many and varied, spanning everything from general books to dictionaries and materials for teaching English. You might even find the name “Satoru Uchida” on an English book in your collection.
“Rather than trying to learn English as individual words, it’s more efficient to learn it as multi-word phrases and collocations; doing it that way makes speaking English easier, too,” says Dr. Uchida.
As an energetic young researcher, Dr. Uchida, who chatted good-humoredly with us, takes the initiative in organizing events and partnering with other fields. He is also involvedin the School of Interdisciplinary Science and Innovation which will open its doors in 2018
Words are the medium that humans use to communicate. Behind every single word is a whole host of linked knowledge and you can’t truly understand the meaning of a word unless you actually look at the knowledge that underpins it. For example, in the case of the word “buy,” you can’t use it properly as a word without an underlying knowledge of the concepts of business transactions and paying money to receive something. In other words, hearing the word “buy” evokes the knowledge of a business transaction. This approach is called “frame semantics” and is part of the field of cognitive linguistics.
Another major theme in my research is applied linguistics which involves applying linguistics research to the study of the English language. Vocabulary size is closely linked to language acquisition. For example, there’s the word “telephone.” Most Japanese people know the word “phone” in English. But would they be able to produce the expressions “answer the phone,” “hang up the phone,” “use the phone” unprompted in English based on the equivalent expressions in Japanese? In particular, in the Japanese education system, which places great emphasis on studying for university entrance examinations, there is a tendency to memorize individual words in English by associating them with individual words in Japanese. The Japanese expression for “hang up the phone” is “denwa wo kiru,” where “denwa” means phone and “kiru” means cut. As such, Japanese people tend to render the expression wrongly in English as “cut phone.” There are two elements to vocabulary: receptive vocabulary, which is the vocabulary whose meaning you understand when you see it, and productive vocabulary, which is the vocabulary that you yourself can say and write. Most Japanese people have a high level of ability in the area of receptive vocabulary but low ability when it comes to productive vocabulary. Accordingly, to build productive vocabulary capabilities, I’m promoting efforts to introduce knowledge of collocations (the combination of one word with another/others) into today’s classroom.
The books in which Dr. Uchida has had a hand are many and varied, spanning everything from general books to dictionaries and materials for teaching English. You might even find the name “Satoru Uchida” on an English book in your collection.
Hardly any words function as independent units; they generally consist of multiple, idiomatically linked units of vocabulary. That’s why using collocation to learn words as phrases enables people to learn more modes of expression from a single unit of vocabulary. There are three key advantages to using collocation. The first is that it results in more natural English. Secondly, it lays the foundations for the productive skills of speaking and writing in English. Lastly, it provides a deeper understanding of the meanings of words.
“Rather than trying to learn English as individual words, it’s more efficient to learn it as multi-word phrases and collocations; doing it that way makes speaking English easier, too,” says Dr. Uchida.
A corpus — a database of words — is very useful in building productive vocabulary through the use of collocation. A corpus is a database compiled for research purposes, containing real-life, real-world examples of the use of words to which specific attributes have been assigned, such as the part of speech or genre that they represent. Corpora (the plural of corpus) can generally be used free of charge and enable the user to investigate the frequency with which one vocabulary unit and another are combined within databases of several hundred million words. If you use corpus to analyze the difference between the words “big” and “large,” you start to see differences emerge in the words immediately following them. Big business, big chance, big difference.... large scale, large number, large population.... Investigating the points in common between the words to which they’re linked, you can see that “big” expresses subjective size, while “large” refers to size in objectively measurable terms.
Going back to the subject of cognitive linguistics, which I mentioned at the outset, let’s look at the example of emotions. Amorphous emotions are often likened to liquid. In Japanese, we talk about anger building up or overflowing (“ikari ga tamaru” and “ ikari ni michiafureru”) and there are similar equivalents in English. However, different expressions may be used in different countries as a metaphor for the container in which the anger = liquid builds up, due to cultural differences. Thus, by seeing a word, we can gain an understanding of how we look at the world and how we perceive the world using words. True meaning is hidden behind words. My goal is to increase Japanese people’s productive vocabulary by enabling them to learn these true meanings effectively.
What I find interesting is being able to use linguistic theories and corpora to objectively dissect the words that we use every day without a second thought. There is always something to be discovered in them. Sometimes, we misunderstand the true meanings of words even though we habitually use them, and these misunderstandings commonly go unchallenged. For example, you can’t instantly explain the difference between “high” and “tall.” In Japanese, both meanings are covered by the word “takai.” Textbooks don’t explain it, so it ends up being something that usually isn’t seen. That’s why you don’t understand the differences unless you analyze them. The opportunity to make discoveries as a result of such analysis is what I find fascinating.
If something isn’t yet in the dictionary, it means that there’s still scope to incorporate new knowledge. Those discoveries are undoubtedly handy and helpful, and I want to tell everybody about them! I’d be really happy if I could do so by putting them in the dictionary. Being able to see my discoveries and intuition through to the outlet of applied research, education is really interesting! Another part of the appeal and the thing that I find rewarding is that feeding back my own research into front-line education gives me the chance to be involved in developing the next generation of leaders.
Between his office and his home, Dr. Uchida has more than 100 dictionaries, including many compiled by him or his father. Many of them are dictionaries of collocation. They enable him to look up a variety of expressions and he uses them a lot when writing articles.
Dr. Uchida often travels for work, both within Japan and overseas, so a notebook computer is essential. Even so, he doesn’t use it when he’s on the move; instead, his constant companions are a novel and lip balm (to combat dry skin while flying).
Dr. Uchida uses a device produced by Sony. He’s recently become a fan, because, “It’s not a liquid crystal display, so my eyes don’t get tired, even when I’m reading academic papers. Plus, it’s handy because I can synchronize it with my computer!” “Mind you, there was one time when the battery ran out while I was away so it became completely useless...(laughs).”
Turn your attention to the things around you and find joy in making discoveries in them!
I want students to turn their attention to things to which they don’t normally give a second thought and to consciously develop an interest in them. I don’t just mean language — I mean everything around you, including your family, friends, and things in your daily life. If you consciously try to analyze the words that we use as a matter of course and strive to use them skillfully, you can discover things that you’d never previously realized; only then will you be able to look at words objectively. The same goes for your family, friends and things around you. When you’re at the center of things, your horizons become narrower and you often don’t notice things. If you acquire the habit of taking a step back and adopting the perspective of thinking about things objectively, you’ll discover many things. This is a skill that you’ll find useful throughout your life when making judgments about things.
The School of Interdisciplinary Science and Innovation will at last open its doors this April. Whether your focus is the humanities or the sciences, English is a language that’s essential for living in an age of globalization. Being able to speak a language doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re good at communication. You need to look at things objectively, think about them, and learn the background of each word. It’s only when you mix this with your own experiences, learning and intuition that you achieve communication. I hope that you’ll come and study with us at our university so that you can enjoy fulfilling days filled with fresh discoveries!
This interview was conducted in October 2017.
