The semantic roles of ‘kaku-joshi’ in Japanese textbooks

Case particles are an important Japanese language learning aspect that the learners should have learned since the beginner level, yet there are still many who still do not grasp the meaning and function of each particle. This is because, in the instructional process, the elaboration of such articles is confined to the external structure, while the inner structure (semantic roles) is rather neglected in the textbooks. This study seeks to explain each semantic role of the particles 'kaku-joshi' contained in Japanese language teaching materials starting from elementary to secondary levels used in Indonesia. The method used is descriptive, with textual analysis employed as a data analysis technique. Findings reveal that all Japanese case particles have appeared in elementary level textbooks, namely part icles GA, WO, NI, DE, TO, E, KARA, MADE, and YORI which are used to follow arguments or syntactic functions in the form of a subject, object, complement, and adjunct. However, not all semantic roles appear in the textbook; 14 semantic ro les are evidently not present. The findings of this study can be used as reference material for Japanese instructors in the teaching of Japanese case particles so that the differences among the particles will be clearer and more easily understood by Japanese language learners in Indonesia.


INTRODUCTION
The 'joshi' part icles are crucial elements in Japanese sentences. Each sentence in Japanese consists of such elements as a noun (N) or noun phrase (NP) followed by a particle, then a pred icate fo llows. Tanaka (1990 p. 27) asserts that the function of particles is to clarify the relationship of each noun phrase (argument) and its predicate so that its meaning is more easily understood by the interlocutor.
In conversations, some particles are o missible as in the following example.
unnecessary. Such is the importance of using particles which creates different meanings and nuances in a Japanese sentence.
Therefore, a part icle that determines and clarifies the position or meaning of the noun follows each NP in Japanese. Such a particle is called a case particle or kaku-joshi. The vital role of particles in determining the mean ing of sentences in Japanese can be seen in the following example. (7) Watashi-----rokuji-----densha-----gakkou----iku. NP1 NP2 NP3 NP4 VP 'I 6 train school go' (8) Watashi GA rokuji NI densha DE gakkou E iku. Watashi-NP1-GA rokuji -NP2-NI densha-NP3-DE gakkou-NP4-E iku-V. 'I go to school at 6 by train.' For Japanese speakers, examp le (7) will be difficult to perceive due to the absence of particle markers. On the contrary, examp le (8) is clearly easy to understand because each NP is fo llo wed by the particle GA , NI, DE, and E demonstrating the semantic role of each noun. The semantic role of NP1 with GA is agentive, NP2 with NI states time, NP3 with DE denotes instrument, and NP4 with E denotes goal. The errors in using particles may alter the meaning or render the sentence illicit, and inco mprehensible by Japanese speakers. Such errors are often made by Indonesian learners of Japanese as a foreign language.
There are only nine case particles (kaku-joshi) in Japanese, yet these express more than 30 semantic ro les (Hasegawa, 1999;Muraki, 2004;Sutedi 2018). Consequently, some part icles have more than one semantic role, or conversely, one semantic ro le can be expressed by several different particles. For examp le, NI and DE that have mu ltip le functions can be used to follow an NP that denotes place, but they are variations in use. While NI expresses the existence of an entity, DE states activity. These two particles are quite troublesome for Japanese learners as a foreign language, especially how to discriminate them as in the learners' L1 the two particles are equivalent to one word, as experienced by Japanese learners in Turkey (Dalkiran, 2014), and in Ch ina (Chuu, Tamaoka, & Hayakawa , 2013) and Lee (2014), including in Indonesia (Sutedi, 2018). Therefore, Japanese particles are deemed a relatively comp lex learn ing task for the learners of Japanese as a foreign language.
The complicated nature of Japanese particles for the learners may be caused, among others, by lack of clarity and inadequate teacher explanation. In Japanese learning in Indonesia, especially in grammar teaching, the instructor generally only exp lains the kaku-joshi based on the external structure (shinsou-kouzou) by solely underlining its parallel in Indonesian. For example, the particle NI is equated to the preposition 'di', the particle E to 'ke' in Indonesian. Note that not all Japanese particles can be found their parallels in Indonesian. The instructor generally only exp lains the outer structure of the particles, for examp le, the subject is followed by GA, the subject by WO, p lace by NI or DE, and so on. Apparently, each part icle has a broad range of functions, and its inner structure needs exploring, namely by revealing its semantic ro les. This will help to avoid or prevent misconceptions and misunderstanding. Classroom elaborations of each Japanese language particle contained in the textbook have not yet elucidated its semantic roles, thus resulting in lack of explanation. Th is is so partly due to the poverty of understanding of the articles on the part of the teacher.
This study seeks to describe the semantic roles of each case particle contained in Japanese teaching materials, something that has received scant attention. The results of this study are expected to be used as a reference or enrich ment material for Japanese teachers and learners in Indonesia. More specifically, the objectives of the study are to exp lore any case particles contained in Japanese textbooks, the argu ments that precede each particle, and the semantic ro le exp ressed by each particle.

Japanese particles
Japanese particles are one of the sentence building blocks that play an important role in determining the mean ing of a sentence. Sutedi (2018) enumerates and classifies them into kaku-joshi, fuku-joshi, kei-joshi, setsuzoku-joshi, and shuu-joshi. Emerging after an NP, kaku-joshi or case particles are the particles determine the relationship between an NP and the predicate of the sentence.
Sentences can be analyzed at least from three levels: (1) syntactic functions, (2) syntactic categories, and (3) semantic ro les (Alwi, Dardjowidjo jo, Lapoliwa, H., & Moeliono, 2014;Hasegawa, 1999;Kridalaksana, 1986;Muraki, 2004;Sh ibatani, 2000;Sutedi, 2015;Tsunoda, 2002;Verhaar, 1982). Syntactic functions involve the structure of sentences related to the subject, predicator, object, adjunct, and co mplement. Meanwhile, the syntactic category concerns the class of words used to fill each syntactic function, which is related to nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so on. Semantic roles denote something that is considered to play an agentive role (actor), experiencer, or objective, determined by other roles; something is said to have an object ive ro le because something else plays an agentive role. For example, the sentence: "Father is washing the car in the yard" can be analyzed as the following.

Sentence
: In Japanese, the semantic role of each argument (NP1, NP2, and NP3) is marked by the presence of particles called kaku-joshi 'case particles'. The particles in Japanese are of many types; some are placed behind each noun; some are at the end of the sentence, and so on. Tanaka (1990, p. 27) classifies Japanese particles into: kaku-joshi, fuku-joshi, kei-joshi, setsuzoku-josho, and shuu-joshi. Kaku-joshi particles refer to particles that express the relationship between a noun or noun phrase (NP) and its predicate in a sentence (Nitta, 2011 p. 3). These constitute GA, W O, NI, DE, KA RA, MADE, YORI, TO, and E (Nitta, 2011 pp. 5-6).
Nu merous Japanese linguists have deployed various modern linguistic theories to describe Japanese particles, such as Muraki (2004), Koizu mi (2007), Nitta (2011), and others. The work of Fillmo re in Case Grammar has been adopted in Japanese by Hasegawa (1999), Inoue (1977), Itou (1991aItou ( , 1991b, Itou (2002), Shibatani (2000), and Tsunoda (2002). Inoue (1977) refers to Fillmo re's theory by classifying Japanese cases into 15 types, while Ishiwata (1999) categorizes them into 24 types. Muraki (2004, p. 89) defines a semantic ro le as a mean ing relat ionship between an NP and other NPs with the predicate in a sentence. Therefore, in describing each type of role, the relationship is always expressed in the form of 'NP1 NP2'. No minal sub-categories that are used to express the semantic ro le relationship consists of the following hierarchy: hu man (hu m), concrete (con), abstract (abs), action (act), p lace/space (loc), t ime (t im), and nu mber (qua). Muraki (2004) classifiers Japanese particles in terms of their semantic roles into 30 d istinct types. For examp le, there are similar ro les that can be expressed by different particles such as NI and DE to express locative, in addition to other roles both particles carry.
On the other hand, Sutedi (2018, pp. 300-301) distinguishes the semantic ro les expressed by each particle into 24 semantic types, which can be seen in Table 1. This research employed a co mbination of Sutedi's (2018) framewo rk with Muraki's (2004) to describe each Japanese case particle contained in the textbooks.

METHOD
This is qualitative research using a descriptive analysis in which a generalizat ion is carried out inductively. The data are sentences originating fro m Japanese textbooks used in Japanese departments in various universities in Indonesia. These books include ( Data were gathered by manually recording each data (Sudaryanto, 1988), after which they were analy zed through a distributional method via techniques such as substitution, omission, insertion and the like (Hasegawa, 1999;Shibatani, 2000;Sudaryanto, 1993).

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
This section presents the results of data analysis on various case particles contained in the Japanese textbooks. The d iscussion includes: (a) any case particle contained in the books; (b) the syntactic function or argument followed by each particle , and (c) the semantic role of each particle.

The arguments and syntactic functi ons each case particle follows
The arguments or syntactic functions each case particle follows are as follows.
a. GA follows a subject as illustrated in (9) or functions as objective as in (10). (10) Koko ni denwa GA arimasu. (NS: 15) Here-K telephone-O-GA exist-Pred. 'There exists a telephone here.' b. WO may follow an objective argument in an active sentence as in (11) or in an indirect passive sentence, or follow an adjunct as in (12) (13) or a complement as in (14). Therefore, it can be concluded that the syntactic functions of these Japanese particles are subject, object, complement and adverbial. This is something previous researchers such as Katou (2006), Muraki (2004), and Nitta (1995) did not elaborate in their studies albeit the rising importance of the particles for learners of Japanese as a foreign language, especially in assisting their acquisition.

The semantic roles of each kaku-joshi contain in the Japanese textbooks
The follo wing will present the results of the analysis of the semantic ro les for each kaku-joshi that appears on Japanese textbooks under investigation.

The semantic roles of GA
The semantic roles of GA can be seen in the following examples. In the three examp les above, GA follows the subject but carries different semantic roles. The argument 'Satou san' in examp le (21), when associated with the kuremashita verb 'giving' as the predicate, exemplifies the semantic role of an 'actor' or agentive (A). Meanwh ile, the argu ment 'Ani ga' in (22) shows the role of an experiencer (E) o f the 'being sick' event indicated by the predicate. Quite differently, the argument, 'kaze ga' in (23) shows the role of objective (O) because it is an inanimate noun. (24) Watashi wa nihongo no shimbun GA yomemasu. (M NII: 219) NP1-A Japanese newspaper -O V-state 'I can read Japanese newspaper.' The GA particle fo llo ws an argument that acts as a filler of the object function. Thus the semantic role of the subject is objective (O). Thus, it is conclusive that the semantic roles of GA can be agentive (A) as in (21), experiencer (E) as in (22), and objective (O) as in (23)  In the examp les above, WO all follow the complements, yet their semantic roles vary. WO in (31) demonstrates the role as an abandoned place (kiten/source/S), while that in (32) states the place that entity passes (keiro/path/Pt).
Thus, it can be concluded that the semantic ro les of WO can be objective (O) in active actions such as (25), objective (O) in passive sentences such as in (26), objective (O) in a situation such as (27), objective effective (Oe) as in (28), objective disappearance (Od) in (29), and objective change (Oc) in (30), place or source (S) as in (31), the place passed (Pt) as in (32).

The semantic roles of NI
The semantic ro les of NI found in Japanese language textbooks are as follows. Much like previously, NI follows a location in terms of space in the form of a company or an office. If it is associated with the verb that is the p redicate, namely tsutomeru 'wo rk', then the place is where someone works in an office or a co mpany. Therefore, NI plays a role as locative (L), but given the verb is stative, the semantic role beco mes locative stative (L-stat.). Compare that with DE which acts locatively.

NI indicates a location or also called locative stative (L-stat.)
NI, in the examp le below, follows the adverbs, both of which express the time (T) for an activity or event to occur.

NI indicate space and time (T)
NI whose semantic role indicates time (T) for an event to occur can be seen in the following example.

NI indicates 'goal' (G)
Some examples of the use of NI whose semantic role is to state the purpose (G) of an action are as follows. The examples above also confirm that the use of NI states the role of a goal of act ion (G). The difference is, in some of the previous examp les, NI follows the word in the form of a place (L) in space, but in (37-38) the goal is not space but a person. The aforementioned examp les present the target in the form of the final goal (G) of an activity; activit ies carried out to sit (movement fro m a certain position to a position on a chair) in (39), a riding act ivity ends after the subject is on a train or bus (40).

NI as a motive (MT)
In the following example, NI is used to express the motivation to do something (M T).

(41)
Nihon e benkyou NI ikimasu. (NS: 83) Japan-dir study-G go-action 'Go to Japan to study.' The action stated by the verb in the example is the verb iku 'go'. The subject goes to that place because there is a certain mot ivation, namely to study (41). The motivation is the semantic ro le; NI indicates motivation (MT).

NI as a point of origin or source (S)
The example below suggest that NI indicates the semantic role as source or point of origin. In the examp le above, NI fo llo ws the argument that is a co mplement, and semantically it expresses the role as the source of the object that is transferred. With the transfer of books fro m John in the hands of the subject in (42), it shows that John is the source (S) or point of origin of the book.

Agentive NI (A) in passives
The semantic role as an agent or agentive (A) of NI can be seen in the following example.

Directional NI (Dir)
The example below show that the semantic role of NI is to express the direction (Dir).
(46) Jitensha de daigaku NI kayotte iru. (M NII: 219) bicycle-I campus-Dir come-go-act. 'I make an errand to campus by bike.' The word daigaku 'campus' and onsen 'hot spring' followed by NI in the examp le above exp ress the directions (Dir) OF commuting (46). Thus, the semantic ro les that can be expressed by NI are at least of seven kinds, covering: locative (L); time (T); source (S); goal (G); motivation (MT), agentive (A); objective (O); and Direction (Dir).

The semantic roles of DE
The semantic ro les of DE found in the Japanese textbooks in question are as follows.

DE as locative active (L-act.)
DE, which conveys the semantic role as a place for the occurrence of activity or acting locatively (L-act), can be exemplified as follows. In the example, DE fo llows the word eki 'station' state the place where an activity occurs; the activities to buy newspaper occur at the station. The particle exhib its an L-act role. Let us co mpare it with the locative role of NI discussed above through the following examples. In the examp les above, it can be seen that locative roles can be distinguished from locative stative and locative action, even though they use the same predicate. This can be used as supplementary material for Japanese learning in Indonesia.
DE can be used to express instrumental roles (I) as seen in the following examples.
In the examples 50-51, the word Japanese is considered as a tool or way of doing things, so that DE carries the semantic role of a tool or instrument (I).
In the example, DE fo llo ws the word stating taxi, which is a means to travel for the imp lied subject. Therefore, the semantic ro le of DE in the examp le above is an instrument (I).

DE expressing 'Material' (Mat.)
The example of the use of DE whose semantic role expresses material are the following.
(52) Kono fuku wa kami DE tsukurarete imasu. (M NII: 220) Cloth this-Top paper-M at. made-act. 'This cloth is made up of paper.' The example above shows that DE can be used to follow nouns which state the raw material of an object. Therefore, DE indicates the semantic ro le as raw material (Matt.). In the example above, the raw material in question paper as clothing material.
The jishin 'earthquake' in (53) is the cause of the many deaths. The cause is followed by DE. Therefore, particle DE carries the semantic role as the cause of a situation.

DE as ascriptive (As)
DE can also express the semantic role as the cause of something like in the following examples.

DE indicating limit or amount (Lim)
The following examples show that the other semantic role of the DE is the limit of the amount or (lim).
(54) Eki made sanjuppun DE ikemasu. (M NII: 220) Station-G 30 minutes-Lim. can go-state. 'It takes 30 minutes to get to the station.' The limit shown in the example is '30 minutes' which suggests that someone can arrive at the station within 30 minutes. Therefore, the semantic role of DE in the examp le above is to state the limit (Lim.) or the amount limit.

The semantic roles of TO
The semantic ro les of TO are of two kinds: as a companion, or partner (P) in an act ivity or state as exemplified in (70) and (71), and as expressing content or Ct such as in (72)  In (55) above, TO is used follo wing a noun parallel to another noun, namely the word otoko no hito 'male' and the onna no hito 'female' in the sentence. Likewise, the word chichi 'father' in (56) is considered to be parallel to the subject of the sentence, which is unstated. Therefore, the semantic role of the particle TO in the examples above is to indicate a partner or co mpanion in an activity. (57) Ani wa otouto TO shumi ga chigau. Older brother younger brother-Comp hobby different 'The older brother's hobby is different from the younger brother's.' The example above uses TO as to state the role of comparison between the hobby of the older brother and that of the younger brother.
The example 58 demonstrate that TO does not follow words or phrases but rather follows clauses or sentences. In the example, the semantic role clearly differs fro m that in the prev ious examples. The ro le of TO here states content or Ct.
Thus, there are three semantic roles that can be expressed by TO: as a co mpanion o r partner (P), comparative (Comp.), and as content (Ct).

f. The semantic role of E
The semantic ro le of E is only one, i.e. indicating the destination or direction (Dir) as in the example (59). Based on the examp le above, it can be seen that the semantic ro le of particle E is to express the direction (Dir). NP followed by E is the intended place by the action expressed by the verb. In (59), the word doko 'which place' is the intended direction. Thus, there is only one semantic role that is carried by E, which is directional (Dir).

The semantic roles of KARA
The semantic role of KA RA found in the textbooks is as source (S) or orig in of both space and time as in the following example. In the examp le above, the semantic ro le of KARA is different fro m before. Here, it indicates material (Matt.) to make something. This is almost the same as one of the semantic roles of DE. The difference in the semantic role of these two particles will be discussed in the next sub-section.

The semantic role of MADE
The semantic role of MADE found in the textbooks is a goal (G) or a reaching point, both in space and time as in the following examples. (63) Watashi wa ku-ji kara go-ji M ADE hatarakimasu. (M NI: 219) I-A hour 9-S hour 5-G work-act 'I work from 9 to 5.' (64) Anata no ie M ADE densha de ikimasu. (SN: 38) house you-G train-I go-act. '(I) will go on a train to get to your house.' The two examp les above show that MADE is utilized to express the goal (G), both in space and time.

The semantic role of YORI
The semantic role of YORI found in the textbooks is as a source (S) which is the comparative (Co mp) such as in (65), and the origin of both space and time as in (66)  Such are all the semantic ro les of case particles found in the Japanese textbooks in question. It is clear that not all the semantic roles exist or are presented in the books. When compared with all Japanese language semantic roles in Tab le 1 above, a nu mber of ro les are not present as shown in Table 2 below.  Table 2, several things are apparent. First, there are seven kinds of semantic ro les of GA; however, the textbooks accommodate only three types: agentive (A), experiencer (E), and objective (O). The semantic roles of GA that do not appear in the textbooks are the experiencer adversative (Ea), ob jective effective (Oe), objective disappearance (Od), and object ive change (Oc). These four semantic ro les are related to passive sentences, both direct and indirect passives. The role of experiencer adversative (Ea) does appear in textbooks but is expressed with WA, rather than GA . Other objective roles (Oe, Od, Oc) related to direct passive sentences are unfortunately not found. This shows that the presentation of Japanese passives in the textbooks is incomplete (Sutedi, 2012(Sutedi, , 2013(Sutedi, , 2016. Second, the six different types of semantic roles o f WO are all exemp lified in the Japanese textbooks. Muraki (2004) has, in some length, enumerated these roles, and Sutedi (2015) applied for these roles in delineating Japanese passive structures. Sugai (2017) expanded and enriched the discussions with cognitive linguistics insights.
Third, there are eight kinds of semantic ro les of NI in the textbooks, and only one type is not present, namely the ascriptive (AS) ro le as in the fo llo wing example. (67) Otouto wa shakkin NI nayande iru. AS Younger brother-NP1 debt-NP2-AS confused 'He is confused with his debts.' Such an example is indeed not found in the books, even though it is quite important for co mmunication needs. Hasuike (2004), Muraki (2004), and Sugai (2011) have also reiterated the relative significance of these semantic roles. In a similar vein, Li Dan (2010Dan ( & 2011 has also highlighted that a full range of semantic roles of NI plays a p ivotal role in Japanese acquis ition and learning.  Asayama (2002), Mabushi (2000) and Sugai (1997) suggest that these roles are crucial in communicat ion; therefore, they need to be taught to learners.
Fifth, of the four semantic roles of TO, on ly two types appear in the books: the role of partner (P) and content (Ct), while the goal (G) and co mparative (Comp.) as in the following example are not found.
Koori ga tokete, mizu TO naru. Ice melt water-G become 'The ice melts to become water.' Muraki (2004) holds that the role such as above is equally important, and thus it must be incorporated into the Japanese textbooks.
Sixth, the ro le of E, wh ich is directional, is attested in the books. Th is is in line with Kubota's (1994) statement that the directional role o f E is found in the early stages of Japanese language learning. Seventh, of the five semantic ro les of KA RA, only three appear in the books: the role of source (S), locative source (LS), and material (Matt.). Meanwhile, the agentive role (A) and cause (AS) as in the following example, do not exist.
Watashi KARA renraku shimasu. I-A call 'I am the one that called him/her.' (72) Shingou no kakunin misu KARA daijiko ga okotta. error see light LL-AS accicent hard occur 'Because of the error in seeing the traffic light, a big accident occurred.' Itou (2001) believes KARA is agentive (A) and cause (AS), and such roles are pertinent to learn.
Finally, MA DE that exhib its the role of goal (G) both in space and time is found the books, while the semantic role of YORI that appear only acts as a comparison (Co mp.); the source role (S) does not appear.
In this regard, Kitahara (1998) underscores the importance of all the roles MADE is endowed in a Japanese textbook.
Thus, from the 40 semantic ro les , the nine Japanese particles can express, it turns out that there are only 26 ro les found in the textbooks. This means that the Japanese language textbooks widely used in Indonesia so far are still inadequate in presenting all the materials concerning particles. Therefore, addit ional materials on case particles are to be supplemented, especially for grammar teaching, because it's co mmonly used in daily conversation (Muraki, 2004).
In addition, the problems that have arisen so far in grammar teaching have never been approached from a semantic ro le point of view, where a number of particles have multip le functions, or several particles share the same function (Oka, 2007). This confuses Japanese learners (Wang, 2007).
With a mo re detailed description of the semantic roles of each Japanese particle, it will be easier for the learners to co mpletely grasp and distinguish two particles that have the same function. For example, NI and DE, both of which state place (L), can be discriminated by the locative semantic ro le of an action (L-act.) for DE and locative stative (L-stat.) for NI. DE and KARA, both of which state raw materials (Mat.), can be distinguished into visible raw materials (zairyou/ Mat-raw) and invisible raw materials (ingredient/ genryou/ Mat-ingr). A fuller description of particles can help learners distinguish particles.

CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that there are nine cases in the Japanese textbooks for basic to intermediate learners: GA , NI, WO, DE, TO, E, KA RA, MADE, and YORI. Each part icle can fo llo w a noun phrase that occupies the syntactic function (argument) of a subject, object, complement, or adjunct. The semantic ro les of these particles are quite varied, ranging fro m those acting as agentive (A), object ive (O), experiencer (E), locative (L), instrument (I), time (T), cause (As), the raw material (Mat), and so on.
As an imp licat ion for Japanese language teaching, the findings herein can be utilized as instructional materials for the learners. As aforementioned, the teaching approach solely through functions and syntactic categories is inadequate, additional materials , especially in Japanese grammar teaching on the semantic roles, may be useful for the learners.
A follow up that seems urgent is the need for uniformity of the terms used in Japanese language learning to express all the semantic roles of case particles, thus making learn ing Japanese particles relatively easier for the learners.