Katakana, unlike hiragana and kanji is essentially a Occidentally driven form. Its style, appearance and purpose is intrcably linked to the permeation of Western ideals into Oriental Culture (and by Orient , here we mean Japanese). Perhaps katakana is a blend of the native japanese aural system constructed by components of kanji characters-a simple google search will demonstrate how most katakana character were derived for kanji. Thus katakana is a reflect on Japanese aural culture, with the stylistic corruption of foreign ideas. Consequently the presence of katakana is undoubtdly linked with Occidental themes such as modernity, radical, reformational etc...
Ok back on track. We classified katakana into categories (onomatopoeia, loanword, emphasis), some of which were rather obvious. In onomatopoeia, for example, the sound of a stomach grumbling
"ルルルルルルル",presents an interesting case. As most, if not all, onomatopoeia are expressed through katakana, this implies that prior to the introduction of katakana either the concept of onomatopoeia, or at the Occidental definition of one, did not exist or alternatively the native written mediums were not compatible with present day onomatopoeia.
Loan words are perhaps the easiest of the three to categorize. They are words taken from other languages that have no japanese equivalents. For example words such as,
コパーブラウン and
ザ・エルダースクロールズV：スカイリム, are rather modern, consequently they are written in katakana to better convey this sense of modernity (the association of the Occident with modernity is due to the power landscapes in the past four-ish centuries).
Lastly are the words for emphasis. For me the most striking example were
ヒップ & キレイ. Both these words have Japanese equivalents. So why were they written in katakana? In my opinion, the use of katakana for emhasis reveals, more strongly so than the other categories, the impression of katakan by the Japanese paradigm. The katakana for hips perhaps is linked to the source of the katakana, namely advertising for stockings. Now, stockings are distinctly a western clothing, and, especially during the modern age, embodied a degree of physical aesthetics. It appears that the use of katakana creates a western flavor into a particular object, and, consequentially, when the consumer reads katakana, the producer attempts to induce a Western mindset to influence judgement.
And just because its Valentines Day
And for those of you who chose to celebrate Singe Awareness Day instead here's a tip from Naruto!
じゃあまた！
