I recently had the great pleasure of interviewing a Japanese architect (in English!) for an article about architecture. Again and again, he returned to a core fact of Japanese existence: nonverbal communication. He noted that, being Japanese, he conveys thoughts and feelings without words, a habit that ultimately caused an impasse in his marriage to a chatty American.

He nevertheless spoke to me for hours about his inner life. Out came a waterfall of words about insecurities and humiliations, wartime suffering, learning disabilities, divorces, tragic deaths, anger at a parent, and much more, all of it deeply moving. Unless I missed something, he didn’t employ nuance or indirection. He said quite clearly whatever what was on his mind. It makes sense that he has learned to do this after living in California for a half century. It also makes sense that he became chatty during an interview. But … he was so good at expressing his feelings! Could this have been the first time?

When I asked whether he thinks he still communicates nonverbally, he responded that because Japanese culture shaped him indelibly in his early years, he remains very much a nonverbal communicator. It’s a habit he can’t break. And he said I would know this if I ever lived with him (a possibility that we did not explore further!).

I did see his nonverbal side when I asked about his architecture. “It’s very difficult to verbalize and communicate,” he said. I’ve heard other architects be similarly reticent about their work; one told me that he designs precisely because he can’t put his creative impulses into words. So I asked the Japanese architect whether that’s what he meant. No, he said, referring once again to his ingrained habit of nonverbal communication.

The more he spoke, the more confused I felt about that concept.

Sweet Talk, Muddy Words, and the Naked Truth

Last week we began talking about 言葉 (kotoba: word, speech, language). If we look at expressions containing 言葉, maybe we’ll gain a better sense of how the Japanese view the art of conversation (or nonconversation, as the case may be). But first, let’s examine what English speakers say about the topic:

• Actions speak louder than words.
• A picture is worth a thousand words.
• An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows. (Dwight D. Eisenhower)

It would seem from these aphorisms as if English speakers look down on speech as so much fluff. With that established, we can look at comparable Japanese expressions:

言葉から実行に移る (kotoba kara jikkō ni utsuru: to change words into actions)
     word (1st 2 chars.) + action (3rd and 4th chars., which break
     down as reality + to act) + to move

“Turning words into action”—certainly a familiar expression for English speakers, though “walking the talk” is the most current version.

言葉に甘える (kotoba ni amaeru: to accept an offer)
     word + to be content

Here, 甘える is “to be content.” You may recognize 甘 (ama(i)) as “sweet,” as in 甘海老 (amaebi: sweet shrimp, sweet + shrimp (last 2 chars., which break down as sea + old, in an example of ateji)). It makes perfect sense to me that a welcome offer has a connection to sweetness. After all, English speakers refer to “sweetening the pot” or “sweetening the deal.”

For More Sugary Words …

言葉尻を捉える (kotobajiri o toraeru: to cavil at a person’s words)     word + buttocks, tail end + to capture

In case you’re wondering (as I was!), “to cavil” means “to raise irritating and trivial objections,” or “to find fault with unnecessarily.” I found this sample sentence: “He finds something to cavil at in everything I say.” Perhaps that’s better than having him capture your buttocks, as apparently happens in Japan, according to the breakdown above! No, I guess that interpretation is not quite correct! In addition to “buttocks,” 尻 signifies “tail end.” So 言葉尻 means “end of a word.” (“Slip of the tongue” is another meaning.) I suppose “capturing” the “tail end” of a word is like pouncing on words or splitting hairs.

言葉を濁す (kotoba o nigosu: to be elusive, to make things less lucid on purpose, not to commit oneself)     word + to muddy

English speakers refer to muddying the truth. (Oddly, the opposite of this is the “naked” truth!). In Japanese, you can muddy the actual words. (But are they clothed or not?)

On Muddy Voices …

Evasive Action

If we’re to examine expressions about words, we can’t simply consider those involving 言葉. We need to widen the investigation to include words that feature 言 without 葉. The kanji 言 means “word,” “to say,” or “speech” and has the following yomi: GEN, GON, i(u), and koto. Even though koto is a kun-yomi, it often appears in compounds. In such cases, 言 means “word,” according to Jack Halpern.

We found a dash of noncommittal behavior in 言葉を濁す (kotoba o nigosu: not to commit oneself). Here’s another great expression in the same vein:

言を左右にする (gen o sayū ni suru: to equivocate, be
noncommittal)     word + left + right

A few notes about this expression:

• The noun 言 doesn’t have the kun-yomi koto here, as one would expect from a kanji flying solo. Instead, the expression uses the on-yomi GEN. Suddenly everything is backward—the kun-yomi koto is showing up in compounds, and the on-yomi is kicking into action for freestanding kanji!

• In an earlier blog, sayū imparted the feeling of going in all directions at once. In the expression above, sayū ni suru similarly gives the sense of dodging right, then left, in an effort to avoid being pinned down.

But that’s not the final word on evasion (a word that, in English, would curiously seem to be the opposite of “invasion” but isn’t). Check out this term:

言い抜け (iinuke: evasion, an excuse)     to say + to slip out

One slips out of a tight spot by evading a question or making an excuse.

How to Use 言い抜け in a Sentence ….

Well, for the moment let’s evade further discussion (picking it up again next week) so we can enjoy today’s Verbal Logic Quiz!

For the Verbal Logic Quiz …

By all means leave a comment … as long as there are plenty of sugary words and no caviling whatsoever!