A Study on the Language Activities of ‘intelligent non employed’ : Through a Comparative Analysis of the Written and Conversational Texts of “Higansgimade”

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze the characteristics on the use of vocabulary and parts of speech in the “Intelligent Non–Employed” and the dialogue of Natsume Soseki's “Higansgimade” work which was published in 1912 (Meiji 45). The analysis results and considerations are as follows. Firstly, there is a difference of about 1.2 times the number of Chinese characters used in the intelligent non employed's calligraphy as well as dialogue, the usage rate is in the 30% range for both. Secondly, since the modern era the usage rate of new Chinese characters of the intelligent non employed's calligraphy and dialogue is around 20%. Third off, a linguistic characteristic of the intelligent non employed in both calligraphy and dialogue is their use of non–standard Chinese characters belonging to specialized fields. Fourthly, there are 13 foreign vocabulary words visible in the intelligent non employed's calligraphy, it is the only one with the highest number of words among the 28 characters in the work. Lastly, although the total number of nouns used in the calligraphy and dialogue of the intelligent non employed differs by less than 1.5 times, their usage rate is approximately 59% in both cases. Through these five analytical processes, it was possible to confirm the linguistic characteristics of the knowledge class in the intelligent non employed. This study was able to confirm the linguistic and stylistic characteristics of class of the intelligent non employed, through the vocabulary use of new Chinese characters, foreign words, and the nouns used by the intelligent non employed at the end of the Meiji period. This was done by comparing the written and conversational texts of the intelligent non employed. This study provides a meaningful glimpse into the language situation of the era.