THE CONCEPT OF “間 MA” AND ITS VERBALIZATION IN JAPANESE

Abstract

The subject of the article is “間 ma” − one of the main concepts of the Japanese culture and its verbalization in Japanese.

Success in communication between representatives of different cultures is largely determined by the way they perceive spatial and temporal categories. Being culture-significant units, they play a special role in the process of speech communication.

Dualistic spatial-temporal nature of “間 ma” concept, its abstractedness, spatial and temporal uncertainty makes its adaptation to Western categories difficult, but correlate to the fundamental concept of emptiness in Buddhist metaphysics.

In the Japanese society an optimal relationship between an individual and the world around is being built on the basis of the “間 ma” concept. It becomes relevant in all spheres of Japanese cultural field: architecture, pictorial art, calligraphy, music, Japanese traditional performing arts, flower arrangement and garden design. A special attention in the article is given to the consideration of cultural and linguistic specifics of the “間 ma” concept, revealing itself in the semantics of linguistic units and largely determining the culture of Japanese verbal communication.

Perception of this concept encourages shaping of culturally oriented approach to language teaching and overcoming cultural distance in communication with the Japanese.