Tatsuo Nishida Explained

Tatsuo Nishida
Birth Date:26 November 1928
Birth Place:Osaka, Japan
Death Place:Kyoto, Japan
Citizenship:Japan
Fields:Linguistics
Workplaces:Kyoto University
Academic Advisors:Ishihama Juntarō
Known For:Study of the Tangut language

was a professor at Kyoto University.[1] His work encompasses research on a variety of Tibeto-Burman languages, he made great contributions in particular to the deciphering of the Tangut language.[2]

Biography

Born in Osaka, Nishida graduated from the Kyoto University Faculty of Letters in 1951. In 1958 he became assistant professor at Kyoto University. During his studies Ishihama Juntarō and Izui Hisanosuke had a formative impact on him.[3]

In 1958 he was awarded the Japan Academy Prize. In 1962 he received his PhD for his study of Tangut characters. In 1992 he retired as a professor. In 1994 he received the Asahi Award, and in 2005 the Kyoto Culture Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

He died in Kyoto in September 2012.[4]

Nishida's approach, dubbed "philological linguistics" by Shōgaito Masahiro, involved the linguistic study of textual works and the integration of fieldwork on contemporary languages with philological study.[3] In the context of this overall approach, one of his major theoretical contributions was the notion of "sonus grammae", the phonology that is implied by a script system as analytically as differentiable from the phonology of a language that uses the particular script system at a certain time and place.[5]

Works

Nishida Tatsuo 西田 龍雄. 1968. ja:(続)リス語の比較研究 (Zoku) Lisu-go no hikaku kenkyū. A Comparative Study of the Lisu Language (Tak Dialect), Part II. 東南アジア研究 Southeast Asian Studies . 6. 2. 261‒289. ja.

Books

Edited books

Translations

Articles

Nishida Tatsuo 西田 龍雄. 1955. ja:Myzazedki 碑文における中古ビルマ語の研究 Myazedi hibu ni okeru chūko biruma go no kenkyū. Studies in the later ancient Burmese Language through Myazedi Inscriptions. 古代學 Kodaigaku Palaeologia. 5. 1. 22–40. ja.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: VII-Others. Kyoto University. 6. 26 May 2011. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120318145631/http://edb.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/bull/html/pdf/07_others.pdf. 18 March 2012.
  2. Kwanten. Luc. Luc Kwanten. 1989. The Structure of the Tangut [Hsi Hsia] Characters. T'oung Pao. 75. 1–42. 10.1163/156853289x00102.
  3. Yabu, Shirō 藪 司郎 (2014). “Professor Nishida, Tatsuo and the study of Tibeto-Burman languages.” Memoirs of the research department of the Toyo Bunko 72: 180.
  4. Web site: 訃報:西田龍雄さん83歳=京都大名誉教授、文化功労者 . Mainichi Newspapers . 27 September 2012 . 2012-09-27 . dead . https://archive.today/20121208222830/http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20120927k0000e060227000c.html . 8 December 2012 .
  5. Yabu, Shirō 藪 司郎 (2014). “Professor Nishida, Tatsuo and the study of Tibeto-Burman languages.” Memoirs of the research department of the Toyo Bunko 72: 181, 187.