Quote:
Originally Posted by Liumingke
I've been trying to understand something. When is the kanji used. I've read for Noun for sure. Adjectives and verbs use what is called "okurigana" were the root word is kanji and the extend is in kana. So why is it that the word for dictionary じびき (kana) 字引 (kanji) in the book that I'm studying use the kana and not the kanji? Isn't dictionary a noun? Can someone clarify this for me? Is there no set rule? Thanks.
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As anrakushi pointed out, the book in which you saw the word じびき in hiragana may be for children or beginning learners of Japanese. If you look at the textbooks for the 1st-graders in Japan, you will not find too many kanji used.
You asked if there are no set rule. That is not easy to answer because there are at least no 'written rules'. It's only that if a kid refuses to learn kanji in school, he will surely make poor grades. If he still refuses to learn too many of them by the time he reaches his adulthood, he simply won't be able to read newspapers, magazines, legal papers, websites, etc. He won't be functioning as a good citizen. In reality, however, not many people want to be in that kind of a situation; therefore, kids will start learning seriously sooner or later.
So unlike in other countries, the Japanese people write the same sentences or even words differently according to their kanji knowledge. Let me give you an example.
Consider the following sentence and how it's written in Japanese by different age groups. Note that the ages are only
approximate:
"I went to the library with John yesterday."
6-year-olds : わたしはきのうジョンさんととしょかんへいきまし� �。 (no kanji)
7-year-olds: わたしはきのうジョンさんととしょかんへ
行きました。
8-year-olds:
私はきのうジョンさんととしょかんへ
行きました。
10-year-olds:
私は
昨日ジョンさんととしょかんへ
行きました。
12-year-olds:
私は
昨日ジョンさんと
図書館へ
行きました。
With this particular simple sentence, there's no more word that you can write in kanji. So it doesn't matter if you are 12 or 50. The sentence 「
私は
昨日ジョンさんと
図書館へ
行きました。」 is the goal for us.
Had the sentence been longer and it contained words that are written using more difficult kanji, then there would have been more steps before reaching the 'final sentence' that looks good to adults (society in general).