The Four Jukugo Construction Patterns

The four jukugo construction patterns are the standard scheme taught in Japanese middle-school 国語 (Japanese language arts) for two-kanji compounds: 修飾 (modifier + head), 並列 (coordination), 主述 (subject + predicate), and 述目 (verb + object).¹² Recognizing the pattern of an unfamiliar compound helps you infer its meaning and make a probabilistic guess at its reading. 青空, 男女, 地震, and 読書 each illustrate one of the four.³⁴⁵⁶

Overview

Where the four-pattern taxonomy comes from

The four labels (修飾, 並列, 主述, 述目) are formalized in Japanese middle-school 国語 (kokugo, Japanese language arts) and reinforced in high-school 漢文 (kanbun, classical-Chinese) preparation.²⁷ They are the pedagogical canon: the patterns Japanese students memorize, and the set that maps cleanly onto the structural decomposition needed to read kanbun.¹²

Academic Japanese linguistics uses a wider taxonomy. Kuwabara (2013), following the 日本語教育事典 (2005), classifies two-kanji compounds into nine structural categories: 並列 (parallel), 対立 (opposition), 連体修飾 (noun-modifying), 連用修飾 (adverb-like), 補足 (complement, covering both subject-predicate and verb-object), 重複 (repetition), 接辞 (affixation), 省略 (abbreviation), and 音借 (phonetic borrowing).⁸⁹ Inside 補足, the head sits on the right for noun + verb compounds like 頭痛 (head-pain, "headache"). It sits on the left for verb + noun compounds like 読書 (read + book, "reading"), where the verb is the head.⁹¹⁰

Pedagogical canon, not the only frame

The four-pattern scheme is the one Japanese 国語 classrooms teach and the one L2 learners gain the most diagnostic mileage from. The academic taxonomy is wider and treats 重複, 接辞, 省略, and 音借 as separate categories.⁸⁹ This article uses the canonical four because they cover the structurally productive cases. The academic carve-outs are noted under Scope and exclusions below.

Why pattern recognition matters for learners

Kuwabara (2013) shows experimentally that intermediate and advanced L2 learners without a kanji background already have explicit knowledge of jukugo construction patterns. That knowledge measurably steers how they infer unknown compounds.⁹ Misclassifying the construction type was a primary cause of incorrect meaning inference in that study.⁹

The same work isolates 主要部 (head) position as the operative skill that pattern recognition unlocks: the head determines part of speech and carries the core meaning, so identifying which side the head sits on is the first move in any inference procedure.⁹¹⁰

For reading prediction, the on'yomi-default heuristic interacts with construction type. Classical-Chinese-borrowed structures, especially 述目, overwhelmingly take on + on readings, while native-origin coordinate or modifier compounds may take kun + kun.¹ The link is probabilistic, not deterministic.

Scope and exclusions

This article covers two-kanji jukugo only. The academic 9-pattern taxonomy explicitly separates 重複, 接辞, 省略, and 音借 from its core analytical set; this article follows that scope.⁸⁹ Four-kanji idioms (yojijukugo) and mixed on/kun readings such as jūbako and yutō are treated separately on J-Compass. The Sino-Japanese reading layer underlies the discussion, but it is not the topic.¹¹¹²

Pattern 1: 修飾 (Modifier + Head)

Form: the first kanji qualifies the second

In 修飾, the upper kanji modifies the lower kanji. The lower kanji is the head and determines the compound's part of speech and core meaning.⁹¹⁰¹ The word order mirrors the English "blue sky" or "early morning" pattern, which makes 修飾 the most intuitive of the four for English speakers.

Two structural subtypes appear in both 国語 pedagogy and the academic taxonomy:⁹¹⁷

• 連体修飾 (noun-modifying): the head is a noun and the modifier behaves adjectivally or attributively. Subcategories include N + N (月光 "moon-light"), V + N (流水 "flowing-water"), and A + N (美人 "beautiful-person", 親友 "close-friend").
• 連用修飾 (adverb-like): the head is a verb or verbal noun and the modifier supplies manner or degree. Subcategories include A + V (新着 "newly-arrived"), V + V (焼死 "die by burning"), and AD + V (特集 "specially-collected").

Within one pedagogy database of 1,319 compounds, 修飾 accounts for 187 entries (the second-largest category behind 同義 with 347).¹³ This is a pedagogy-site count, not a balanced corpus measurement.

Worked examples

青空あおぞらが広ひろがっている。³
"A blue sky stretches out."

早朝そうちょう散歩さんぽをすることはいいことです。¹⁴
"Taking a walk in the early morning is a nice thing to do."

鉄道てつどうの線路せんろを歩あるくのは危険きけんだ。¹⁵
"It is dangerous to walk on railway tracks."

月光げっこうが部屋へやを照てらした。¹
"Moonlight lit up the room."

In 青空, the modifier 青 (blue) narrows the head 空 (sky). In 早朝, the modifier 早 (early) narrows the head 朝 (morning). In 鉄道, the modifier 鉄 (iron) narrows the head 道 (road) into a noun-attributive reading, "iron road = railway."

Diagnostic test

Paraphrase the compound as 「A な B」 or 「A の B」. If the paraphrase makes sense, the compound is 修飾.²⁷ 青空 expands to 青い空. 鉄道 expands to 鉄の道. 月光 expands to 月の光.

A second check is head position: in 修飾 the head is always on the right and the modifier always on the left.⁹¹⁰

Pattern 2: 並列 (Coordination)

Synonym coordination: two near-equivalents stacked

In 類義語並列 both kanji carry near-equivalent meanings and reinforce a single concept; English translations typically collapse the doubled meaning to one word.⁹¹¹³ Examples include 道路 (road + road = "road"),¹⁶ 増加 (increase + add = "increase"),⁹ 河川 (river + river = "rivers"),⁹ 身体 (body + body = "body"),¹ and 価値 (value + worth = "value").²

This doubling is a Sino-Japanese habit: classical Chinese also paired near-synonyms for emphasis, and the practice carried wholesale into the kango stock. Within Kuwabara (2013)'s framework, V + V coordinate compounds like 増加 and A + A coordinate compounds like 広大 carry heads on both sides. Neither kanji is subordinate.⁹¹⁰

Antonym coordination: paired opposites

In 対義語並列 (also 対立) two kanji of opposite or contrastive meaning combine to name the whole spectrum or both poles.⁹¹ Examples include 男女 (man + woman = "men and women"),⁴ 上下 (up + down = "top and bottom"),² 売買 (sell + buy = "buying and selling"),¹ 東西 (east + west),¹ 寒暖 (cold + warm),² and 損得 (loss + gain).²

Kuwabara (2013), citing Kobayashi (2004), notes that for both synonym and antonym 並列 the two kanji "compose in a parallel relation, not a modifier-modified relation," so both characters are co-heads.⁹¹⁰ The Japan Times treats the antonym subset as a distinct readability hint: the meanings of opposite-paired kanji combos are frequently transparent on inspection.¹⁷

Worked examples

男女だんじょ関係かんけいなく、行いくべきでしょうね。⁴
"Regardless of gender, they should go."

結婚けっこんは男女だんじょの結むすびつきである。⁴
"Marriage is the union of a man and a woman."

道路どうろで遊あそぶな。¹⁶
"Don't play on the road."

青信号あおしんごうで道路どうろを渡わたりましょう。¹⁶
"Let's cross the road on the green light."

Diagnostic test

Two questions decide it: (1) are the two kanji roughly synonymous? (2) are they roughly antonymous or paired? A yes to either makes the compound 並列.⁹¹²

The set-member edge case deserves a flag. Compounds like 夫婦 (husband + wife), 兄弟 (older-brother + younger-brother), and 姉妹 (older-sister + younger-sister) are treated as 並列 with a 同類 (same-category) flavor. The two kanji neither contrast as polar opposites nor stack as synonyms, but they are still parallel in structure, with both kanji as co-heads.¹³²

Pattern 3: 主述 (Subject + Predicate)

Form: the first kanji is the subject, the second is the predicate

In 主述構造, the compound packs a miniature clause: "X が Y する" or "X が Y い." The first kanji is the subject (主語). The second is the predicate (述語), which may be a verb or an adjective.⁹¹²

In the academic taxonomy this corresponds to the N + V subtype of 補足 (e.g. 日没 "the sun sets", 頭痛 "the head aches"), with the head sitting on the right.⁹¹⁰ Pedagogy sites and the Japanese Wikipedia entry keep 主述 as its own pattern, distinct from 補足, when the relation is sentence-like with an overt subject and predicate.¹¹³²⁷

Worked examples

地震じしんや火災かさいの際さいは階段かいだんで避難ひなんしてください。⁵
"In case of an earthquake or fire, please evacuate via the stairs."

雷鳴らいめいがとどろいた。¹⁸
"Thunder roared."

円高えんだか克服こくふくは大問題だいもんだいです。¹⁹
"Overcoming the strong yen is a major problem."

Each compound unpacks into a small sentence: 地震 → 地が震える ("the ground quakes"),¹ 雷鳴 → 雷が鳴る ("thunder sounds"),¹ 日没 → 日が没する ("the sun sets"),⁹ 国立 → 国が立てる ("the state establishes").¹⁷ 円高 → 円が高い ("the yen is high/strong") is the N + A subtype: subject plus adjectival predicate. It is still 主述 in pedagogy, but is classified as 補足 N + A in the academic taxonomy.⁹¹⁹

Why this pattern is less obvious to English readers

English compounds are mostly head-final modifier + head forms, such as "earthquake" rather than "ground-quake." As a result, the compact subject-predicate structure of 主述 jukugo has no exact English analogue.⁹

Kuwabara (2013) reports that learners who default to a "head is always on the left" or "head is always on the right" rule frequently misread N + V 補足 compounds.⁹ The 主述 versus verb-object split inside 補足 is exactly where head position flips, and L2 learners often need explicit re-instruction to handle both.⁹

Pattern 4: 述目 (Verb + Object)

Form: verb first, object second

In 述目, the upper kanji is a verb and the lower kanji is its object or complement. The compound reads "verb the object."⁹¹ In modern Japanese sentence syntax, the object precedes the verb (本を読む). Inside these compounds, however, the verb comes first, mirroring the SVO order of Classical Chinese, the source from which this compound type was borrowed wholesale.¹²⁰

The head is the verb (the left kanji), not the object. This is the one place inside 補足 where the head sits on the left, and Kuwabara (2013) and Kobayashi (2004) flag it as the exception that L2 learners most often get wrong.⁹¹⁰

The diagram captures the fossilized order inside the compound and the case-marked expansion learners reconstruct when interpreting it.

Worked examples

読書どくしょの暇ひまがない。²¹⁶
"I have no time for reading."

人生じんせいはしばしば登山とざんに例たとえられてきた。²²
"Life has often been compared to climbing a mountain."

落石らくせきは登山者とざんしゃにとって危険きけんである。²²
"Falling rocks are dangerous to mountain climbers."

父ちちは帰国きこくしたばかりだ。²³
"My father has just returned to his home country."

彼女かのじょは5年ねんぶりに帰国きこくした。²³
"She returned home for the first time in five years."

Expansion into native-Japanese sentences makes the verb-object relation explicit: 読書 → 書を読む ("read books"),⁹¹ 登山 → 山に登る ("climb a mountain"),²² 帰国 → 国に帰る ("return to one's country"),²³ 着席 → 席に着く ("take a seat"),¹ 入学 → 学(校)に入る ("enter school"),¹ 飲酒 → 酒を飲む ("drink alcohol"),¹ and 注意 → 意を注ぐ ("direct one's attention").¹³

These expansions show the native Japanese case particles, such as を and に, that are not visible inside the compound.

The kanbun connection

漢文 (kanbun) is the Japanese practice of reading and annotating Literary Chinese. It was continuously used from the late Heian period (794–1185) until after World War II and remains part of the Japanese senior-high curriculum.²⁰²⁴ The 2018 高等学校学習指導要領 (high-school curriculum guidelines) reform retains 「訓読のきまり」 (kundoku conventions) as required content in the 言語文化 (Language Culture) course and offers 古典探究 (Classical Texts Exploration) as an elective for deeper classical-Chinese study.²⁴

返り点 (kaeriten), including 一二点, 上中下点, 甲乙丙丁点, 天地点, and レ点, are marks placed beside Chinese-text characters to reorder them into Japanese SOV sequence during kundoku.²⁰²⁵ The verb-first order of 述目 compounds is the fossilized output of the same SVO Classical Chinese syntax that kaeriten rearrange.²⁰

Imagine a kaeriten on every 述目 compound

Every verb + object compound is a frozen scrap of Classical Chinese living inside modern Japanese vocabulary. When unpacking 登山 or 読書, mentally insert a レ点 between the two kanji. The mark is what would flip them back into Japanese SOV order if the compound were a kanbun sentence.²⁰²⁵

Diagnostic test

Expansion test: can the compound be rewritten as "B を A-る" or "B に A-る" with a native-Japanese case particle? If yes, it is 述目.¹³² 登山 expands to 山に登る; 読書 expands to 書を読む.

Head test: the left kanji is the verb-head and determines the part of speech. As a result, the compound usually behaves as a verbal noun and supports する: 読書する, 登山する, 帰国する all work.⁹¹⁰ If both expansion and する pass, the compound is 述目.

How identifying the pattern aids meaning inference and reading prediction

Meaning inference: from pattern to definition

Kuwabara (2013) shows experimentally that L2 learners who correctly identify an unknown compound's construction type and locate its head infer meaning more accurately than learners who default to a fixed head position.⁹ The procedural lesson is simple: identify the pattern at the start of the inference workflow, not after a wrong guess.

Pedagogy sources converge on a three-step procedure:¹³²⁷

1. Identify the pattern using the diagnostic tests above.
2. Gloss each kanji with its core meaning (the on'yomi is the bridge to the kango stock).
3. Combine the glosses according to the pattern's rule: modifier + head, A and B, X does/is Y, or V the O.

Worked case: 円高. The kanji are 円 (a noun, "yen") and 高 (an adjective, "high"). The expansion 円が高い reads as "the yen is high," which is 主述 (the N + A subtype in the academic taxonomy).⁹ The pattern gives the meaning directly: "the yen is strong" or "yen appreciation."¹⁹

Kuwabara (2013) reports that learner errors cluster around two failure modes. The first is misclassifying 補足 V + N as 修飾, placing the head on the right when it belongs on the left. For example, a learner may read 点火 as "the kind of fire that is a point" rather than "to light a fire." The second is over-applying the right-head rule to compounds where the left kanji is actually the verbal head.⁹

Reading prediction: how pattern correlates with reading layer

The pattern-to-reading correlation is probabilistic, not absolute.¹ The Sino-Japanese (on + on) reading dominates across all four patterns because the patterns themselves are inherited from classical Chinese syntax.¹¹¹²

Pattern	Reading tendency	Examples
述目	Almost always on + on (kanbun-borrowed structure)	読書 doku-sho, 登山 to-zan, 帰国 ki-koku, 着席 chaku-seki, 入学 nyū-gaku120
主述	Favors on + on when both kanji are Sino-Japanese roots	地震 ji-shin, 雷鳴 rai-mei, 日没 nichi-botsu113
修飾	Splits evenly; modifier kanji's lexical origin drives the reading	月光 gek-kō, 鉄道 tetsu-dō, 美人 bi-jin (on + on); 青空 ao-zora (kun + kun)17
並列	Splits; antonym sets sometimes read both ways depending on sense	道路 dō-ro (on + on), 男女 dan-jo (on + on); 上下 reads both jō-ge (on + on) and ue-shita (kun + kun)1

The general anchor for the on + on default is this: about 60% of entries in modern Japanese dictionaries are kango (a figure attributed to Shibatani 1990), while only 18–20% of common-speech tokens are kango.¹¹¹² Two-kanji compounds skew strongly toward the kango and on + on reading layer. Still, that layer is a probabilistic prior, not a rule, and the full reading-prediction taxonomy (jūbako, yutō, gikun) sits in a dedicated treatment elsewhere on J-Compass.

A worked identification flow

The diagnostic tests above combine into a five-step flow that runs on any unknown two-kanji compound. Pedagogy decision flows converge on this ordering:¹³²⁷

Run the verb-action test (step 2) and the subject-predicate test (step 3) before falling through to 修飾. That ordering matches Kuwabara (2013)'s recommendation from the experimental data: head-position errors concentrate on 補足 V + N compounds that learners default-classify as 修飾.⁹ The on + on reading check at the end is the final sanity pass. A deviation from on + on signals a native-origin or special-reading compound that belongs to a separate treatment.

Good to know

The four-pattern frame is a pedagogical tool, not a universal taxonomy

The "every two-kanji jukugo fits one of four patterns" framing is the canon Japanese 国語 classrooms teach, and it is the most useful diagnostic frame for an L2 learner.¹² Academic Japanese linguistics uses a wider scheme. Kuwabara (2013), following the 日本語教育事典 (2005), recognizes nine structural categories that add 重複, 接辞, 省略, and 音借 alongside the four covered here.⁸⁹ When a compound resists the four-pattern fit, expect it to belong to one of the academic carve-outs rather than force-classifying it.

Ambiguous cases are normal; pedagogy and academic taxonomy disagree on edge compounds

The four-way split is a diagnostic tool, not a forced classification. Kuwabara (2013) explicitly documents that learners produce different construction-type judgments on the same compound. Academic and pedagogical taxonomies also sometimes assign the same compound to different categories.⁹ A clear attested example is 多額 ("large sum"). Kuwabara classifies it as 補足 A + N (the noun is the head, the adjective the complement), while pedagogy frames often read it as a straightforward 修飾 A + N (modifier + head).⁹ When sources disagree, the disagreement itself is informative: it tells the learner that the compound sits near a category boundary and that head-position diagnosis matters more than the label.

Sub-subtypes that Japanese kokugo texts add

Japanese middle-school and high-school-entrance references frequently split the four patterns into 8 to 12 subtypes.²⁷ 修飾 sub-divides into 連体修飾 (noun-modifying, e.g. 親友) and 連用修飾 (adverb-like, e.g. 実行). 並列 sub-divides into 類義 (synonym, 道路) and 対義 (antonym, 男女). Supplementary categories such as 接頭語 (prefix), 接尾語 (suffix), 故事成語 (classical allusion), and 略語 (abbreviation) are added on.²⁷ Learners do not need this level of detail to use the four patterns diagnostically, but it explains why Japanese reference tables look more complex than the four-way split shown here.

Why English L2 sources frequently merge the patterns

Many English-language jukugo overviews collapse 並列's synonym and antonym subtypes into one "opposite or similar" bucket and omit 主述 entirely.²⁶²⁷ The Japan Times treats antonym coordination as a stand-alone phenomenon but does not present the full four-way scheme.¹⁷ The four-way split is the one Japanese middle-school 国語 teaches and the one that maps cleanly onto the academic 9-pattern taxonomy.⁹¹ Merged L2 schemes look simpler, but they cost the learner the diagnostic precision that pattern recognition is supposed to provide.

Misclassifying a 述目 compound as 修飾 by placing the head on the right

A learner who internalizes "the head is always on the right" from 修飾 may read 点火 as "a fire that is a point," treating 火 as the head and 点 as a modifier. The correct parse is 点火 = 火を点ける ("to light a fire"). 点 is the verb-head on the left, and 火 is the object on the right.⁹¹⁰ The correct form, in a sentence:

点火てんかする。
"Light a fire."

Kuwabara (2013) documents this exact error class in advanced learners without a kanji background: the "head is always on the right" rule from 修飾 over-applies to 補足 V + N and produces reversed glosses.⁹¹⁰

Reading 並列 compounds as if one kanji modifies the other

Synonym coordination is opaque to English speakers because English rarely doubles near-synonyms to form a noun. A learner may read 道路 as "a road that is also road" or "a kind of road," treating it as 修飾. The correct parse is 道路 = 道 and 路: two near-synonyms reinforcing a single concept, with both kanji as co-heads.⁹¹⁰¹³ The fix is to expand the compound to "A and B (both meaning roughly X)" rather than to "A B."

Reading 夫婦, 兄弟, 姉妹 as 修飾

A learner may read 夫婦 as "a wife that belongs to the husband," treating 夫 as a modifier of 婦. The correct parse is 夫婦 = "husband and wife": two set-member kanji of equal status.¹³² When two kanji name two members of a closed cultural set (kinship, gender, direction), the pattern is 並列 with a 同類 (same-category) flavor, not modifier + head. The diagnostic is whether the two kanji are co-equal members of a set or one is subordinate to the other.²

述目's reversed order is a kanbun fossil

The verb-first / object-second order inside 読書, 登山, and 帰国 is the original Classical Chinese SVO arrangement. Kanbun reading conventions (kundoku) developed kaeriten marks specifically to convert that SVO order into Japanese SOV during reading.²⁰²⁵ Inside compounds, the SVO order is preserved unchanged. Only when the same construction is unpacked into a native sentence does the object move ahead of the verb (本を読む for 読書). Treating each 述目 compound as a frozen scrap of kanbun gives the learner a stable mental model for the reversal.

"Same / Opposite / Sentence / Reverse" as a four-pattern memory hook

The four-step decision flow also works as a mnemonic. 並列 fires on Same or Opposite kanji (道路, 男女). 主述 fires on a Sentence in miniature (地震, 雷鳴). 述目 fires on Reverse-order verb + object (読書, 登山). 修飾 is the default when none of the above fire (青空, 早朝). Running the tests in that order matches what pedagogy decision flows recommend.¹³²

See also

• How to Read Long Kanji Strings: Chunking Three, Four, Five, and Six-Kanji Compounds
• Go-on, Kan-on, Tō-on: The Historical Layers Behind a Kanji's Multiple On'yomi
• Rendaku in Kanji Compounds: Why 紙 Becomes -gami
• Jukujikun (熟字訓): When a Compound's Reading Is Assigned to the Whole Word, Not the Kanji
• Ateji (当て字): Kanji Chosen for Sound, Not Meaning

References

Footnotes

1. 「熟語 (漢字)」. Wikipedia 日本語版. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%86%9F%E8%AA%9E_(%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97) (Lists 主述・補足・修飾・認定・並列 with subtype breakdowns including 動賓 vs 動補, 類義 vs 対義 並列.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰

2. 「二字熟語の構成（組み立て）12種類と一覧表【高校入試】」. 『二字熟語の百科事典』. https://proverb-encyclopedia.com/two/kumiawase/ (Japanese high-school-entrance pedagogy; expands the canonical four into 12 subtypes including 接頭語・接尾語・故事成語・略語.) (limitation: pedagogy site) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹

3. 「青空」. Jisho.org + Tatoeba example-sentence project. https://jisho.org/search/青空%20%23sentence ↩ ↩²

4. 「男女」. Jisho.org + Tatoeba example-sentence project. https://jisho.org/search/男女%20%23sentence ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. 「地震」. Jisho.org + Jreibun example-sentence project (NINJAL-curated). https://jisho.org/search/地震%20%23sentence ↩ ↩²

6. 「読書」. Jisho.org + Tatoeba example-sentence project. https://jisho.org/search/読書%20%23sentence ↩ ↩²

7. 「熟語の構成を理解しよう」. 国語舎. https://kokugosha.com/2020/04/23/熟語の構成を理解しよう/ (Names the 連体修飾 vs 連用修飾 subdivision inside 修飾関係, with examples 親友 vs 実行.) (limitation: pedagogy site) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

8. 日本語教育学会 (編). 『新版 日本語教育事典』. 大修館書店, 2005. (Encyclopedia of Japanese language education, used by Kuwabara 2013 as the basis for the 9-pattern jukugo taxonomy.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. 桑原陽子. 「漢字2字熟語の意味推測に及ぼす語構成に関する知識の影響：主要部の位置との関わりから」. 『福井大学留学生センター紀要』第7号, 2013, pp. 1–10. http://hdl.handle.net/10098/7325 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰ ↩³¹ ↩³² ↩³³ ↩³⁴ ↩³⁵ ↩³⁶ ↩³⁷ ↩³⁸ ↩³⁹

10. 小林英樹. 『現代日本語の漢語動名詞の研究』. ひつじ書房, 2004. (Cited in Kuwabara 2013 for the 主要部 / head-position theory of two-kanji compounds.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

11. Shibatani, Masayoshi. The Languages of Japan. Cambridge University Press, 1990. (Source for the "≈60% of modern dictionary entries are kango" figure, as cited in the English Wikipedia "Sino-Japanese vocabulary" article.) ↩ ↩² ↩³

12. 「Sino-Japanese vocabulary」. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Japanese_vocabulary (Records the "about 60% of dictionary entries" and "18–20% of common speech" estimates, both sourced to Shibatani 1990; statistic anchored to the Shibatani publication year.) ↩ ↩² ↩³

13. ハナシマ先生. 「二字熟語 分類一覧」. 『教えて！漢文。』. https://oshiete-kanbun.com/4705/jyukenkanbun/jyukugo/ (Japanese-pedagogy taxonomy; reports counts within a 1,319-compound database: 同義 347, 対義/並列 107, 修飾 187, 主述 92, 補足 112, 重ね 81, 略語 105, 音借/当て字 133, 由来 155.) (limitation: pedagogy site, not primary source) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

14. 「早朝」. Jisho.org + Tatoeba example-sentence project. https://jisho.org/search/早朝%20%23sentence ↩

15. 「鉄道」. Jisho.org + Tatoeba example-sentence project. https://jisho.org/search/鉄道%20%23sentence ↩

16. 「道路」. Jisho.org + Tatoeba example-sentence project. https://jisho.org/search/道路%20%23sentence ↩ ↩² ↩³

17. Kawai, Yuki. "Opposites attract in these kanji compound words". The Japan Times, 2011-05-23. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2011/05/23/language/opposites-attract-in-these-kanji-compound-words/ (L2-facing article on antonym-coordination jukugo, used as register/popular-attestation citation.) ↩ ↩²

18. 「雷鳴」. Jisho.org + Tatoeba example-sentence project. https://jisho.org/search/雷鳴%20%23sentence ↩

19. 「円高」. Jisho.org + Tatoeba example-sentence project. https://jisho.org/search/円高%20%23sentence ↩ ↩² ↩³

20. 「Kanbun」. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanbun (Defines 訓読 kundoku and 返り点 kaeriten, locates kanbun reading from the late Heian period until after World War II, and frames the SVO-to-SOV reordering performed by kaeriten.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

21. 「読書 (dokusho)」. JapanDict / JMDict + Tatoeba project. https://www.japandict.com/読書 (Lists 読書 at JLPT N3; example sentence corpus from Tatoeba and Tanaka.) ↩

22. 「登山」. Jisho.org + Tatoeba example-sentence project. https://jisho.org/search/登山%20%23sentence ↩ ↩² ↩³

23. 「帰国」. Jisho.org + Tatoeba example-sentence project. https://jisho.org/search/帰国%20%23sentence ↩ ↩² ↩³

24. 文部科学省. 「高等学校学習指導要領（平成30年告示）解説 国語編」, 2018. https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/new-cs/1407074.htm (The 2018 high-school curriculum revision introduced 古典探究 as an elective and retains 「訓読のきまり」 instruction inside the required 言語文化 course; year-specific because the curriculum reform was published in 2018.) ↩ ↩²

25. 「返り点」. Wiktionary (English). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/返り点 (Lists kaeriten subtypes: 一二点, 上中下点, 甲乙丙丁点, 天地点, レ点; etymology 「返る + 点」.) ↩ ↩² ↩³

26. 「Kanji Compound Words or Jukugo」. SakuraMani. https://www.sakuramani.com/kanji-compound-words/ (L2 source that conflates synonym and antonym under one bucket and omits subject-predicate; cited only as evidence of the merge pattern in English-language resources.) (limitation: L2 blog) ↩

27. 「Jukugo 熟語: Super Words to Build Your Japanese Vocabulary」. The World In Japanese. https://www.theworldinjapanese.com/jukugo-熟語-super-words-to-build-your-japanese-vocabulary/ (L2 source that uses a five-pattern split mixing syntactic and semantic categories; cited only for the merge pattern.) (limitation: L2 blog) ↩