An Analysis of a Synonym Set of Japanese Kango Prefixes: “GYAKU-”, “TAI-” and “KOU-”

The purpose of this article is to analyze the semantic relationships among five prefixes with similar semantic attributes, “HAN-“, “ANTI-“, “GYAKU-“, “TAI-“, and ”KOU-”. Besides "HAN-" and "ANTI-", "GYAKU-", "TAI-" and "KOU-" are also Japanese prefixes which mean “opposite”, "against", and "opposed to". First, the research focuses on the three Kango prefixes, “GYAKU-“, “TAI-“, and ”KOU-”. We analyze similarities and differences on word usages, meanings, and word formation processes among the three prefixes. Then we take the three prefixes to further compare with the Kango prefix “HAN-“, which owns the same Kanji symbol in Japanese and in Mandarin, as well as the Gairaigo prefix “ANTI-“.
According to the analysis results, the five prefixes do not only have similar semantic attributes(opposite, against, and opposed to) by themselves, but are also shown apparent connections among their derivatives and Mandarin translations. In addition, based on the results we found from word formation of Kango prefixes "GYAKU-" and "KOU-", as well as from connections between Gairaigo prefix "ANTI-" and other Japanese Kango prefixes, we once again proved that the Kango prefix "HAN-" possesses a core meaning of "opposite", which means "go from bottom to top".