A Study on the Japanese Adverbs “Zenzen” and “Mattaku” in Terms
of Pragmatics
Anggia Septiani Putri and Nuria Haristiani
Postgraduate School of Japanese Language Education Department, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Complete Negation, Adverbs, Pragmatical Function.
Abstract: Japanese is known as one of the complex languages which has many ruigigo (synonyms). “Zenzen” and
“mattaku” are adverbs that are also synonyms, and they have the same meanings which are complete
negations. In English, those have the same meanings as “not at all”. However, lately, many younger people
use it to express positive responses indicating that the meaning and function of these adverbs had already
changed pragmatically. This pragmatical change becomes a challenge for Japanese learner and it is important
to be studied further to prevent misuse which can lead to misunderstanding on the usage of these adverbs.
This study aimed to examine pragmatic function changes on adverbs “zenzen” and “mattaku”. The data of
this study were collected from Corpus Spontaneous Japanese. The data of these adverbs were then sorted into
three types: negation, negative conotations, and new function. Then, the data were analyzed using descriptive
analysis method. The result of this study showed that it could be understood that the negative
connotations had huge frequency on the “zenzen” and “mattaku” functions. “Zenzen” was mostly
used for something that is relative and could be changed if seen from different point of view, while “mattaku”
is absolute no matter what, and also “mattaku” has a tendency to underestimate something.
1 INTRODUCTION
Japanese is a complex language that has different
syntax, grammar structure, and writing system from
another language. Written Japanese is complex and
inherently ambiguous for many reasons. Writing or
typing Japanese typically involves the use of a
combination of three orthographic scripts—kanji,
katakana, and hiragana. (Bjarnestam, 2009).
Also, Japanese has many words with same
meaning (synonims) called ruigigo. To understand
what the meaning of these synonyms, learners should
know the whole of context of the sentences. The
distributional hypothesis states that words with
similar meanings tend to appear in similar context
(Harris, 1968).
This study discussed about “zenzen” and
“mattaku´ which have same meaning as a negation in
negative context. In English these words have the
same meaning with “not at all”, “completely”, and
“any”. “Zenzen” and “mattaku” are located on the
scale of gradient from degree to intensity (Yamauchi,
2012). Even though that these adverbs have negative
meaning, lately many young people use it to express
the postive response which means there is a language
change happening.
This language change can cause many problems
for Japanese learners. Because what they learned in
the class could be different from what is being used
in reality. Many studies show learners to be highly
sensitive to pragmatic in function (Ohta, 2001).
Students are often trained with “academic”
vocabulary. Even though many students establish a
non-academic vocabulary they still need to be able to
distinguish between functional and non-functional
language (Solano-Flores, 2006). But, not only for
Japanese learner, can this language change be a
problem for the teacher too. Therefore, this study of
“Zenzen” and “Mattaku” is important to be discussed
to prevent misuse which can lead to misunderstanding
on the usage of these adverbs.
Some Japanese language learners sent to Japan
will experience obstacles in interpreting the meaning
of the word zenzen and mattaku. Not only had the
limitations of knowledge possessed but also because
its use has changed. Changes in written language
occur but not very significantly as occurs in spoken
language. So research on zenzen and mattaku adverbs
should be investigated to prevent errors in their use
24
Putri, A. and Haristiani, N.
A Study on the Japanese Adverbs “Zenzen” and “Mattaku” in Terms of Pragmatics.
DOI: 10.5220/0007161400240029
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 24-29
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

which can lead to misunderstandings in meaning
interpretations.
The use and change of zenzen and mattaku can be
investigated using its pragmatic function and seen
how it relates to one adverb with another adverb.
Therefore, the authors raised this topic into the theme
of research.
2 JAPANESE ADVERBS
There are Japanese adverbs that contain negative
meaning which have always been used in negative
context sentence. For example, in Japanese nouns,
“nanimo” (nothing) ,”dare mo” (nobody), and
“dokomo” (anywhere) which have “mo” (also in
negative meaning) particle behind. Another example
is “shika~nai” (only-neg.), “kessite~nai” (never) and
“kanarazushi mo~nai” (necessarily), these negative
adverbs are followed by “~nai” which have minus
image in the sentence. In English, the words that have
a negative meaning are any (anybody, anything,
anymore), ever, yet, and at all (Sano, 2012).
The opposite of this expression is positive adverb,
like “kanarazu” (certainly) in Japanese and some
(somebody, someone, somewhere) in English.
‘Zenzen” and “mattaku” including to Japanese
gradable adverbs. Gradable adverb is connected with
norm aberration, marking a ‘more than the norm’ or
‘less than the norm’ situation. Intensification is not
only norm deflection, but also a kind of evaluation.
The role of context is by all means of paramount
importance when defining positive or negative types
of evaluation (Subich et al, 2014)
2.1 The Function of “Zenzen”
Zenzen is one of the negative polarity items
(hiteikyokuseikoumoku), also known in Japanese
grammar as chinjutsufukushi or statement adverb
(Sano, 2012). So, the word after zenzen, it always has
negative words such as ~nai (negative form in
Japanese).
In the late Meiji period up until the early Showa
period, the usage included both negative and
affirmative functions (Yamada 2014). In early
Showa, the use of zenzen in conjunction with an
affirmative word was deemed incorrect for unknown
reasons and this usage dropped (Suzuki, 1993).
However, lately, there has been an increase in the
affirmative usage of zenzen. The use of zenzen with
affirmation is observed especially among the younger
generation, and it occurs with adjectives or adverbs to
emphasize degrees, as in example (1).
Example (1)
このケーキは全然{美味しい・美味しくない}
Kono Keeki wa zenzen {oishii / oishikunai}.
This cake (tasty / untasty) at all.
Both can be used in the use of the word zenzen in
this modern. In contrast to the period of showa which
strongly prohibits the use of the word zenzen in a
positive response even if only for affirmation.
Younger people recently use expressions such as
zenzen daijoubu (absolutely fine), zenzen OK
(absolutely OK) or zenzen ii (absolutely good)
frequently in spoken language. The “zenzen +
positive word” usage which has increased in recent
years often contains more modern expressions, but it
is still seems to be the same affirmative usage that
used more than 100 years ago (Wallgren, 2015).
That positive function was never used before in
Japanese. But nowadays, many people is using it even
they know that function is wrong grammatically. But
it can be used in pragmatic view.
2.2 The Function of “Mattaku”
Sunagawa (1998, p.544) cited that mattaku divided to
be two types: mattaku with “~nai” ending and
mattaku that emphasizes the degree. The meaning of
Mattaku can be seen from the words that followed.
“Mattaku + negative functions” mean it emphasizes
the overall negative meaning.
Mattaku which has almost the same meaning as
totemo, used to emphasize the degree and show
feelings about emphasis on facts / assessments.
Mattaku which shows meaning similar to “sukkari”
(entirely) is something that entirely takes place like
conditions at that time. Mattaku in the function of
“mattakuda” and “mattakudesu” used to strengthen
confession or disclaimer of the other person’s words
in the conversation. The category of Mattaku can be
divided into 4 groups, there are:
1) Adverbia mattaku which followed by negative
form words such as nai, zu, nashi, mai, n or
negative expressions such as dame, mu ~, fu ~ ..
Emphasizing the overall negative meaning.
2) Adverbia mattaku which has almost the same
meaning as totemo 'very' hontouni 'really' and jitsu
ni 'really'. In this category also includes mattaku
with the addition of particle no in mattakuno.
Used to emphasize degrees and show feelings
about emphasis on facts / judgments.
A Study on the Japanese Adverbs “Zenzen” and “Mattaku” in Terms of Pragmatics
25

3) Adverbia mattaku which shows the meaning
similar to 'full' in sukkari is something that
entirely occurs as the condition at that time.
4) Adverbia mattaku in the form of mattakuda,
mattakudesu and others to respond to the words of
the opponent that shows the meaning of
strengthening the recognition or denial of the
speaker's words in the conversation.
3 RESEARCH METHODS
Pragmatics has traditionally been a field of qualitative
rather than quantitative analysis, and also a field
where detailed micro-analyses of small pieces of data
were more common than generalisations over large
bodies of data. Pragmatic aspects of language are
usually best studied on authentic and spontaneous
data (Schmidt & Worner, 2009). The data produced
in this study is qualitative data in the form of
sentences derived from the instrument data obtained
from Corpus Spontaneus Japanese (CSJ). Therefore
the authors use qualitative descriptive method in this
study.
CSJ is a voice corpus made by National Institute
for Japanese Language, Information and
Telecommunication Research of Tokyo Institute of
Technology. CSJ contains 661 hours of voice records
including the script. It can be used for linguistic,
phonetic, Japanese, Japanese education research
(Sano, 2012). Some Japanese researcher is using this
corpus because it has actual data and there is renewal
for the program. The data inside CSJ is taken from
television scripts, radio scripts, and also the data from
the previous researches.
Figure 1: Layout of Corpus Spontaneous Japanese.
Figure 2: Layout of Corpus Spontaneous Japanese.
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
26

First, we classified all of the sentences that use
zenzen and mattaku words in oral Japanese corpus
system or Corpus Spontaneous Japanese. The data is
script of the conversations which are available in
Corpus Spontaneous Japanese program.
After all of the data has been collected, it was
sorted to 3 types: negation, negative connotations and
new function. Negation function is the one which
followed by ~nai. Negative connotations function is
the affirmative words such as chigau (different),
dame (useless), betsu (another or distinction), etc.
Lastly, the new function is the positive response d
function like ii (good), daijobu (all right), heiki
(unconcern), and more.
Then, it using the distributional and change
methods to distinguish the use of the word zenzen and
mattaku. After that, we compared of the differences
and similarities of the use of zenzen and mattaku
annotations obtained from corpus and summed up the
result of the research.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
There are 7.608.368 words available on CSJ program,
and there could be found 1704 words of zenzen and
1435 words of mattaku. Then, zenzen and mattaku
function sorted into three groups, negation (~nai or
~masen), negative connotation (dame, chigau, etc)
and new function (positive functions). Then it was
analysed based on pragmatic functions with
descriptive analytic using distributional and change
method.
The figures (3) and (4) show about the function of
zenzen and mattaku in Japanese daily life
conversation. Japanese tend to use zenzen and
mattaku as a negation and avoid the positive function
of these adverbs.
Figure 3: The Function of Zenzen.
Figure 4: The Function of Mattaku.
Figure (3) shows that the function of zenzen as
negation has the highest frequency, 78% or used 1334
times. Negative connotation only appeared 19% or
320 times, and the new function used only 3% or 50
times. While Figure (4) shows that Japanese tend to
us mattaku as negation is high. The negation function
appeared 75% equals to 1.084 times, negative
connotation function appeared 10% equals to 137
times, and new function appeared 15% equals to 214
times. According to data from figure 1 and figure 2,
zenzen’s new function is being used less than its
negative connotation while on the contrary, mattaku
as a new function is being used more than its negative
connotation.
From figure (3) and (4), it can be understood that
the negative connotations has huge frequency on the
“zenzen” and “mattaku” function.
The data in this section from Examples (2) until
(7) is analysed based on the 3 different function of
zenzen and mattaku that has been aforementioned
above, negation, negative connotation and new
function.
Example (2)
その行き方が全く分からなくて地図とか見てい
ても全然分からない。
Sono ikikata ga mattaku wakaranakute chizutoka
miteitemo zenzen wakaranai.
I do not understand the directions (at all) and I do not
understand it at all even if I look at a map (Women,
25-29 years old).
Example (2) shows the usage of negative context
shown by the using of ~nai following the usage of
zenzen and mattaku. The using of “mattaku/zenzen +
wakaranai” could be found in CSJ, there are 545
usages of mattaku and 743 usages of zenzen. On
example (2) we could see 2 different function of
zenzen and mattaku on 1 sentence, the meaning of
those 2 phrases are different, the one with “mattaku
wakaranai” means that the speaker did not
understand and the “zenzen wakaranai” means that
78%
19%
3%
Negation
Negative
Connotation
New Function
75%
10%
15%
Negation
Negative
Connotation
New Function
A Study on the Japanese Adverbs “Zenzen” and “Mattaku” in Terms of Pragmatics
27

the speaker has did some effort but the speaker still
do not understand.
Example (3)
それまでは海外での生活と言うか仕事の経験全
くありませんでした。
Soremade wa kaigai de no seikatsu to iu ka shigoto
no keiken mattaku arimasendeshita.
Until then I have no experience of work or job abroad
(Men, 55-59 years old).
Example (4)
そんなに悪いことなんか言ってる訳では全然あ
りませんでした。
Sonnani waruikoto nanka itteruwaku dewa zenzen
arimasen deshita.
I was not saying anything bad (Women, 45-49 years
old).
Example (3) and (4) shows the usage of negative
sentence shown by the using of “arimasen” following
the use of zenzen and mattaku. In the CSJ could be
found 28 sentences using “zenzen arimasen” and 56
sentences using “mattaku arimasen”. Although both
sentences are using arimasen but their meaning are
different from each other. From example (3) we could
see that the speaker dont have any experience of
working abroad for his whole life, while the usage of
“zenzen arimasen” on example (4) could mean
relative, she did not say anything bad at the time but
has probably say something bad before at one point
of her life.
Example (5)
父親に座ってもらったりするんですけれどもも
う全然ダメですね。
Chichioya ni suwatte morattari surundesukeredomo
mou zenzen damedesune.
I have my father sit down, but it’s no good at all
(Women, 25-29 years old).
Example (6)
女性二人というのがもう全く英語がダメです。
Jousei futari toiu no ga mou mattaku eigo ga dame
desu.
Those two girls are really bad at english (Women, 30-
34 years old)
The usage of “zenzen/mattaku + dame” is for
showing a negative connotation. “Dame” has the
same meaning with “yokunai” (it is not good). In the
CSJ There are 18 sentences using “zenzen dame” and
6 sentences using “mattaku dame”. In example (5),
the speaker said that the speaker has did some effort
but it is pretty much useless, while on example (6) the
speaker said that the object being talked about by the
speaker is not good or bad at something and the
speaker could do nothing about it. This result is
reinforced by Taguchi (2009) theory. According to
Taguchi, the usage of mattaku is often used following
the feeling of emotion within the speaker because of
its function as a strong negation.
Example (7)
俺の一年だったともう全然大丈夫だよ。
Boku no ichinendatta to mou zenzen daijoubudayo.
My whole year have no problem. (Men, 20-24 years
old)
In CSJ could be found 18 sentences using “zenzen
daijoubu” but no usage of “mattaku daijoubu” could
be found. Example (7) shows that the speaker dont
have any problem at all, but the usage of “zenzen
daijoubu” could mean relative as there are probably
some minor problem on the speaker’s year, and there
is no way that one person could get through a year
without any single problem at all, because of that
mattaku could not be used because mattaku is
absolute.
Seeing example (2) through (7) we could
understand that zenzen mostly being used for
something that is relative and could be changed if
seen from different point of view while mattaku is
absolut no matter what, and also mattaku has a
tendency to underestimate something.
Despite the changes in use in both adverbs, the use
of positive meanings is more commonly found in the
use of mattaku. Conversely, positive words that have
a negative meaning can be seen in the use of zenzen.
Therefore, we can know that the use of zenzen
using a positive word has a denial of the previous
sentence as seen in example (7) which shows that
there is a denial that life is not working. Although
logically, it is impossible for a person to have no
problems throughout the year in his life.
While the use of mattaku has an emphasis for the
sentence that explained. As the phrase described in
examples (5) and (6) in which example (6) has an
emphasis and satire on a third party, and he cannot do
anything for the object of speech. Where example (5)
shows more of an effort and point of view of the
speaker.
5 CONCLUSIONS
This study is focusing on the function of zenzen and
mattaku on different usage such as negative
connotation, negation and new function. For both
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
28

zenzen and mattaku. Its usage as a negation is the
most used one, while on the negative connotation and
new function they got different result. Zenzen is
mostly being used on a negative connotation while on
the contrary mattaku is mostly being used by its new
function as a positive connotation. Zenzen is mostly
being used on something that is relative or temporary
from the speaker’s point of view while mattaku tend
to be something that is absolute no matter from what
point of view.
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