Rhetorical Devices in Old Japanese Verse: Structural Analysis and Semantics. Part II: From Semantics to Hermeneutics

In the first part of this study we had a deep look at the morphology and structure of the phrases concerned. This showed a partial misbalance in the direct (or linguistic) meaning and literal translation/interpretation of makura-kotoba (MK) collocations. In an attempt to bridge their semantics and pragmatics, here I will refer to hermeneutics, as a psychological means of interpreting the literal meaning. The results are presented in the conclusions, offering a Western reader a direct and clear definition of makura-kotoba and its main special traces.