Katakana Literary Work

土よう日の昼
あめがすきなにもしませんポツポツポ

冬
さむい朝 ゴクゴクああいいコーヒー

Composition 2

やまださん、はじめまして。わたしのなまえはクィン　シェルトンです。にじゅういっさいです。ニューヨークからきました。おとうとといもうとがいます。やまださんはきょうだいがいますか。いま、コロンビアだいがくのさんねんせいです。コロンビアでれきしをべんきょうします。そして、まいにち日本語をべんきょうします。えいががだいすきですから、いつもかのじょとえいがかんでみます。やまださんはなにがすきですか。らいしゅう、やまださんにおみやげをおくります。そして、六月一日に日本へひこうきでいきます。よろしくおねがいします。

Katakana Analysis

In the readings I've looked over, each of the different sources address Katakana in a different manner. Many of the sources seem to take a very formal approach only citing their use as conveyors of foreign words. Several of the sources also noted their use to emphasize native Japanese words and describe natural sounds. Few of the sources speak to their growing use to express sophistication though. As this is a movement mostly adopted by younger generations that have taken an interest in foreign fads, the conservative sources don't address this us of Katakana as often.
For my Katakana analysis I chose to look at a few words that were written in Katakana because of their onomatopoetic meanings. They come from an online manga and are used in a scene were the protagonist is waking up during a rainy night in the woods. ゴクッゴク is one of the first sounds expressed and is similar to the English word, gulp, which is itself an onomatopoetic word. It's unclear whether the word in katakana comes from the English word or simply represents a sound made by people of all languages. In the scene the samurai is drinking, or gulping, rain water. It is interesting that it is in katakana while the sound preceding it, written as うっ, is in hiragana. うっ represents the sound "ugh" or "oof." It could be written in hiragana for one of two reasons. Either it is a word that is native to Japanese or the author didn't want to emphasize the main character's discomfort. Because the text in the scene is also very small, if not both I would guess the author does not want the reader to focus on the sound but still wants to express it. ポシポシポシ is another sound written in katakana in this scene. Representing the sound of rain water this word is unambiguously written in katakana to describe a sound. These onomatopoeia's appear throughout the comic though the words discussed here indicate that even these aren't all straightforward.