The Concept of "Uchi-Soto" as Japanese Ethno-Cultural Archetype and Its Reflection in the Japanese Language

Language is one of the most ancient heritages of mankind, which people use to communicate, understand each other, express their wishes and thoughts, learn something new and transmit culture from one generation to another. Every language evolves together with history, includes all changes in human life and also provides its speakers the typical method of understanding and classifying reality. The division into “uchi-soto” like the original peculiarity of the Japanese mentality is one such example. It is defined as the distinction between in-groups (family, friends and colleagues) and out-groups (strangers, foreigners). This distinction is reflected in the Japanese language, its grammar and vocabulary. Therefore, the aims of this paper are to find out main reasons for this division into “uchi” and “soto”, to establish how this division has influenced the language and to give some examples as the evidence of this influence.