One word is キャラクター which means "Character". This is a loan word which is borrowed from English and incorporated into Japanese. The other word is the name of the hello kitty company: サンリオ (Sanrio). I don't think this is a loanword cause there is no meaning for "Sanrio" in English. So this is might just a expression of the names of companies. As I known, a lot companies in Japan express their name in Katakana. Like Toyota トヨタ。
In order to rich my Katakana analyze, I decide to add more katakana which is not loan word.
First word is from a animated featured film I recently watched "秒速5センチメートル" by Mokoto Shinkai.
桜の花の落ちるスピード。This is a sentence speaks by the girl"明里". The Katakana word"ピード" is not a loan word as my last two katakana. It's a Onomatopoeia. It descride the sound when cherry fall on the ground. "bi-do".
Second word is from a PS2 Game.
"ドン ド コ ドン" This is also a very cute Onomatopoeia which immitate the sound of drumming.
Katakana is used instead of Hiragana to give the pronunciation of a word written in Roman characters, or for a foreign word or for company name. Using Katakana is to distinguish between native words and foreign words. This is meaningless to create a new Hiragana word which has the same pronunciation with the foreign word.
Each textbook is different in explaining katakana because Katana is a flexible form. There is no such rule that in what circumstances Katanaka must be used. We can actually create Katatana word if we want. Therefore, categorize them in a same way is very hard. In lyrics, for emphasis or to change meaning, Katakana was also used differently in past times than now. And in this fast changing society, as in when Japan opened up to European and America, it brings a lot influence to Katakana. A lot words were created and I believe there are still a lot words are creating now. Because of this, I think there is no one right way to define Katakana, and so every textbook is a different person's perspective on this varying history and unique characteristic of the Japanese.
Each textbook is different in explaining katakana because Katana is a flexible form. There is no such rule that in what circumstances Katanaka must be used. We can actually create Katatana word if we want. Therefore, categorize them in a same way is very hard. In lyrics, for emphasis or to change meaning, Katakana was also used differently in past times than now. And in this fast changing society, as in when Japan opened up to European and America, it brings a lot influence to Katakana. A lot words were created and I believe there are still a lot words are creating now. Because of this, I think there is no one right way to define Katakana, and so every textbook is a different person's perspective on this varying history and unique characteristic of the Japanese.
