1887
Volume 19, Issue 2
  • ISSN 1018-2101
  • E-ISSN: 2406-4238

Abstract

First- and second-person pronouns have been one of the centerpieces of the literature on language and gender differences in Japanese (Shibamoto Smith 2003). Most of our understandings of (empirical) pronominal use comes from investigations of female speakers of standard Japanese. Our understandings of how dialect speakers and/or men use pronominal forms in daily linguistic practice are not well informed. This article undertakes an investigation of Japanese men’s uses of pronominal forms; each participant was born and reared in the Kansai (western) area of Japan and uses a dialect variety of Japanese (Hanshinkan Dialect). Literature which addresses pronominal usage in Japanese indicates that these forms are risky since they always serve to position speaker and hearer in specific ways relative to one another; as such, pronouns are something to be avoided. The findings of this paper indicate that pronouns are used by Japanese men; however the uses are contextually governed and have little to do with delineating speaker from hearer and have more to do with specific conversational goals.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/prag.19.2.06stu
2009-01-01
2025-02-13
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Abe, Hideko
    (2004) Lesbian bar talk in Shinjuku, Tokyo. In Shigeko Okamoto and Janet Shibamoto Smith (eds.), Japanese language, gender, and ideology: Cultural models and real people. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 205 - 221.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Goodwin, Charles
    (1981) Conversational organization. New York: Academic Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Hinds, John
    (1982) Ellipsis in Japanese. Edmonton, Canada: Linguistic Research.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Hirayama, Teruo
    (1997) Osaka-fu no kotoba. Tokyo: Meiji Shoin.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Ide, Sachiko
    (1979) Onna no kotoba otoko no kotoba. Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Tsuushinsha.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. (1991) How and why do women speak more politely in Japanese. In Sachiko Ide and Naomi Hanaoka McGloin (eds.), Aspects of Japanese women's language. Tokyo: Kurosio, pp. 63-79.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. (1993) Sekai no joseigo, nihon no joseigo (women's language of the world, women's language of Japan). Nihongogaku12: 4-12.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. (2003) Women's language as a group identity marker in Japanese. In Hellinger, Marlis and Bussmann Hadumod (eds.), Gender across languages: The linguistic representation of women and me. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company3: 227- 238. doi: 10.1075/impact.11.13ide
    https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.11.13ide [Google Scholar]
  9. Inoue, Miyako
    (1996) The political economy of gender and language in Japan. St. Louis, MO: Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Washington University.
  10. (2002) Gender, language, and modernity: Toward an effective history of Japanese women's language. American Ethnologist 29.2: 392-422. doi: 10.1525/ae.2002.29.2.392
    https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.2002.29.2.392 [Google Scholar]
  11. (2006) Vicarious language: Gender and linguistic modernity in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Kanemaru, Fumi
    (1997) Ninshoo daimeshi, koshoo. In Sachiko Ide (ed.), Joseigo no sekai. Tokyo: Meiji Shoin, pp. 33-41.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Kindaichi, Kyosuke
    (1942) Zooho kokugo kenkyuu. Tokyo: Yakumoshorin.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Kurokawa, Shozo
    (1972) Japanese terms of address: Some usages of the first and second person pronouns. Journal of Japanese Linguistics1: 228-238.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Lunsing, Wim , and Claire Maree
    (2004) Shifting speakers: Negotiating reference in relation to sexuality and gender. In Shigeko Okamoto and Janet Shibamoto Smith (eds.), Japanese language, gender, and ideology: Cultural models and real people. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 92-112.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Makimura, Shiyoo
    (1984) Osaka kotoba jiten. Tokyo: Kodansha.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Martin, Samuel
    (1975) A reference grammar of Japanese. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Matsumoto, Yoshiko
    (1989) Politeness and conversational universals - observations from Japanese. Multilingua8.2/3: 207-221. doi: 10.1515/mult.1989.8.2‑3.207
    https://doi.org/10.1515/mult.1989.8.2-3.207 [Google Scholar]
  19. (2002) Gender identity and the presentation of self in Japanese. In Mary Rose Sarah Benor , Devyani Sharma , Julie Sweetland , and Qing Shang (eds.), Gendered practices in language. Stanford: CSLI, pp. 339-354.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Maynard, Senko
    (1997) Japanese communication: Language and thought in context. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Miyake, Yoshimi
    (1995) A dialect in the face of the standard: A Japanese case study. Proceedings of the Twenty-First Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society: General Session and Parasession on Historical Issues in Sociolinguistics/Social Issues in Historical Linguistics , pp. 217-225.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Miyazaki, Ayumi
    (2004) Japanese junior high school girls' and boys' first person pronoun use and their social world. In Shigeko Okamoto and Janet (Shibamoto)Smith (eds.), Japanese language, gender, and ideology: Cultural models and real people. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 256-274.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Niyekawa, Agnes
    (1991) Minimum essential politeness. Tokyo: Kodansha.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Ochs, Elinor
    (1992) Indexing gender. In Alessandro Duranti and Charles Goodwin (eds.), Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 335-358.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Ogawa, Naoko , and Janet (Shibamoto)Smith
    (1997) The gendering of the gay male sex class: A preliminary case study based on rasen no sobyoo . In Anna Livia and Kira Hall (eds.), Queerly phrased: Language, gender, and sexuality. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 402-415.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Okamoto, Shigeko , and Shie Sato
    (1992) Less feminine speech among young Japanese females. In Kira Hall , Mary Bucholtz and Birch Moonwomon (eds.), Locating power: Proceedings of the 2nd Berkeley women & language conference. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 478-488.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Peng, Fei
    (1973)  La parole of Japanese pronouns. Language Sciences25: 36-39.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Reynolds, Akiba Katsue
    (1991) Female speakers of Japanese in transition. In Sachiko Ide and Naomi Hanaoka McGloin (eds.), Aspects of Japanese women's language. Tokyo: Kurosio, pp. 129-146.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Roberson, James , and Nobue Suzuki
    (eds.) (2003) Men and masculinities in contemporary Japan: Dislocating the salaryman doxa. New York: RoutledgeCurzon.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Sacks, Harvey , Emmanuel Schegloff , and Gail Jefferson
    (1974) A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking in conversation. Language50: 696-735. doi: 10.2307/412243
    https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/412243 [Google Scholar]
  31. Shibamoto, Janet
    (1985) Japanese women's language. London: Academic Press: Harcourt, Brace, and Janovich.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Shibamoto Smith, Janet
    (2003) Gendered structures in Japanese. In Hellinger Marlis and Hadumod Bussmann (eds.), Gender across languages: The linguistic representation of women and men. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company3: 201-225. doi: 10.1075/impact.11.12shi
    https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.11.12shi [Google Scholar]
  33. Shibatani, Masayoshi
    (1990) The languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Silverstein, Michael
    (1985) Language and the culture of gender: At the intersection of structure, usage, and ideology. In Elizabeth Mertz and Richard Parmentier (eds.), Semiotic mediation. Orlando/London: Academic Press, pp. 219-259. doi: 10.1016/B978‑0‑12‑491280‑9.50016‑9
    https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-491280-9.50016-9 [Google Scholar]
  35. Sturtz, Cindi
    (2001) Danseigo da zo! Japanese men's language: Stereotypes, realities, and ideologies. Unpublished Dissertation. Davis, University of California at Davis.
  36. SturtzSreetharan, Cindi
    (2004a) Japanese men's conversational stereotypes and realities: Conversations from the kanto and kansai regions. In Shigeko Okamoto and Janet Shibamoto Smith (eds.), Japanese language, gender, and ideology: Cultural models and real people. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 275-289.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. (2004b) Students, sarariiman (pl.), and seniors: Japanese men's use of "manly" speech register. Language in Society33: 81-107.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. (2006) Gentlemanly gender? Japanese men's use of clause-final politeness in casual conversations. Journal of Sociolinguistics 10.1: 70-92. doi: 10.1111/j.1360‑6441.2006.00318.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-6441.2006.00318.x [Google Scholar]
  39. Sugimoto, Yoshio
    (1997) An introduction to Japanese society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Sunaoshi, Yukako
    (2004) Farm women's professional discourse in Ibaraki. In Shigeko Okamoto and Janet (Shibamoto)Smith (eds.), Japanese language, gender, and ideology. New York and Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, pp. 187-204.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Suzuki, Takao
    (1978) Words in context: A Japanese perspective on language and culture. Tokyo: Kodansha.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Takeuchi, Lone
    (1999) The structure and history of Japanese: From yamatokotoba to nihongo. London/New York: Longman.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Wada, Minoru
    (1985) Sasameyuki no gengo seikatsu. In Munemasa Tokugawa (eds.), Kamigata kotoba no sekai. Tokyo: Musashino Shoin, pp. 7-40.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Wada, Minoru , and Ryooji Kamata
    (1992) Hyogo no hogen, rigen. Kobe: Kobe Shinbun Sogoo Shuppan Sentaa.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/prag.19.2.06stu
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Dialect; First- and second-person pronouns; Japanese; Language and gender
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error