Identities and linguistic varieties in Japanese

Abstract

This study explores categorization processes of people (identities) and language (linguistic varieties) in interactions between L1 (first language) and L2 (second language) speakers of Japanese and the language ideologies behind them. Utilizing Conversation Analysis (CA) in combination with Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA), the present study focuses on how participants apply these categories to self and other where identities and language ideologies emerge in the sequences of ordinary conversations. The study also illuminates how the participants react to such ideologies, which is rarely documented in previous studies of L2 Japanese interactions. It is controversial to use CA and MCA as methodologies for inquiries into ideology due to different epistemological and theoretical frameworks. Yet, joining the emerging trend of CA studies that address ideological issues, this study will also demonstrate the compatibility between them. Methodological integration of CA and MCA has been proposed since the 1970s, but has started to be adopted only recently. Because few studies employ this combination in the area of language ideologies, it serves as a novel analytic tool in this body of research. Thus, this study makes a methodological contribution to the study of language ideologies, illustrating the production of language ideologies and reactions to it as participants’ accomplishments.

Nationalism and gender in the representation of non-Japanese characters’ speech in contemporary Japanese novels

“…What ideology are novelists inclined to have with regards to masculine linguistic forms? Fukuda (2014), whose observation about a Mexican speaker and his Japanese conversational partner is mentioned above, discusses other similar studies such as Ohta (1993) and Iino (2006), which reports that Japanese host families do not use regional dialects and slang to guest foreign students. She concludes that many Japanese do not consider vernacular varieties, such as regional dialects, slang, and masculine language, to be part of the linguistic repertoire of non-Japanese, but solely that of Japanese.…”