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Sociophonetic Variation at the Intersection of Gender, Region, and Style in Japanese Female Speech

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Sociophonetic Variation at the Intersection of Gender, Region, and Style in Japanese Female Speech SOCIOPHONETIC VARIATION AT THE INTERSECTION OF GENDER, REGION, AND STYLE IN JAPANESE FEMALE SPEECH A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics By Sakiko Kajino, M.S. Washington, D.C. March 18th, 2014 Copyright 2014 by Sakiko Kajino All Rights Reserved ii SOCIOPHONETIC VARIATION AT THE INTERSECTION OF GENDER, REGION, AND STYLE IN JAPANESE FEMALE SPEECH Sakiko Kajino, M.S. Dissertation Advisors: Natalie Schilling, Ph.D. and Robert J. Podesva, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This dissertation is a sociophonetic study of 46 female Japanese speakers from three major metropolitan regions: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. While previous work on Japanese Women's Language assumes a monolithic speech variety, this study shows that women in the three regions exhibit strikingly different speech patterns. Rather than constructing a uniform gender identity, Japanese women produce gendered figures that typify particular geographic regions while negotiating the regional stereotypes. Three phonetic features in 25 dyadic conversation recordings of 46 participants are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively: breathy voice, acoustic characteristics of voiceless sibilant fricatives /s/ (e.g. sumi ‘charcoal’) and /ɕ/ (e.g. shumi ‘hobby’), and intonational patterns (accented vs. deaccented) of negative polar questions (e.g. amaku nai? ‘isn’t [this] sweet?’). The analyses present the cross-regional patterning as well as intra-regional variation using the mixed-method technique with sociolinguistic variationist analysis, close examination of conversations, and ethnographic approach. The cross-regional analyses, which present big-picture patterns for the three phonetic features, show the following: 1) A feature that is considered to mark gender (i.e. breathy voice) exhibits regional differences (for Kyoto speakers, breathy voice exhibits a stronger correlation with low intensity and high F0 levels than for Tokyo and Osaka speakers) iii 2) A feature that serves to distinguish region (acoustic analyses of the fricatives /s/ and /ɕ/ show that the Tokyo fricatives are significantly different from the Osaka fricatives) simultaneously connotes meanings that can be used to construct gender (e.g. higher center of gravity of fricatives connotes “sharpness”); and 3) A feature that carries the meaning of the Tokyo regionality (i.e. the deaccented form of negative questions) can be used by speakers of other regions to indicate their alignment with a Tokyo-centric ideology. Intra-regional variation is further examined to explore the meanings of the quantitative patterns at the interactional level. The meanings are drawn based on the participants’ individual styles that are co-constructed by linguistic and non-linguistic identity practices. The intra-regional analyses reveal how the participants utilize the phonetic features to construct their regional gender identities while aligning with or disaligning from the local stereotypes, such as the “boring” Tokyo, the “classy” Kyoto, and “harsh” Osaka. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of all the people I met during my journey at Georgetown. First of all, I would like to thank the four members of my dissertation committee: Rob Podesva, Natalie Schilling, Shigeto Kawahara, and Mark Sicoli. Thank you for your wise guidance, thoughtful criticism, continuous encouragement, and the countless hours you spent helping me. Especially, I owe Rob and Natalie so much not only for being exceptionally compassionate mentors but also for changing my life completely; without them, I would never have thought that I could pursue a PhD. Natalie, you were the first professor in my life who made me think that my ideas can be worthwhile. The very first paper I wrote in your Intro to Socio class brought me all the way here, and this dissertation is built on the most important lessons you taught me in sociolinguistics. Rob, I am extremely fortunate to have worked with someone like you, someone with whom I can share my enthusiasm. Your encouragement to be creative and innovative shaped my identity as a linguist, and this dissertation is the outcome of the challenges and inspiration you offered me all these years. It was also such an honor to have Shigeto and Mark in my committee. Throughout my graduate research, whenever I encountered questions on Japanese phonetics and phonology, Shigeto’s work provided me with the answers. Shigeto brought me completely new cross-disciplinary perspectives, and his input was tremendous and essential in this dissertation. Mark was extraordinary generous with his very-last-minute help, and regardless of the tight schedule, his comments were very precise and thought-provoking. His scholarship motivates me greatly, and one day, I hope to produce work like his. Second, I would like to thank the UCLA phoneticians who let me participate in their data analysis sessions, phonetic seminars, and class. Particularly, I want thank Sun-Ah Jun, who let me audit her Intonation class, and Pat Keating and Megha Sundara, who were very v understanding and provided me with an opportunity to talk about the early findings of this dissertation. I also want to thank the sociolinguists at the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL), in particular, Yoshiyuki Asahi, who let me talk about the preliminary study of this dissertation at a colloquium, and Janet Stuart-Smith and Ichiro Ohta, who gave me very valuable comments at the colloquium. Thank you, Akira Satoh and his students at Osaka University, for letting me talk about the project proposal in your seminar and sharing very insightful thoughts about the Osaka variety. Third, I am deeply indebted to the three anonymous professors at the three women’s colleges for providing me with such great assistance for my fieldwork. Also to 46+ participants of this study, thank you for sharing your time and pieces of your life with me, and sometimes showing me your support and encouragement through letters and text messages. I wish you the best in your lives, and this dissertation is dedicated to all of you. To my precious friends, especially Chie Adachi, Asuka Goto, Atsuko Koyama, Mika Hama, Hirono Ishigami, Emily Klonicki, Sinae Lee, Kyuwon Moon, Bokyun Mun, Satoshi Nambu, Anastasia Nylund, Anna Strycharz-Banas, Motoko Takada, Ayumi Tokunaga, Robin Rockey, Christoph Ruesch, Matt Wieland, and so many others; thank you for being there and helping me through this. To my parents, Masatoshi and Junko Kajino and Bill and Reenie Murley, thank you for letting me live a life filled with love. Finally, to C – thank you. This is our baby, and we will soon have more vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. Introduction: Base of the Study....................................................................... 1 1.1. Overview.......................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1. Research Questions........................................................................... 1 1.1.2. Linguistic Variables ..........................................................................2 1.1.3. Data and Participants .......................................................................2 1.1.4. Methodological and Theoretical Approaches...................................3 1.1.5. Terminological Excursions ............................................................. 4 1.2. Overview of the Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka Language Varieties ......................6 1.3. Relevant Field I: Japanese Dialectology ........................................................11 1.3.1. Standardization of Japanese ...........................................................11 1.3.2. Post-Standardization...................................................................... 15 1.3.3. Research on Japanese Dialectology ................................................17 1.4. “Standard” Varieties and Gender in Western Communities ........................ 19 1.5. Relevant Field II: Japanese Women’s Language ..........................................23 1.5.1. Socio-Historical Context of Japanese Women’s Language............24 1.5.2. Research on Japanese Women’s Language ...................................28 1.5.3. Japanese Women’s Language and Region.....................................30 1.6. Participants’ Attitudes toward Regional Varieties and JWL........................32 1.6.1. Feminine and Masculine Ratings...................................................32 1.6.2. Metalinguistic Commentaries and Local Stereotypes ...................38 1.6.3. Self-Evaluations of Regional Speech .............................................43 1.6.4. Metalinguistic Commentaries and Japanese Women’s Language 46 1.7. Current Study.................................................................................................49 1.7.1. General Research Questions of this Dissertation...........................49 1.7.2. Linguistic Features .........................................................................50 1.8. Social Meaning ..............................................................................................52 1.8.1. Three Waves of Sociolinguistic Variation ......................................52 1.8.2. Indexical Meaning..........................................................................54 1.8.3. Indexical Field................................................................................59
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