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Japanese Women's Language Japanese Women’s Language Identity, gender, and real language use in contrast to language ideology Anja Vranic EAL4090 Master’s Thesis in East Asian Linguistics 60 credits Fall 2013 UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages November 18, 2013 II Abstract Japanese women’s language is a concept encountered daily in Japanese society and, perhaps most interestingly, in Japanese language studies. Students are informed that there are such concepts as ‘women’s language’ and ‘men’s language’, however, further insight into these concepts are rare. What, then, is Japanese women’s language? And, even more importantly, do real Japanese women speak this language? This thesis finds that the development of ‘women’s language’ has not occurred naturally through actual speech, but rather, it has evolved as a product of prescribed language use through instructions in disciplinary books as well as media, and has been used as a tool to distinguish women from men. Even in contemporary Japan we still find women’s language through role language in media and fiction, as well as in Japanese language studies. By conducting a detailed analysis of the history and development of Japanese women’s language we find that it has rarely, if ever, been used in real speech as it has been ideologically prescribed. After conducting a study looking at the use of gendered sentence-final particles by three female university students, I find that their speech is not feminine as is prescribed by language ideology, but neutral to moderately masculine, which aligns with previous research. Women, as any other social subgroup, use their language according to many more factors than what is assumed appropriate for their gender. Furthermore, the second part of my study consists of questionnaires which the three subjects responded to and deals with issues such as their own perceptions of their language use and of their femininity. Here, I attempted to draw lines between their language use and their identity and I found that factors such as age, desires to be perceived as certain traits, and relationship to addressee can affect language use. Conclusively, speakers play with and manipulate language – they subvert, convert, and adapt to preexisting norms and social expectations, and the outcome of their language use is an expression of their identity, which is an intricate notion constituted by countless factors including social status, age, gender, what traits they wish to convey, and so on. Lastly, it is essential to keep in mind that it is impossible to make certain connections between language use and identity and gender, however, this thesis explores some theories which could be interesting for further research. III IV Acknowledgment First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Tomoko Okazaki Hansen. She has been endlessly available and dedicated, and has never failed to guide me throughout my research, as well as because of her faith in me as a student from the very beginning of my Japanese studies. I am also grateful to my co-supervisor Bjarke Frellesvig who gave much appreciated comments to the outline of this thesis. Secondly, thanks to the three subjects who participated in my study (and who will remain anonymous). Without them this thesis would have been impossible. Lastly, thanks to Kanae Yamamoto, a Japanese exchange student who transcribed the main draft of the tape-recorded conversations in my study, to Helene LoCascio Sætre for proofreading the final draft of the text, and to Sanjin Vranic for patiently helping me with the final layout of this thesis. V VI Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................... 1 1.1 Motivation ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Thesis aims .................................................................................................................. 2 1.3 Structure....................................................................................................................... 2 2 Identity, gender, and language ..................................................... 3 2.1 Defining identity and gender ....................................................................................... 3 2.2 Performing identity ...................................................................................................... 4 2.2.1 Performing feminine identities ............................................................................. 5 2.3 Gender and language ................................................................................................... 7 2.4 General features of women’s language ....................................................................... 8 2.5 Constructing gendered language ............................................................................... 10 2.6 Language and different ‘selves’ ................................................................................ 12 2.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 14 3 History of Japanese women’s language ..................................... 15 3.1 Kamakura and Muromachi periods (1192-1573) ...................................................... 15 3.2 Edo period (1600-1868)............................................................................................. 17 3.3 Meiji period (1868-1912) .......................................................................................... 20 3.4 Shōwa period (1926-1989) ........................................................................................ 24 3.5 Women’s language today .......................................................................................... 29 3.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 30 4 Fictional/role language vs. real speech ...................................... 31 4.1 Features of Japanese women’s language ................................................................... 31 4.2 A misconception ........................................................................................................ 33 4.3 Role language (yakuwarigo) ...................................................................................... 34 4.3.1 Elderly male role language ................................................................................. 34 4.3.2 Young female role language .............................................................................. 35 VII 4.3.3 Role language in translation/subtitling ............................................................... 36 4.3.4 Manga ................................................................................................................. 38 4.3.5 TV dramas .......................................................................................................... 40 4.4 Real language use ...................................................................................................... 41 4.4.1 Speech style and vantage theory ........................................................................ 42 4.4.2 Okamoto’s study on university students ............................................................ 44 4.4.3 Japanese women’s speech in diverse gender roles ............................................. 48 4.4.4 Okamoto’s study on younger vs. older women .................................................. 49 4.4.5 Philips’ study on younger vs. older women and the effect of addressee’s gender 50 4.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 51 5 Recordings and analysis .............................................................. 53 5.1 Method ....................................................................................................................... 53 5.2 Overview ................................................................................................................... 54 5.3 Adjectives, nouns, and adjectival nouns .................................................................... 55 5.4 Sentence-final particles (SFPs) .................................................................................. 57 5.5 Feminine masculine .......................................................................................... 61 5.6 Analysis of Ayame’s SFP usage ................................................................................ 62 5.6.1 Overall findings .................................................................................................. 62 5.6.2 Noun/na-adjective (-da) + ne, yo, or yo + ne/ na + ne ....................................... 64 5.6.3 Verb/i-adjective/other + ne, yo, or yo + ne ......................................................... 65 5.6.4 The rest of the SFPs ........................................................................................... 66 5.7 Analysis of Mayumi’s SFP usage .............................................................................. 67 5.7.1 Overall findings .................................................................................................. 67 5.7.2 Noun/na-adjective (-da) + ne, yo, or yo + ne/ na + ne ....................................... 68 5.7.3 Verb/i-adjective/other + ne, yo, or yo + ne ......................................................... 69 5.7.4 The rest of the
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