Overlapping in Japanese Conversation
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Overlapping in Japanese Conversation Communication styles of Japanese long-term residents of Australia in terms of Japanese socio-cultural/gender norms Sumiko Iida A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics University of New South Wales October 2005 Acknowledgement I would like to express my great appreciation to my first supervisor, Dr. Rod Gardner, who constantly gave me countless valuable comments and feedback on my thesis in the field of Discourse Analysis and Conversation Analysis, and patiently guided me to complete the thesis. Had I not met him, this thesis would not have existed. His question, “Where is the evidence?”, will be with me for the rest of my academic life. I would also like to express my gratitude to my second supervisor, Dr. Chihiro Thomson who first inspired me to start my research career, and not only gave me constructive comments on my thesis in the field of gender and Japanese language and culture, but also mentally supported me ever since my enrolment as a PhD student. I also thank my colleagues in the Department of Japanese and Korean Studies for their constant support, and Dr. Scott Kiesling who helped me in constructing the prototype of the thesis. I must also mention the University of New South Wales Equity and Diversity Unit for financial support provided to me as a “PhD Writing up Grant.” Finally, I would like to thank my dearest daughter Viola for her invariable encouragement and love, and my parents in Japan who always warmly watch over my life. i Abstract This study analyses overlaps in naturally occurring multi-party conversations among Japanese long-term residents of Australia, to investigate how Australian culture influences their Japanese communication style. One of the study’s interests is how their gendered communication styles appear in Australian English culture. Japanese gendered communication styles have been discussed in the literature, for example that males interrupt females more than vice versa; active participation by males versus passive participation by females in mixed-gender conversations; self-oriented topic initiation by males versus other-oriented topic initiation by females etc. These styles were assumed to be rarely observed in their L1 communication styles in Australia, where English, in which gendered language is less distinctive than Japanese, is spoken, and gender-free society has been more emphasised and practised than in Japan. Among conversations recorded by the two informants, three multi-party conversations per informant (i.e. six in total) were selected, in which over 2000 overlaps are observed. The study first established a framework of functional overlap classification in terms of the ownership of the conversational floor. Then, based on this frame, all overlaps were classified into a number of functional categories, and were analysed qualitatively as well as quantitatively. The results showed little differences in the Japanese communication styles of the long-term residents of Australia from the Japanese communication styles which have been discussed in the literature, such as frequent use of aizuchi and other cooperative overlaps at and other than at Transition Relevance Places. As for gendered communication style, at least socio-cultural norms between traditional Japanese husband and wife are observed in the informants’ communication style. Although a number of variables that surround the informants need to be considered, the results may suggest that Japanese socio-cultural norms are, at this stage, more stable and they maintain the communication style of the Japanese long-term residents of foreign culture in their first language communication more strongly than was expected. However, different trends may be observed in future. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgement i Abstract ii Transcript Conventions and Abbreviations xii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Background of the study 10 1. Introduction 10 2. Interactional sociolinguistics and its applications 13 2.1 The contribution of Gumperz 13 2.2 The contribution of Goffman 16 2.3 Interactional sociolinguistics: its applications 20 2.4 Interactional sociolinguistics approach to the study of 22 Japanese discourse 3. Communication style of the Japanese 24 3.1 Stereotype of the Japanese 24 3.2 Anthropological and sociological views of the Japanese 26 3.2.1 Amae 26 3.2.2 Giri and Ninjoo 28 3.2.3 Tate and Yoko 30 3.3 Communication style of the Japanese 33 3.4 Japanese communication style in cross-cultural studies 37 3.5 Involvement of other cultures in one’s communication 40 style 4. Language and gender issues 44 4.1 Language and gender studies in the United States 45 4.2 Language and gender studies in Japan 48 4.2.1 Overview 48 iii 4.2.2 Beginning of language and gender studies: 50 Jugaku and Ide 4.2.3 Language and gender studies since the mid 1980s 51 5. Conclusion 58 Chapter 3: Data 61 1. Introduction 61 2. Natural data 61 3. Data collection and the participants 63 4. Conversational data used for the study and their participants’ 66 profiles 5. Method of transcription for the study 67 6. Conclusion 71 Chapter 4: How to understand turn, floor and overlap in natural 73 conversation 1. Introduction 73 2. What is turn and what is floor? 77 2.1 Discussions of turn and floor in 1970s and 1980s 78 2.2 Discussion of turn and floor in recent studies 87 2.2.1 What is a turn? : Studies by Ford and Thompson, 88 and Tanaka 2.2.2 “Floor” as a dynamic cognitive entity: 91 study by Hayashi 2.3 Turn and floor in this study 94 2.3.1 “Utterance” and “talk” 95 2.3.2 “Floor” and “turn” 95 3. Definition and nature of overlap 98 4. The distinctiveness of overlap in a multi-party conversation 101 4.1 One floor-holder targets all of the other participants 102 4.2 Talk targeting a specific person 105 4.3 More than one participant holding a floor 111 iv 5. Classifying overlaps 114 5.1 Features of Japanese language 115 5.2 Overlap classification in previous studies 121 5.3 Classification problem 123 5.4 Studies focusing only on overlaps: three different approaches 125 in Japanese discourse analysis 5.4.1 Honda’s overlap classification 126 5.4.2 Fujii’s overlap classification 131 5.4.3 Ikoma’s overlap classification 135 6. Conclusion 140 Chapter 5: Overlap classification in this study 143 1. Introduction 143 2. Overlap classification: Formal vs Functional 144 3 Method of classification 150 3.1 Overlap by non-floor holder and floor holder 150 3.2 Bottom up functional classification 151 4. Overlap category 152 4.1 Overlap by non-floor holder 152 4.1.1 Cooperative overlap 153 4.1.1.1 aizuchi 153 4.1.1.2 Clarification question 175 4.1.1.3 Information supply 178 4.1.1.4 Early reply 182 4.1.1.5 Other completion 188 4.1.1.6 Aizuchi follower 191 4.1.2 Competitive overlap 192 4.1.2.1 Floor bidding 192 v 4.1.2.2 Interruption 194 4.1.3 Neutral overlaps 196 4.1.3.1 New turn at TRP 196 4.1.3.2 Misjudging turn completion 199 4.1.4 Miscellaneous 201 4.2 Overlap by floor holder 208 4.2.1 Non-competitive overlaps 208 4.2.1.1 Reconfirmation 209 4.2.1.2 Self clarification 210 4.2.1.3 Floor continuation 212 4.2.1.4 Other non-competitive overlaps 214 4.2.2 Competitive overlap 215 4.2.2.1 Floor hold 215 4.3 Other types of overlap 218 4.3.1 Starting to talk at a floor-free zone 218 4.3.2 Overlaps between non-floor holders 220 4.4 Types of overlap that are not discussed in this study 221 5. Conclusion 221 Chapter 6: Conversational style 1: Overall observation 224 1. Introduction 224 2. Quantitative observations on overlap 225 2.1 Total overlap distribution 225 2.1.1 aizuchi 226 2.1.2 Competitive overlaps by non-floor holder 231 2.1.3 Overlaps by floor holder 233 2.2 Frequency of overlap and variables that construct conversation 237 2.2.1 Number of participants and overlap 237 vi 2.2.2 Participants’ social distance and overlap 241 2.2.3 Setting and overlap 248 2.2.4 Genre and overlap 251 2.2.4.1 Observations in Set 1 conversations 253 2.2.4.2 Observations in Set 2 conversations 258 2.2.5 Topic and overlap 262 2.2.6 Style and overlap 264 2.2.7 Summary 268 3. Qualitative observations on overlap 270 3.1 Complexities of overlap functions 270 3.1.1 aizuchi as a floor-bidding 270 3.1.2 Talking for other: Third-party approach by overlap 286 3.2 Cultural adjustment and transfer of overlap use: aizuchi 293 4. Conclusion 304 Chapter 7: Conversational style 2: Gender implications 308 1. Introduction 308 2. Participation in talk as a floor holder 309 2.1 Floor management in the Business Talk 310 2.2 Floor management in the Chat at Work 325 2.3 Floor management in the Family Talk 332 3. Participation in talk as a non-floor holder 340 3.1 Non-floor holder’s overlap in Business Talk 340 3.2 Non-floor holder’s overlaps in other talk 347 3.3 Communication style shift of Masao and Sachiko 348 4. Conclusion 350 Chapter 8: Conclusion 352 1. Introduction 352 vii 2. Definition of overlap and its classification 353 3. Overlap frequency 356 4. Complexity of overlap function 359 5. Cultural adjustment and cultural transfer of one’s communication style 361 6.