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The Social Life of the Japanese Language

Cultural Discourse and Situated Practice

Janet S Shibamoto-Smith author Shigeko Okamoto author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:4th Aug '16

Currently unavailable, currently targeted to be due back around 2nd December 2024, but could change

The Social Life of the Japanese Language cover

This book focuses on the historical construction of language norms and its relationship to actual language use in contemporary Japan.

This book focuses on the historical construction of language norms and actual language use in contemporary Japan. The authors explore how varieties of Japanese, honorifics and politeness, and gendered language have emerged in response to the socio-political landscape in which a modernizing Japan found itself.Why are different varieties of the Japanese language used differently in social interaction, and how are they perceived? How do honorifics operate to express diverse affective stances, such as politeness? Why have issues of gendered speech been so central in public discourse, and how are they reflected and refracted in language use as social practice? This book examines Japanese sociolinguistic phenomena from a fascinating new perspective, focusing on the historical construction of language norms and its relationship to actual language use in contemporary Japan. This socio-historically sensitive account stresses the different choices which have shaped Japanese and Western sociolinguistics and how varieties of Japanese, honorifics and politeness, and gendered language have emerged in response to the socio-political landscape in which a modernizing Japan found itself.

ISBN: 9781107072268

Dimensions: 235mm x 158mm x 23mm

Weight: 650g

352 pages