Language Life in Japan

Language Life in Japan PDF

Author: Patrick Heinrich

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-09-13

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1136935940

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Analyses how linguistic diversity in Japan, and indeed recognition of this phenomenon, presents a wide range of sociolinguistic challenges and opportunities in fundamental institutions such as schools, in cultural patterns and in social behaviours and attitudes.

The Social Life of the Japanese Language

The Social Life of the Japanese Language PDF

Author: Shigeko Okamoto

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-08-04

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1107072263

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

The Making of Monolingual Japan

The Making of Monolingual Japan PDF

Author: Patrick Heinrich

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1847696562

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Japan is regarded as a model case of successful language modernization. It is also often erroneously believed to be linguistically homogenous. This book explores the debates relating to language modernization from a language ideology perspective, and in doing so reveals the mechanisms by which language ideology undermines linguistic diversity.

Language and Society in Japan

Language and Society in Japan PDF

Author: Nanette Gottlieb

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2005-02-03

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 9780521532846

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Language and Society in Japan deals with issues important to an understanding of language in Japan today, among them multilingualism, language and nationalism, and literacy and reading habits. It is organised around the theme of language and identity, in particular how language is used to construct national, international and personal identities. Contrary to popular stereotypes, Japanese is far from the only language used in Japan, and does not function in a vacuum, but comes with its own particular cultural implications. Language has played an important role in Japan's cultural and foreign policies, and language issues are intimately connected both with technological advance and with minority group experiences. Nanette Gottlieb is a leading authority in this field. Her book builds on and develops her previous work, and promises to be essential reading for students, scholars, and all those wishing to understand the role played by language in Japanese society.

Women in the Language and Society of Japan

Women in the Language and Society of Japan PDF

Author: Naoko Takemaru

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2010-04-19

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0786456108

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Feminist critics have long considered language a primary vehicle for the transmission of sexist values in a society. This much-needed sociolinguistic critique examines the representation of women in traditional Japanese language and society. Derogatory and highly-sexualized terms are placed in historical context, and the progress of nonsexist language reform is reviewed. Central to this work are the individual voices of Japanese women who took part in a survey, expressing their candid thoughts and concerns regarding biased gender representations. In their own words, they give voice to the reality of being female within the constraints of a traditional--and sometimes misogynistic--language.

The Dutch Language in Japan (1600-1900)

The Dutch Language in Japan (1600-1900) PDF

Author: Christopher Joby

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-12-29

Total Pages: 514

ISBN-13: 9004438653

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In The Dutch Language in Japan (1600-1900) Christopher Joby offers the first book-length account of the knowledge and use of the Dutch language in Tokugawa and early Meiji Japan, which had a profound effect on Japan’s language, society and culture.

Japanese Language and Soft Power in Asia

Japanese Language and Soft Power in Asia PDF

Author: Kayoko Hashimoto

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-07-26

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 9811050864

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This cutting edge collection considers how the Japanese language functions as a key element of Japanese soft power in Asia. Within Japanese culture itself, the promotion of language has been an area of ambivalence. This interdisciplinary book looks across the fields of language policy, language teaching, socio-linguistics, cultural studies and history to identify the links between Japan’s language policies and broader social, economic and political processes. It examines the challenges that undermine Japan’s potential soft power by identifying a gap between the “official Japan” portrayed by the Japanese government and the “cultural Japan” that foreigners perceive. It also reveals historical continuity in the way Japanese language is perceived and promoted by policy makers and how the current practices of Japanese language teaching in Asian countries have been shaped within the framework of “international exchange”, which has been a key concept in Japanese foreign policies since the 1970s. It particularly considers the concept of ‘Cool Japan’ as a symbol of Japan’s interpretation of its cultural power and offers a thoughtful assessment of the future of Japanese as a form of soft power in Asia as the country prepares for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Vicarious Language

Vicarious Language PDF

Author: Miyako Inoue

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2006-04-05

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 0520245857

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"Inoue has accomplished an extraordinary task, which is without precedent in the East Asian Fields. To my knowledge, no author has ever demonstrated as persuasively as she does that the issues concerning women's Japanese can be explored in such an innovative, engaging way. Vicarious Language brilliantly displays how effectively Foucauldian archaeology can be introduced to the study of gender and language, and undermines any of the previous studies in English of what is erroneously referred to as the unique feature of the Japanese language. This is a superb model of engaged scholarship."—Naoki Sakai, author of Voices of the Past: The Status of Language in Eighteenth-Century Japanese Discourse "Miyako Inoue's Vicarious Language is a work of scholarly distinction and cultural insight. She explores the texture of Japanese modernity, its national rituals and social practices, by way of a sustained, semiotic analysis of womens' language—the language of self-expression that women use in intimate and institutional contexts, and the language used to define the gendered roles assigned to women within the powers of patriarchy. Her sources range widely from scholarly studies to the 'popular opinion' fostered by newspapers and advertisements; her excellent ethnography investigates the strategies of institutions and organisations, while inquiring into the politics and poetics of everyday life; her analytic method is, at once, conceptually sophisticated and textually intensive. This is a work that allows you to participate in the lifeworld of the Japanese language, at the illuminating moment when gender relations are writ large in the social syntax of national life. This is a book that will make a lasting impression on a range of disciplines."—Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F.Rothenberg Professor, Harvard University

Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics

Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics PDF

Author: Yoshiyuki Asahi

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2022-04-04

Total Pages: 709

ISBN-13: 150150147X

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This volume is the first comprehensive survey of the sociolinguistic studies on Japanese. Japanese, like other languages, has developed a highly diverse linguistic system that is realized as variation shaped by interactions of linguistic and social factors. This volume primarily focuses on both classic and current topics of sociolinguistics that were first studied in Western languages, and then subsequently examined in the Japanese language. The topics in this volume cover major issues in sociolinguistics that also characterize sociolinguistic features of Japanese. Such topics as gender, honorifics, and politeness are particularly pertinent to Japanese, as is well-known in general sociolinguistics. At the same time, this volume includes studies on other topics such as social stratification, discourse, contact, and language policy, which have been widely conducted in the Japanese context. In addition, this volume introduces "domestic" approaches to sociolinguistics developed in Japan. They emerged a few decades before the development of the so-called Labovian and Hymesian sociolinguistics in the US, and they have shaped a unique development of sociolinguistic studies in Japan. Contents Part I: History Chapter 1: Research methodology Florian Coulmas Chapter 2: Japan and the international sociolinguistic community Yoshiyuki Asahi and J.K. Chambers Chapter 3: Language life Takehiro Shioda Part II: Sociolinguistic patterns Chapter 4: Style, prestige, and salience in language change in progress Fumio Inoue Chapter 5: Group language (shūdango) Taro Nakanishi Chapter 6: Male-female differences in Japanese Yoshimitsu Ozaki Part III: Language and gender Chapter 7: Historical overview of language and gender studies: From past to future Orie Endo and Hideko Abe Chapter 8: Genderization in Japanese: A typological view Katsue A. Reynolds Chapter 9: Feminist approaches to Japanese language, gender, and sexuality Momoko Nakamura Part IV: Honorifics and politeness Chapter 10: Japanese honorifics Takashi Nagata Chapter 11: Intersection of traditional Japanese honorific theories and Western politeness theories Masato Takiura Chapter 12: Intersection of discourse politeness theory and interpersonal Communication Mayumi Usami Part V: Culture and discourse phenomena Chapter 13: Subjective expression and its roles in Japanese discourse: Its development in Japanese and impact on general linguistics Yoko Ujiie Chapter 14: Style, character, and creativity in the discourse of Japanese popular culture: Focusing on light novels and keitai novels Senko K. Maynard Chapter 15: Sociopragmatics of political discourse Shoji Azuma Part VI: Language contact Chapter 16: Contact dialects of Japanese Yoshiyuki Asahi Chapter 17: Japanese loanwords and lendwords Frank E. Daulton Chapter 18: Japanese language varieties outside Japan Mie Hiramoto Chapter 19: Language contact and contact languages in Japan Daniel Long Part VII: Language policy Chapter 20: Chinese characters: Variation, policy, and landscape Hiroyuki Sasahara Chapter 21: Language, economy, and nation Katsumi Shibuya