Meiji & Taisho Young Japanese Women's Linguistic and Social Behaviors

ISBN-13: 9783659353796 / Angielski / Miękka / 2015 / 296 str.

Bohn Mariko

Opis

This book explores educated young womens linguistic innovation and performance of non-normative femininity during the Meiji and Taisho periods (1868-1926), by analyzing their letter-writings in readers correspondence columns of three prominent womens magazines. The analysis reveals that innovative language plays a significant role in educated young womens self-expressions and their construction of a subculture through friendship practices, and identifies the similarities in linguistic innovation and performance of non-normative femininity between contemporary young women and educated young women of these periods. Also, by comparing how innovative language is presented in novels and fiction, I propose dual functions of innovative language; an expression of writers identity as a young and modern female writer, and as a yakuwari-go language that fits to a particular character (Kinsui 2003). In addition to this historical work, current perspectives of gendered speech styles including "Japanese womens language" were investigated to how Japanese language learners and instructors perceive these styles and how their perceptions impact upon language pedagogy.

O autorze

Mariko Tajima Bohn is a faculty member teaching Japanese language at University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the author of several articles published in recognized journals. She received two MAs in Linguistics and Japanese from San José State University and Stanford University, and her PhD in Japanese from Stanford University.