Contrastive Sociolinguistic Studies of Language Behaviors between Japanese and German

Research Project

Project/Area Number	10610496
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	独語・独文学
Research Institution	Osaka University
Principal Investigator	YAMASHITA Hitoshi Faculty of Language and Culture, Osaka University Associate Professor, 言語文化部, 助教授 (70243128)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	山下仁大阪大学, 言語文化部, 助教授 (70243128)
Project Period (FY)	1998 – 1999
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1999)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,000,000) Fiscal Year 1999: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000) Fiscal Year 1998: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
Keywords	Language Behaviors / Politeness / Honorific Expressions / Japanese and German / Sociolinguistics / Contrastive Sociolinguistics / 対照言語学 / 評価概念 / 敬語 / 談話分析
Research Abstract	This study was empirically conducted in three areas in Japan in order to contrast Japanese with German in terms of language behavior. The same survey method that had been already adopted in Germany was used in this study. It is that two researchers observed and collected data from the clerks at the stores such as department stores and perfumeries. Their language behaviors were also evaluated, by using the protocol. The data of seventy settings were collected in total. The following results concerning Japanese language behavior were obtained: 1. Very wide variation of Japanese language behavior was used. 2. Japanese language behavior was evaluated variously. 3. When one often use honorific expressions, it was not necessary to consider them as polite. 4. It was often observed that people use honorific expressions including non-standard dialects. 5. The expressions which correspond to the positive politeness by Brown and Levinson (1987) were taken as polite. In future we will contrast Japanese with German data in terms of language behavior and consider them in detail.