2017 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
The performance of alternative youth speech styles in contemporary urban Japan
| Project/Area Number |
17F17744
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| Research Institution | Yokohama City University |
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Principal Investigator |
土屋 慶子 横浜市立大学, 国際教養学部(八景キャンパス), 准教授 (20631823)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KROO JUDIT 横浜市立大学, 国際教養学部, 外国人特別研究員
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-11-10 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | Sociolinguistics / linguistic anthropology / Japanese quotatives / Japanese verb forms / bukatsu / identity performance |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
An ethnography of social groups relevant to university life was started as a pilot study.This preliminary ethnographic research included fieldwork conducted during classes, club practice, social activities, such as frends gatherings, fun club activities and part-time work. As with ethnographic observation and research notes, audio data was collected in both informal and formal settings. Initial video-recorded experiments were conducted. The participants were recruited, and several focus-group discussions among Japanese youth were video-recorded. Initial recording data sets were partially transcribed and analyzed from pragmatic and sociolinguistic perspectives. Results of this initial data were presented at the New Waves of Analyzing Variation conference at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, focusing on patterns in the use of first person pronominals.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
While the ethnographic research was successful on the whole, there were some difficulties encountered with respect to access to male speaker groups. This was in marked contrast to female speaker groups. It is hypothesized that this was due to the researcher being a female-male speakers might have felt less comfortable with the speaker. However, research into female groups proceeded at a faster pace than expected and the researcher was able to collect both interview and casual conversation based data from not only ‘official’ groups, e.g. those centered on participation in a given bukatsu ‘club’ but also more difficult to access groups based on personal interests, e.g. fandoms of idol groups.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Ethnography and data gathering continues into FY30. Furthermore,following the completion of initial testing using video equipment, further data collection using video equipment and focusing on two person conversations from speakers in close knit peer groups will continue to be conducted. In addition to the research presentation in FY29, further research presentations are planned for FY30.
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