Sociolinguistics Exam Notes

Rise of Gender, Politeness, and Discourse Studies

• Gender studies emerged in the 1970s, sparked by Robin Lakoff's paper "Language and Women’s Place." Its initial aim was to highlight linguistic expressions reflecting societal imbalances and biases against women.

• The 1975 International Women’s Year and the UN Commission on the Status of Women further fueled this movement, extending to Japan where activists and scholars worked to raise awareness about gender bias and promote equality.

• Early Japanese sociolinguistics, including figures like Sibata, Sanada, and Inoue, acknowledged sex and gender differences but focused more on describing the differences in male and female language use rather than exploring the underlying reasons.

• Akiko Jugaku’s 1979 book, Nihongo to onna (Japanese and Women), marked a milestone in Japanese gender studies.

• The 1980s saw scholars such as Orie Endo, Katsue Reynolds Akiba, Sachiko Ide, and Momoko Nakamura collaborating with feminist movements to increase consciousness on gender issues in Japanese society.

• These gender studies then expanded into politeness and discourse studies, analyzing both male and female speech within the framework of interpersonal communication, led by Mayumi Usami.

Variationist Sociolinguistics and Sex-/Gender-Based Variation in Japanese

• Sex and gender differences serve as indicators of social changes.

• In English-speaking societies, subgroups use subtle increases in vernacular variants to mark their territory.

• Examples:

  • Bucholz (2001) found that “nerd” girls distinguished themselves by releasing /t/ word-finally.

  • Kirkham and Moore (2013) showed that “anti-school” girls used non-concord “be” to differentiate themselves.

• Japanese has more overt linguistic features conventionally associated with male and female speech than English.

• Gender-based variation arises from social conventions; sex-based variation is biologically determined.

• 4.2 First-Person Pronouns Among Japanese Schoolgirls

  • First-person pronouns are an example of gender-based variation in Japanese influenced by social conventions.

• Other gender-linked linguistic features in Japanese include sentence-final particles (Okamoto and Sato 1992; Okamoto 1995), ellipsis of postpositional particles (Takano 1998), conversational hedges (Lauwereyns 2002), and certain lexical items (Holmes 1992: 165).

• Despite leveling of gender differences since the 1970s, this area remains a fertile ground for study.

• Older generations lament changes in young women’s speech, considering it “rough”. Okamoto (1995: 298) quotes a TV complaint:

  • Omeenani yatte n da yo! [What the hell are you doing!]. . . . Mazi ka yo. Iya na yatsu. [Are you serious? Disgusting guy.]

• Miyazaki (2002: 361) notes an increasing use of traditional masculine speech among younger women.

• Idealized women’s speech (onna rashisa) is defined rigidly; Holmes (1992: 166) cites first-person pronouns as an example:

  • atashi: ‘I,’ used only by women

  • boku: ‘I,’ used only by men

  • watakushi: ‘I,’ used by both

• Prescriptive norms offer a well-defined starting point to measure vernacular usage against.

• The prescriptive norms are set out in greater detail by Miyazaki (2002: 360), as shown in Table 2.6.

• Miyazaki’s table is drawn from a standard sourcebook, and we have added uchi, a first-person reference based on ‘inside’ or ‘home’ that occurs in vernacular use but is not included in the prescriptive source.

  • Prescriptive norms for gender-marking first-person pronouns are the following:

  • Formal: Men and Women use watakushi

  • Plain: Men use boku, Women use watashi, atashi, uchi

  • Deprecatory: Men use ore, Women's speech is zero (Ø)

• Miyazaki studied grade 7 girls in a Tokyo suburb and found simplification of the system, with watashi falling out of use and ore alone as masculine.

• The students ranked pronouns on a scale from Feminine to Masculine:

  • atashi > uchi > boku > ore

• Miyazaki (2002: 362) categorized pronoun use and clustered students into peer groups, as shown in Figure 2.5.

• Group 2 girls used atashi and sometimes uchi, aligning with school values.

• Group 1 girls, contrasting with Group 2, used ore and boku, resisting school rules.

• The use of first-person pronouns marks students according to intramural allegiances.

• Traditional systems of first-person pronoun takes on symbolic significance.

• The boy in Group 3 used atashi and boku, flouting social conventions. “He is okama because he says atashi.”

• Miyazaki (2002: 361) links this to young female employees at a lesbian bar using jibun, a masculine pronoun.

• The choice of first-person pronouns expresses group affiliation.

• Miyazaki (2002: 367) says, “The choice of first-person pronouns is thus an important resource for expressing group affiliation.”

• The breakdown of rigidities is recognized as liberating even by Miyazaki’s young subjects.

• One student used boku and uchi “when I want to be free, or when I don’t want to be so perfect.”

• Sociolinguistic studies reveal gendered practices in language and document nuanced changes.

• Older audience members often comment that these young women would revert to a more traditional system when they matured and joined the workforce.

Pitch as Sex Marker and Gender Symbol

• Some language differences between females and males result from innate physiological and cognitive differences rather than social conventions.

• These differences are sex differences, not gender differences, and are inherent in chromosomal and neurological distinctions.

• Pinker (2002: 341) states verbal proficiency, cognitive processing, and stylistic range are sex differences.

• Male and female asymmetries persist across linguistic and cultural boundaries.

• The physiological size of the larynx affects female and male speech; men's larynxes are usually longer than women's, resulting in deeper speaking voices.

• The difference in larynx length and voice pitch range is statistical, not absolute.

• The range for men is typically 80Hz to 200 Hz, and the range for women is 120 Hz to 400 Hz

• Numerous studies show that physiological differences outweigh gender identification in vocal pitch.

• Gay men’s pitch is not higher than straight men, and F0 does not correlate with sexual orientation.

• Vocal pitch is a physiologically determined attribute; pitch differences can be exploited or exaggerated to make it a gender symbol.

• Biology is not the whole story; Graddol and Swann (1983) found that men's pitch reflects their body build, and women do not use their “natural F0” for social reasons.

• Yuasa (2002) compared Japanese and American subjects and measured F0 averages:

  • Japanese men have a slightly greater pitch range than American men; between 70 Hz and above 150 Hz compared to 90 Hz and below 150 Hz

  • Pitch ranges show that speakers utilize pitch to meet expectations of their societies, and there is an ideological link between high pitch and femininity and low pitch and masculinity.

• Yuasa’s (2002: 197–98) interprets the results, showing “evidence that speakers utilize pitch to meet expectations of their societies.”

• American women may not use their