A synchronic and diachronic study on sex exclusive differences in the modern Japanese language.

摘要

This dissertation investigates Japanese morphological sex exclusive differences synchronically and diachronically. In my synchronic investigation, I examine the data of natural conversation in informal situations collected from different sex, age, and dialect groups. This investigation reveals that, contrary to the prevailing idea, overt sex exclusive differences occur with striking infrequency in both Tokyo and non-Tokyo dialects. In contrast, covert differences are carefully preserved in the Tokyo dialect. Among non-Tokyo dialects, which had little sex differences before, covert differences are spreading. Since previous linguistic studies have focused only on what was explicitly spoken (or written), such covert sex differences have been overlooked.;I illustrate these phenomena postulating two types of rules, prescriptive and proscriptive, which operate upon speakers to maintain mutual exclusiveness between male speech and female speech. Prescriptive rules emphasize the differences between the sexes. Proscriptive rules prohibit transgressions of the boundaries between the sexes. Since preferred images of a gender change over time, prescriptive rules are fluid. On the other hand, the violation of proscriptive rules brings serious penalty to speakers.;In order to clarify how such rules were engendered, I explore the historical process in which certain forms were designated as gendered as they are in present-day Japan. I argue that this designation is the consequence of the amalgamation of several socio-historical changes that took place in the Meiji period (1868–1912). These are: (1) the influx of English words, which triggered the formation of new intonational variants of the existent forms, (2) the introduction of western notions of ‘love’, which triggered the creation of a new female figure in the Meiji novels and, (3) the establishment of standard Japanese and the subsequent development of the mass media, which promulgated the concept that the informal speech of the Tokyo dialect was the model speech for women in general. My diachronic investigation also reveals that the function of female speech is to mark feminine sexuality. This function explains why sex differences in informal situations occur much less than generally believed, and why using female speech is inappropriate in formal situations, even though it is polite speech.