Creativity is the “ability to come up with new ideas that are surprising yet intelligible, and also valuable in some way” (Boden 2001: 95), and in the context of discourse, often involves a speaker/writer’s attempts to reconfigure or reshape social relationships through the employment of syntactic, lexical, orthographical, morphological, and/or phonological features of a language in dynamic and unexpected or socio-pragmatically marked ways (Jones 2016). Such attempts can also involve shifts in the participation framework (Goffman 1981) of an interaction, the strategic use of formulaic or prosaic utterances, or even silence, in order to mean more than what is said.

While there have been a number of studies related to language creativity in Japanese literature (e.g. Maynard, 2007) and online written discourse (e.g. Robertson, 2022), discourse analysis studies focused on the creative use of Japanese linguistic resources in everyday (off-line) interactions remain few. The studies presented in this colloquium assume a social-constructivist perspective as they empirically explore how linguistic resources are utilized by Japanese speakers and/or writers in creative, dynamic, and indexical ways in moment-to-moment interactions.

Presentations:

(1) Creating an informal context in the formal context of a research interview in Japanese

Haruko Cook (University of Hawai’i, Manoa)

In studies of sociolinguistics and pragmatics, it is assumed that distinctive types of talk are produced in formal and informal contexts (cf. Irvine 1979). For example, institutional talks including interviews are considered as a formal context. This study explores how the participants of a multi-party research interview create an informal context in the formality of an interview.

In Japanese, which is rich in honorifics, formality and informality is typically linked to the addressee honorific, the desu/masu form, and the non-honorific counterpart, the plain form, respectively. It is reported that the interviewer momentarily shifts to the plain form in a summary/evaluation turn in Japanese interviews (Cook 2002, 2008; Ikuta 2008; Nazikian 2007). The desu/masu and plain forms, however, are not the only resources for constructing formality and informality. There are other creative ways of inserting an informal context in a formal context. By qualitatively analyzing the interview data, this paper explores shifts in participation framework (Goffman 1981) which creates an informal context.  

The data come from a research interview in Japanese, in which three women are interviewed concerning differences in workplace culture between Japan and Hawaii.

The paper finds that the interviewer treats the interviewees as a group of addressed recipients, which initiates a footing shift. The interviewees collectively become the addressed recipients, and to respond to the interviewer’s question, they talk informally among themselves, which creates an embedded frame within the frame of an interview (dual frame). This paper demonstrates that the construction of a dual frame in an interview is a creative use of a pragmatic resource, which enables the interviewees to effectively display strong emotions in the formal context of a multi-party interview.

(2) Professional or pathetic? The changing indexicality of translanguaging practices involving Japanese and other languages

Junko Saito (Temple University Japan Campus)

This study explores indexical meanings of translanguaging practices involving Japanese and English in naturally occurring interactions and online commentary.

In translanguaging, “the complex language and pedagogical practices of bi/multilingual speakers and communities” (Turnbull 2019: 233), speakers use multiple languages in an integrated linguistic repertoire. Research on translanguaging involving Japanese has primarily focused on pedagogy, while aspects of such linguistic practices beyond classroom settings are understudied. Focusing on indexicality, this study investigates translanguaging practices of Japanese employees at a global corporation, as well as evaluations of such practices through metapragmatic online commentary on Japanese websites. The analysis illustrates the connections between linguistic normativities and indexicality.

The data come from two sources: (1) six audio-recorded meetings at the Tokyo office of a global IT company, and (2) 466 online comments from two websites discussing Japanese individuals who engage in translanguaging involving Japanese and other languages in everyday interactions. The analysis finds that the Japanese employees practice translanguaging creatively and use it to mark professionalism and in-groupness, whereas, a substantial portion of online commentators view translanguaging practices as deviant, describing them, for instance, as pathetic and embarrassing. The study demonstrates how people’s orientations to linguistic norms in different social contexts of use ascribe diverse indexical meanings to the translanguaging practice involving Japanese and other languages. It also shows how linguistic normativity is entangled with Japaneseness (i.e., as conceived by commentators in terms of the relationship between race and language).    

The study concludes that people’s view of translanguaging practices, especially in a Japanese context, is closely connected to the idea of “centers of authority” (Blommaert 2007: 2).

References: 

Blommaert, J. (2007). Sociolinguistic scales. Intercultural Pragmatics, 4(1), 1−19.

Turnbull, B. (2019). Translanguaging in the planning of academic and creative writing: A case of adult Japanese EFL learners. Bilingual Research Journal, 42(2), 232−251.

(3) Creativity in Japanese female politicians’ language

Yoko Yonezawa (The University of Sydney)

This study analyzes politicians’ creative use of linguistic resources in Japanese parliamentary debates, focusing on two female politicians: Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko and House of Councillors member Tsujimoto Kiyomi. Drawing on data from the Minutes of the Diet, the study demonstrates how Koike and Tsujimoto creatively utilize stylistic variations to ‘construct’ their political personas.

While discussions about political language have generated broader metalinguistic discourse suggesting that politicians generally speak in an adorned way regardless of gender and other social attributes (Shibamoto-Smith 2011), the preliminary analysis of this study reveals these two female politicians use distinct styles to construct their public personas. For example, Koike takes the stereotypical womanly way of speaking to the next level by employing a wide variety of honorific forms, including multiple honorific forms together in the same predicate, and displaying a strong preference for the ‘super-polite’ copula form -degozaimasu over the regular (simple polite) -desu form. Tsujimoto, on the other hand, avoids elaborate honorific forms and strongly prefers short sentences and the simple polite form -desu when speaking.

The study also compares their language with that of other male politicians. It shows that similarities and differences among them can be explained by viewing them as individuals with multiple identities, taking into consideration different contexts surrounding them, such as family background, education, political affiliations, and gender. Most importantly, the study argues that their language is not ‘reflective’ of their social attributes, but it is a creative “product of situated social action” (Bucholtz and Hall 2004: 376) in expressing their various identities.

References:

Bucholtz, Mary, & Hall, Kira. (2004). Language and identity. In Alessandro Duranti (Ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology (pp. 369-394). Malden/Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Shibamoto-Smith, Janet. (2011). Honorifics, “politeness,” and power in Japanese political debate. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(15), 3707-3719.

(4) Exploring Storytelling Sequences in an Izakaya: Cases of Normative and Creative Language Use

Todd Allen (Kansai University) and Xiangdong Liu (Western Sydney University)

Izakayas ('pubs') are ubiquitous in Japan and are popular places for consumption, where customers use these social spaces to mitigate loneliness, make friends, and often serve as a 'home away from home' (Ohnishi et al., 2012). The language used in izakayas is typically routine (e.g., ordering) and creative (e.g., interpersonal talk). While izakayas play a vital role in the community, there is limited research on the sociolinguistic activities within these spaces. Thus, using a sociopragmatic approach, we examined instances of storytelling frequently occurring in the drama series Shin'ya Shokudō ('Midnight Diner') in this study. Specifically, we analysed storytelling instances from micro, meso, and macro perspectives as representations of everyday talk in a specific context (Haugh et al., 2021).

The results demonstrate normative storytelling progression, including suspending typical turns of talk and the performance of other recognisable narrative speech constructions (e.g., reported speech markers). We also observed how listeners and speakers collaborated in successful storytelling by displaying encouragement, while storytellers used creative forms of language, such as proverbs and voice quality shifts. Contrary to previous research, listeners often interrupted storytelling with (polite) negative assessments (e.g., hedges), teasing, and mockery. Speakers also used storytelling to achieve other interactional activities (e.g., trouble-telling). Overall, we illustrate how storytelling is performed in izakayas and how interlocutors use language creatively to achieve interactional goals in a specific context.

References:

Haugh, M., Kádár, D. Z., & Terkourafi, M. (2021). The Cambridge Handbook of Sociopragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Ohnishi, M., Nakao, R., Kawasaki, R., Nitta, A., Hamada, Y., & Nakane, H. (2012). Utilization of bar and izakaya-pub establishments among middle-aged and elderly Japanese men to mitigate stress. BMC Public Health, 12(1), 1-9.

(5) Metalinguistic utterances as a tool for negotiating/reshaping Japanese social relations

Andrew Barke (Kansai University) and Momoyo Shimazu (Kansai University)

Style shifts in Japanese discourse involving the (non-)use of desu/-masu forms and plain forms, among other linguistic forms, have been linked with changes in the speaker’s identity, emotional state, and perceptions of intimacy in their relations with others. Such shifts often occur in discourse without any apparent interactant awareness, but sometimes the awareness of a speaker may become salient when metalinguistic utterances are made regarding a shift and/or possible motivations behind a shift.

This study considers metalinguistic utterances concerning style shifts that occur in Japanese television drama and film discourses that appear to not simply reflect speaker observations concerning language use, but be used as a creative tool for negotiating/changing relationships between interactants. ‘Creativity,’ is defined by Boden (2001) as the “ability to come up with new ideas that are surprising yet intelligible, and also valuable in some way” (p.95) and in relation to language use, Jones (2016) notes it has the potential to play an important role in reshaping relationships in dynamic ways.

Preliminary results reveal that metalinguistic utterances concerning downward style shifts can be used to mark both a speaker’s awareness of the shift and their tacit approval of the implied increase of intimacy between interactants. Furthermore, utterances regarding the formality of forms used by others may be strategically made to encourage an increase of intimacy in a relationship, especially when accompanied by an invitation to cooperate in the participation of a communicative game encouraging interactant adherence to a newly-agreed-upon style of communication. 

Such results provide further evidence of the complexity and speaker creativity involved in Japanese honorific use.

References:

Boden, M. A. (2001). ‘Creativity and knowledge’ in A. Craft, B. Jeffrey, and M. Leibling (eds.). Creativity in Education. Continuum.

Jones, R. H. (2016). ‘Creativity and discourse analysis.’ In Jones, R. H. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Language and Creativity. Routledge (pp.61-77).