Discourse functions and pitch patterns of the Japanese interactional particleyoin student-professor conversation

Abstract

AbstractUntil recently Japanese interactional particles have largely been investigated in various social contexts without paying much attention to intonation. Building on Shimotani (2006) that examined discourse functions and the intonation yo in informal talk among friends, the current study intends to contribute to interactional particle research by analyzingyoin six sets of one-to-one student-professor conversations. The findings demonstrate that the students and professors exhibited different pitch patterns ofyo. Students tended to useyowith a falling pitch [+fall] when performingpre-story-telling,and frequently used then-desu-yoconstruction. The professor, on the other hand, often usedyo[−fall] when providing opinions or advice. These results will be discussed from Ochs’ social constructive discourse approach perspective. The present study concludes that both discourse functions and pitch patterns in interactional particles are important linguistic resources used to construct speakers’ social personae and stance-building. As such, pedagogical implications will be provided.