First Person Expressions Used by Teenage Girl Characters in Shōjo Manga

Abstract

This paper compares possible uses of self-designating terms among similar types of fictional characters in works included in a shōjo manga corpus. The use of first-person terms by similar types of fictional characters is viewed with regard to the role of an individual character in a given narrative and the categorization of a singular use of self-reference terms as a yakuwarigo type/sub-type. The data suggest that the overall variety in the use of individual first-person expressions in shōjo manga is relatively low – the most frequently used expressions were watashi and atashi – and the utilization of role language to signal a specific character type was, in fact, very limited. However, the use of watashi by the shōjo manga protagonists corresponds to Shibamoto-Smith’s (2004) findings regarding the first-person use by romance heroines. The frequent use of uchi by certain characters should not be classified as yakuwarigo but rather implies a very casual speech act performed by a character who can be perceived as active, lively and vigorous.