Indexical regimentation of a male youth style in Japanese

Abstract

This study explores how metapragmatic discourse denies the potential of a set of linguistic features to be recognised as a legitimate polite style. Examining the ways male students employ a new Japanese speech style involving su, the shortened form of the polite copula desu, and lay people’s evaluations of the style on a Q&A website, I demonstrate that the style’s multiple social meanings in local interactions are reduced in the mediatised website discourse. The analysis shows two main approaches to refuting the politeness of the style. One approach narrows the meanings of the style by positioning the style and its speakers as inferior to the polite style and polite speakers. The other approach reduces the style’s politeness by assigning it a humorous stance through stylised mocking. The findings suggest that the metapragmatic discourse serves to manage two culturally important boundaries between the polite/plain styles and hegemonic/subordinate masculinities.