Japanese language and society: An anthropological approach

Abstract

This paper is written in response to Loveday's survey of Japanese sociolinguistics, published in this journal, Volume 10, 1986, pp. 287–326, and seeks to set language usage in social context. In adopting a micro-level approach, the author shows how various linguistic forms, such as pronominal usage, honorifics, and donatory verbs, reflect the division of Japanese society into an apparently infinite series of in- and out-groups. He then proceeds to adopt a macro-level approach in order to show how the use of vocabulary - specifically keywords - servesto overcome this social differentiation, and to create solidarity among these groups, as well as enforce a sense of ‘Japaneseness’ vis-à-vis the outside - primarily Western - world.