Negotiating Moves: Problem Presentation and Resolution in Japanese Business Discourse

Abstract

Introduction: Objectives Related linguistic studies on Japanese business discourse and negotiation Motivation for the study Identifying and describing a genre - Japanese business transactional telephone conversations Bakhtin and the notion of speech genres Focal exchange - problem presentation and resolution Specific goals of the study Overview of subsequent chapters. Data and Methodology: Introduction Recent methods for data elicitation Rationale for an ethnomethodological approach Data collection methods for this study Description of the JBC corpus The genre of Japanese business transactional telephone conversations Relevant findings from conversation analysis Previous studies on offers in Japanese Closings Concluding remarks. The Structure of Japanese Business Transactional Telephone Conversations: Introduction Business transactional calls vs service encounters Overall structure and identifying register features Call openings Transition section Matter(s) for business discussion Pre-closing devices Discussion of other issues or transactions Concluding remarks. Types of Japanese Business Transactional Telephone Calls: Introduction General toiawase inquiries Merchandise orders Shipping confirmations Problem reports Concluding remarks. Problem Presentation and Resolution in Japanese Business Transactional Calls: Introduction Problem presentation and resolution in JBCs - two examples Interactional asynchrony in JBCs Problem reports in English Problem reporting sequences in English vs Japanese service encounters Interactional asynchrony in English - service recipients' accounts vs service providers' formulations Problem resolution in English vs Japanese Concluding remarks. Cultural and Sociolinguistic Considerations: Introduction Metalanguage regarding communication in Japanese Ellipsis and uti/soto deixis Japan as a high context culture Concluding remarks Conclusions. Strategies for reporting problems> The function and distribution of moves toward problem resolution Role relationships, genre, and cultural norms Putting genres to use Areas for future research.