Drawing on a theoretical framework based on a social constructionist approach in which social meanings are created in social interaction (Cook, 2008; Ochs, 1993), this study examines how shifts from Standard Japanese (SJ) to... [ view full abstract ]
Drawing on a theoretical framework based on a social constructionist approach in which social meanings are created in social interaction (Cook, 2008; Ochs, 1993), this study examines how shifts from Standard Japanese (SJ) to one of the dialects in Japan, Osaka dialect (OD) serve as resources for displaying different social identities.
Some previous studies point out that SJ and regional dialects index regionality (Inoue, 1991; Long, 1996). These previous studies on the relationship between these dialects are largely based on self-report survey, and it is still unclear exactly how people use these dialects in actual conversations. However, recent empirical studies on SJ and regional dialects show that these dialects do not simply index regionality (Barke, forthcoming; Okamoto, 2008a, 2008b; Okamoto & Shibamoto-Smith, 2016). Rather they serve as resources for strategic style management in actual conversations.
While Barke (forthcoming), Okamoto (2008a, 2008b), and Okamoto and Shibamoto-Smith (2016) have examined SJ and regional dialects in actual conversations, few studies have examined conversations on a radio talk show. To fill this gap, this paper investigates how a speaker uses SJ and OD on a radio talk show.
The data for this study comes from roughly 30 minutes of audio recordings taken from a radio talk show. This is one set of a one-to-one radio talk show between Masatoshi Hamada, who is a comedian and Hama Okamoto, who is a radio personality and musician. Masatoshi is the guest and Hama is the host. At the same time, Masatoshi and Hama have a parent-child relationship. The audio-recorded data was transcribed and qualitatively analyzed. Instances of morphological and lexical forms were counted but phonological forms were not taken into consideration in this study.
This study reveals that Masatoshi’s use of SJ and OD indexes different social meanings, and shows that his identity is not static but fluid on the radio show. While his use of SJ is employed for displaying the identity as a guest on the radio show, his use of OD is employed for displaying the identity as father.
