This volume is the first comprehensive survey of the sociolinguistic studies on Japanese. Japanese, like other languages, has developed a highly diverse linguistic system that is realized as variation shaped by interactions of linguistic and social factors. This volume primarily focuses on both classic and current topics of sociolinguistics that were first studied in Western languages, and then subsequently examined in the Japanese language. The topics in this volume cover major issues in sociolinguistics that also characterize sociolinguistic features of Japanese. Such topics as gender, honorifics, and politeness are particularly pertinent to Japanese, as is well-known in general sociolinguistics. At the same time, this volume includes studies on other topics such as social stratification, discourse, contact, and language policy, which have been widely conducted in the Japanese context. In addition, this volume introduces "domestic" approaches to sociolinguistics developed in Japan. They emerged a few decades before the development of the so-called Labovian and Hymesian sociolinguistics in the US, and they have shaped a unique development of sociolinguistic studies in Japan.

Contents

Part I: History

Chapter 1: Research methodology

Florian Coulmas

Chapter 2: Japan and the international sociolinguistic community

Yoshiyuki Asahi and J.K. Chambers

Chapter 3: Language life

Takehiro Shioda

Part II: Sociolinguistic patterns

Chapter 4: Style, prestige, and salience in language change in progress

Fumio Inoue

Chapter 5: Group language (shudango)

Taro Nakanishi

Chapter 6: Male-female differences in Japanese

Yoshimitsu Ozaki

Part III: Language and gender

Chapter 7: Historical overview of language and gender studies: From past to future

Orie Endo and Hideko Abe

Chapter 8: Genderization in Japanese: A typological view

Katsue A. Reynolds

Chapter 9: Feminist approaches to Japanese language, gender, and sexuality

Momoko Nakamura

Part IV: Honorifics and politeness

Chapter 10: Japanese honorifics

Takashi Nagata

Chapter 11: Intersection of traditional Japanese honorific theories and Western politeness theories

Masato Takiura

Chapter 12: Intersection of discourse politeness theory and interpersonal Communication

Mayumi Usami

Part V: Culture and discourse phenomena

Chapter 13: Subjective expression and its roles in Japanese discourse: Its development in Japanese and impact on general linguistics

Yoko Ujiie

Chapter 14: Style, character, and creativity in the discourse of Japanese popular culture: Focusing on light novels and keitai novels

Senko K. Maynard

Chapter 15: Sociopragmatics of political discourse

Shoji Azuma

Part VI: Language contact

Chapter 16: Contact dialects of Japanese

Yoshiyuki Asahi

Chapter 17: Japanese loanwords and lendwords

Frank E. Daulton
Chapter 18: Japanese language varieties outside Japan

Mie Hiramoto
Chapter 19: Language contact and contact languages in Japan

Daniel Long

Part VII: Language policy

Chapter 20: Chinese characters: Variation, policy, and landscape

Hiroyuki Sasahara
Chapter 21: Language, economy, and nation

Katsumi Shibuya