This project is an empirical investigation into Japanese men's informal linguistic behavior. A review of the Japanese language and gender research reveals that, although some aspects of these issues have been well-studied, an investigation into how Japanese men in same-sex friendship groups create conversations has yet to be tried. Data will be drawn from approximately thirty-six Japanese male speakers in the Kansai region. The goals are twofold: 1) to examine the specific array of linguistic devices used by Japanese men to create conversations and 2) to explore how Japanese men use these local linguistic structures to express themselves in ways which exhibit principled linkages to global cultural notions of what it is to be a Japanese man.
Quantitative and qualitative analyses are integrated in order to identify particular linguistic patterns utilized by Japanese men and to determine how these patterns connect to larger issues of Japanese masculine identity. This project will contribute to linguistic anthropological as well as language and gender research by examining how men express themselves through language and how linguistic structures are valued in specific contexts.
