채팅에서의 일본인 여성 젠더표현 사용경향에 관한 연구 - 문말표현을 중심으로 -

Abstract

If we look at the Japanese language from the perspective of gender, it can be divided into men and women's language. In the case of Japanese, the difference between the speech style of women and men is clearer than in other languages and in many examples, the difference between a women's and men's language is expressed through means like phonetic, vocabulary and grammar. In particular, since women are socially obligated to use feminine polite language of the feminine socially respectful tone it can be said that women are restrained in their use of language. However, some recent researches about face to face discourse revealed that the differences in men and women speech style are slowly disappearing. Based on this fact and considering online chatting the closest to spoken language from the perspective of interaction and instantaneity, this research will focus on analyzing female language expressions material collected from on-line chat rooms. In addition, this study will focus on the different use of tones in speech depending on the gender of the conversation partner. While analyzing female speech style, this study will focus on the sentence-final particles where gender based language differences are usually expressed. As a result, this research could verify that female tend to use male words, because that leads to a more enjoyable communication with the partner and thus female’s consideration for their conversation partners would be observed as well. Furthermore, in accordance with the discourse where male language is being used, the research confirmed its usage even in discourse not solely directed towards the partner. Regarding the classification according to gender related usage of language, this research confirmed the tendency to use male language independently of the speaker's gender as well as the tendency to use female language expressions in opposite gender's discourse.