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 (shūdango)
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