Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics

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