This article analyzes stylized pronunciations of English by Japanese speakers on televised variet... more This article analyzes stylized pronunciations of English by Japanese speakers on televised variety shows in Japan. Research on style and mocking has done much to reveal how linguistic forms are utilized in interaction as resources of identity construction that can oftentimes subvert hegemonic discourse (
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2023
This article examines the ways in which symbolic English is used in fashion and mass media by ind... more This article examines the ways in which symbolic English is used in fashion and mass media by indexing ideologies and expectations regarding language ability in Japan. One example of this is the popularity of English language T-shirts in Japan. Using English that is often widely criticized for being awkward or meaningless, these T-shirts are now often mocked in various media sources due to the increased flow of images across traditional nation-state boundaries. By examining the use of these English T-shirts in a Japanese variety show featuring a teen idol known for having English language ability this paper will show how the symbolic value of English T-shirts in Japan can be used to construct a hierarchy based on language ability within Japanese society and how television programs that use such items, take advantage of linguistic inability to increase embarrassment and stake for people heightening linguistic anxiety while at the same time discursively constructing the show and its staff in a positive light. This article examines this phenomenon and the ways in which these fashion items are then appropriated and denaturalized for entertainment both within and outside Japan through forms of mass-media such as television programs, books, and websites.
This article examines the effect of linguistic anxiety on identity by analyzing the use of Englis... more This article examines the effect of linguistic anxiety on identity by analyzing the use of English in Japanese television from the perspective of Sociocultural Linguistics. Close analysis of segments from Japanese television entertainment programs shows how both verbal and visual intertextual resources are used to create linguistic anxiety at the micro level of personal interaction, on the macro level of government policy and television genre, and also at meso levels that exist between both the macro and micro. Semiotic resources such as costumes, set design, subtitles, and other elements in the mediascape allow for circulation of ideologies from government policies into assessments of individuals. The role of meso level discourse in the bidirectional transmission of linguistic anxiety between the macro levels of society and the micro levels of personal interaction is discussed.
Introduction… Norifumi Miyokawa 1 Part I: A writing center in Japan: Hiroshima University Chapter... more Introduction… Norifumi Miyokawa 1 Part I: A writing center in Japan: Hiroshima University Chapter One: Development of the Hiroshima University Writing Center －From an administrative perspective－… Hiroko Araki & Norifumi Miyokawa 3 Chapter Two: Perceptions of academic writing support －A needs analysis of the Hiroshima University Writing Center－… Roehl Sybing & Norifumi Miyokawa 17 Part II: Faculty development for academic writing Chapter Three: Potential roles of writing centers for writing related Faculty Development… Machi Sato & Shinichi Cho 31 Chapter Four: Academic writing support for faculty members －Writing Groups and Writing Retreats－… Adina Staicov 45 Part III: Genre-specific education: Cases in the medical field Chapter Five: How to write the Introduction of biomedical research articles －Move analysis of the first and last sentences－… Takeshi Kawamoto & Tatsuya Ishii 57 Chapter Six: Error analysis of overt lexicogrammatical errors in the prepublication English-language manu...
Hawaiʻi Creole or Pidgin is a highly stigmatized language variety spoken by half a million people... more Hawaiʻi Creole or Pidgin is a highly stigmatized language variety spoken by half a million people in the state of Hawaiʻi. The residents of Hawaiʻi and speakers of this language often view it with a complex mixture of both hate and love. Previous discursive approaches to this topic have often focused on the strategic, pragmatic uses of the language for constructing identities and ideologies however the complex and often contradictory nature of Pidgin speakers’ beliefs and attitudes towards their language is often missing from these analyses. In this article, the ideologies of Pidgin are examined through analyzing the comedic skits of Rap Reiplinger, a local comedian whose work still enjoys great popularity over 30 years after his death. By mapping out the indexical fields this article shows how multiple and sometimes opposing ideologies may be simultaneously produced and reproduced in Pidgin comedy routines by the formation of multiple semiotic centers. The analysis will also show how these ideologies are then re-appropriated by others through selective activation of these indexical fields and how the activation of multiple fields can lead to the reproduction of those contradicting beliefs that are at the core of Pidgin speakers attitudes towards their own language.
Hawaiʻi Creole or Pidgin is a highly stigmatized language variety spoken by half a million people... more Hawaiʻi Creole or Pidgin is a highly stigmatized language variety spoken by half a million people in the state of Hawaiʻi. The residents of Hawaiʻi and speakers of this language often view it with a complex mixture of both hate and love. Previous discursive approaches to this topic have often focused on the strategic, pragmatic uses of the language for constructing identities and ideologies however the complex and often contradictory nature of Pidgin speakers’ beliefs and attitudes towards their language is often missing from these analyses. In this article, the ideologies of Pidgin are examined through analyzing the comedic skits of Rap Reiplinger, a local comedian whose work still enjoys great popularity over 30 years after his death. By mapping out the indexical fields this article shows how multiple and sometimes opposing ideologies may be simultaneously produced and reproduced in Pidgin comedy routines by the formation of multiple semiotic centers. The analysis will also show how these ideologies are then re-appropriated by others through selective activation of these indexical fields and how the activation of multiple fields can lead to the reproduction of those contradicting beliefs that are at the core of Pidgin speakers attitudes towards their own language.
This study looks at the interactional expression of emotions in a Japanese television talk show a... more This study looks at the interactional expression of emotions in a Japanese television talk show among a Japanese cross-dresser, a Japanese comedian, the production staff, and 50 foreign residents from various countries living in Japan. Building on previous work on embedded frames in Japanese television, this chapter shows how emotions are used by the show’s participants and producers as resources across various interactional frames to create a collaborative discourse for entertainment. In addition to sequential conversation analysis, formulation analysis, indexicality, footing, and framing are used to show the various ways that emotions are discursively brought into being through textual and verbal resources as well as non-lexical means such as jeering and laughter.
This article examines the effect of linguistic anxiety on identity by analyzing the use of Englis... more This article examines the effect of linguistic anxiety on identity by analyzing the use of English in Japanese television from the perspective of Sociocultural Linguistics. Close analysis of segments from Japanese television entertainment programs shows how both verbal and visual intertextual resources are used to create linguistic anxiety at the micro level of personal interaction, on the macro level of government policy and television genre, and also at meso levels that exist between both the macro and micro. Semiotic resources such as costumes, set design, subtitles, and other elements in the mediascape allow for circulation of ideologies from government policies into assessments of individuals. The role of meso level discourse in the bidirectional transmission of linguistic anxiety between the macro levels of society and the micro levels of personal interaction is discussed.
This article analyzes stylized pronunciations of English by Japanese speakers on televised variet... more This article analyzes stylized pronunciations of English by Japanese speakers on televised variety shows in Japan. Research on style and mocking has done much to reveal how linguistic forms are utilized in interaction as resources of identity construction that can oftentimes subvert hegemonic discourse (Chun, 2004). Within this research area, scholars have primarily explored language among monolingual speakers of English, and immigrant or second generation L2 English multilinguals who have frequent contact with speakers of other languages (Rampton, 1995; Chun, 2009). What has not been examined is the use of stylized languages in contexts where English is considered a foreign language, such as Japan. In this article, I investigate Stylized native-speaker English (NSE), or English spoken with a highly enunciated hyper-L1 accent which indexes a degree of social ‘cool’. I examine the ways in which NSE is stylized in variety shows through an analysis of both oral discourse and textual commentary (jimaku) produced on the screen for viewers. The article argues that these forms of stylization are used as resources in the social construction of cool identities and demonstrates how the indexical relationship between social cool and Stylized NSE works bi-directionally.
This article analyzes four Hollywood films set in Hawai’i to shed light on how particular languag... more This article analyzes four Hollywood films set in Hawai’i to shed light on how particular languages and language varieties style (Auer 2007; Coupland 2007) Local/Hawaiian and mainland U.S. characters as certain kinds of people. Through an analysis of films featuring haole (‘white, outsider’) male protagonists who are on various journeys in Hawai’i, we analyze how cultural difference is constructed through divergent language choice, mock languages, and acts of linguistic bridging by quasi-Local characters. We draw upon Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles & Coupland 1991) to explain how linguistic divergence establishes dichotomous characterizations through language choice and other non-accommodating behaviors. As our analysis shows, Hollywood styling perpetuates Orientalist discourses (Said 1978) about ‘whiteness’ and ‘nativeness’ by dichotomizing Local and Hawaiian people, and by characterizing Local characters as largely antagonistic toward outsiders. At the same time, the films attempt to avoid too close a linkage to colonialist discourses by establishing quasi-Local haole characters as linguistic ‘buffers’ who act as conduits for Hawaiian worldviews and Local knowledge, and who are styled linguistically as partially Local through their knowledge of Hawai’i Creole and Hawaiian.
This article analyzes stylized pronunciations of English by Japanese speakers on televised variet... more This article analyzes stylized pronunciations of English by Japanese speakers on televised variety shows in Japan. Research on style and mocking has done much to reveal how linguistic forms are utilized in interaction as resources of identity construction that can oftentimes subvert hegemonic discourse (
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2023
This article examines the ways in which symbolic English is used in fashion and mass media by ind... more This article examines the ways in which symbolic English is used in fashion and mass media by indexing ideologies and expectations regarding language ability in Japan. One example of this is the popularity of English language T-shirts in Japan. Using English that is often widely criticized for being awkward or meaningless, these T-shirts are now often mocked in various media sources due to the increased flow of images across traditional nation-state boundaries. By examining the use of these English T-shirts in a Japanese variety show featuring a teen idol known for having English language ability this paper will show how the symbolic value of English T-shirts in Japan can be used to construct a hierarchy based on language ability within Japanese society and how television programs that use such items, take advantage of linguistic inability to increase embarrassment and stake for people heightening linguistic anxiety while at the same time discursively constructing the show and its staff in a positive light. This article examines this phenomenon and the ways in which these fashion items are then appropriated and denaturalized for entertainment both within and outside Japan through forms of mass-media such as television programs, books, and websites.
This article examines the effect of linguistic anxiety on identity by analyzing the use of Englis... more This article examines the effect of linguistic anxiety on identity by analyzing the use of English in Japanese television from the perspective of Sociocultural Linguistics. Close analysis of segments from Japanese television entertainment programs shows how both verbal and visual intertextual resources are used to create linguistic anxiety at the micro level of personal interaction, on the macro level of government policy and television genre, and also at meso levels that exist between both the macro and micro. Semiotic resources such as costumes, set design, subtitles, and other elements in the mediascape allow for circulation of ideologies from government policies into assessments of individuals. The role of meso level discourse in the bidirectional transmission of linguistic anxiety between the macro levels of society and the micro levels of personal interaction is discussed.
Introduction… Norifumi Miyokawa 1 Part I: A writing center in Japan: Hiroshima University Chapter... more Introduction… Norifumi Miyokawa 1 Part I: A writing center in Japan: Hiroshima University Chapter One: Development of the Hiroshima University Writing Center －From an administrative perspective－… Hiroko Araki & Norifumi Miyokawa 3 Chapter Two: Perceptions of academic writing support －A needs analysis of the Hiroshima University Writing Center－… Roehl Sybing & Norifumi Miyokawa 17 Part II: Faculty development for academic writing Chapter Three: Potential roles of writing centers for writing related Faculty Development… Machi Sato & Shinichi Cho 31 Chapter Four: Academic writing support for faculty members －Writing Groups and Writing Retreats－… Adina Staicov 45 Part III: Genre-specific education: Cases in the medical field Chapter Five: How to write the Introduction of biomedical research articles －Move analysis of the first and last sentences－… Takeshi Kawamoto & Tatsuya Ishii 57 Chapter Six: Error analysis of overt lexicogrammatical errors in the prepublication English-language manu...
Hawaiʻi Creole or Pidgin is a highly stigmatized language variety spoken by half a million people... more Hawaiʻi Creole or Pidgin is a highly stigmatized language variety spoken by half a million people in the state of Hawaiʻi. The residents of Hawaiʻi and speakers of this language often view it with a complex mixture of both hate and love. Previous discursive approaches to this topic have often focused on the strategic, pragmatic uses of the language for constructing identities and ideologies however the complex and often contradictory nature of Pidgin speakers’ beliefs and attitudes towards their language is often missing from these analyses. In this article, the ideologies of Pidgin are examined through analyzing the comedic skits of Rap Reiplinger, a local comedian whose work still enjoys great popularity over 30 years after his death. By mapping out the indexical fields this article shows how multiple and sometimes opposing ideologies may be simultaneously produced and reproduced in Pidgin comedy routines by the formation of multiple semiotic centers. The analysis will also show how these ideologies are then re-appropriated by others through selective activation of these indexical fields and how the activation of multiple fields can lead to the reproduction of those contradicting beliefs that are at the core of Pidgin speakers attitudes towards their own language.
Hawaiʻi Creole or Pidgin is a highly stigmatized language variety spoken by half a million people... more Hawaiʻi Creole or Pidgin is a highly stigmatized language variety spoken by half a million people in the state of Hawaiʻi. The residents of Hawaiʻi and speakers of this language often view it with a complex mixture of both hate and love. Previous discursive approaches to this topic have often focused on the strategic, pragmatic uses of the language for constructing identities and ideologies however the complex and often contradictory nature of Pidgin speakers’ beliefs and attitudes towards their language is often missing from these analyses. In this article, the ideologies of Pidgin are examined through analyzing the comedic skits of Rap Reiplinger, a local comedian whose work still enjoys great popularity over 30 years after his death. By mapping out the indexical fields this article shows how multiple and sometimes opposing ideologies may be simultaneously produced and reproduced in Pidgin comedy routines by the formation of multiple semiotic centers. The analysis will also show how these ideologies are then re-appropriated by others through selective activation of these indexical fields and how the activation of multiple fields can lead to the reproduction of those contradicting beliefs that are at the core of Pidgin speakers attitudes towards their own language.
This study looks at the interactional expression of emotions in a Japanese television talk show a... more This study looks at the interactional expression of emotions in a Japanese television talk show among a Japanese cross-dresser, a Japanese comedian, the production staff, and 50 foreign residents from various countries living in Japan. Building on previous work on embedded frames in Japanese television, this chapter shows how emotions are used by the show’s participants and producers as resources across various interactional frames to create a collaborative discourse for entertainment. In addition to sequential conversation analysis, formulation analysis, indexicality, footing, and framing are used to show the various ways that emotions are discursively brought into being through textual and verbal resources as well as non-lexical means such as jeering and laughter.
This article examines the effect of linguistic anxiety on identity by analyzing the use of Englis... more This article examines the effect of linguistic anxiety on identity by analyzing the use of English in Japanese television from the perspective of Sociocultural Linguistics. Close analysis of segments from Japanese television entertainment programs shows how both verbal and visual intertextual resources are used to create linguistic anxiety at the micro level of personal interaction, on the macro level of government policy and television genre, and also at meso levels that exist between both the macro and micro. Semiotic resources such as costumes, set design, subtitles, and other elements in the mediascape allow for circulation of ideologies from government policies into assessments of individuals. The role of meso level discourse in the bidirectional transmission of linguistic anxiety between the macro levels of society and the micro levels of personal interaction is discussed.
This article analyzes stylized pronunciations of English by Japanese speakers on televised variet... more This article analyzes stylized pronunciations of English by Japanese speakers on televised variety shows in Japan. Research on style and mocking has done much to reveal how linguistic forms are utilized in interaction as resources of identity construction that can oftentimes subvert hegemonic discourse (Chun, 2004). Within this research area, scholars have primarily explored language among monolingual speakers of English, and immigrant or second generation L2 English multilinguals who have frequent contact with speakers of other languages (Rampton, 1995; Chun, 2009). What has not been examined is the use of stylized languages in contexts where English is considered a foreign language, such as Japan. In this article, I investigate Stylized native-speaker English (NSE), or English spoken with a highly enunciated hyper-L1 accent which indexes a degree of social ‘cool’. I examine the ways in which NSE is stylized in variety shows through an analysis of both oral discourse and textual commentary (jimaku) produced on the screen for viewers. The article argues that these forms of stylization are used as resources in the social construction of cool identities and demonstrates how the indexical relationship between social cool and Stylized NSE works bi-directionally.
This article analyzes four Hollywood films set in Hawai’i to shed light on how particular languag... more This article analyzes four Hollywood films set in Hawai’i to shed light on how particular languages and language varieties style (Auer 2007; Coupland 2007) Local/Hawaiian and mainland U.S. characters as certain kinds of people. Through an analysis of films featuring haole (‘white, outsider’) male protagonists who are on various journeys in Hawai’i, we analyze how cultural difference is constructed through divergent language choice, mock languages, and acts of linguistic bridging by quasi-Local characters. We draw upon Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles & Coupland 1991) to explain how linguistic divergence establishes dichotomous characterizations through language choice and other non-accommodating behaviors. As our analysis shows, Hollywood styling perpetuates Orientalist discourses (Said 1978) about ‘whiteness’ and ‘nativeness’ by dichotomizing Local and Hawaiian people, and by characterizing Local characters as largely antagonistic toward outsiders. At the same time, the films attempt to avoid too close a linkage to colonialist discourses by establishing quasi-Local haole characters as linguistic ‘buffers’ who act as conduits for Hawaiian worldviews and Local knowledge, and who are styled linguistically as partially Local through their knowledge of Hawai’i Creole and Hawaiian.
English has a complex status in Japan. On the one hand, it is considered "foreign" in the sense o... more English has a complex status in Japan. On the one hand, it is considered "foreign" in the sense of being the go-to, in-demand foreign language of study. On the other hand, it has had a strong influence in Japanese society in ways that are unique to Japan, such as the use of katakanago 'Western loanwords' as part of Japanese. This complex status is paired with equally complex attitudes towards the role of English in Japan. In this paper, we explore the connection between the status of English and attitudes towards English in Japan, or what we call "EFL + α" (meaning 'with something extra or something special' in Japanese). We examine data from a variety of sources in the public Japanese discourse relating to English use, ranging from online chat boards to official government documents. Based on our data, we notice three prevailing attitudes towards English use in Japan: English as an assumed necessity, English as unnecessary and overvalued, and English as a marker of general communication ability and intelligence. Finally, we suggest approaching the concept of "EFL + α" as a way of making sense of "English in Japan" not only as what is (i.e., variety of English is used in Japan), but also as what is being done (i.e., social and cultural practices around the role of English in Japan).
This paper investigates whether the production of social media content itself can resemiotize lan... more This paper investigates whether the production of social media content itself can resemiotize languages that have been marginalized in a more positive light. To that end, and based on our ongoing interest in analyzing the sociolinguistics of languages which have been devalued and stigmatized (Higgins, 2015; Higgins et al., 2012; Higgins & Furukawa, 2012), we analyzed YouTube videos about Pidgin (Hawai‘i Creole) and Konglish (Korean English) to see whether and to what degree the platform of social media might provide new affordances for representing, and even valorizing, sociolinguistic diversity by studying how video producers (dis)identify with mainstream metapragmatic messages, or ideological statements about language.
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Papers by Gavin Furukawa
of both hate and love. Previous discursive approaches to this topic have often focused on the strategic, pragmatic uses of the language for constructing identities and ideologies however the complex and
often contradictory nature of Pidgin speakers’ beliefs and attitudes towards their language is often missing from these analyses. In this article, the ideologies of Pidgin are examined through analyzing the comedic skits of Rap Reiplinger, a local comedian whose work still enjoys great popularity over 30 years after his death. By mapping out the indexical fields this article shows how multiple and sometimes opposing
ideologies may be simultaneously produced and reproduced in Pidgin comedy routines by the formation of multiple semiotic centers. The analysis will also show how these ideologies are then re-appropriated
by others through selective activation of these indexical fields and how the activation of multiple fields can lead to the reproduction of those contradicting beliefs that are at the core of Pidgin speakers attitudes
towards their own language.
of both hate and love. Previous discursive approaches to this topic have often focused on the strategic, pragmatic uses of the language for constructing identities and ideologies however the complex and
often contradictory nature of Pidgin speakers’ beliefs and attitudes towards their language is often missing from these analyses. In this article, the ideologies of Pidgin are examined through analyzing the comedic skits of Rap Reiplinger, a local comedian whose work still enjoys great popularity over 30 years after his death. By mapping out the indexical fields this article shows how multiple and sometimes opposing
ideologies may be simultaneously produced and reproduced in Pidgin comedy routines by the formation of multiple semiotic centers. The analysis will also show how these ideologies are then re-appropriated
by others through selective activation of these indexical fields and how the activation of multiple fields can lead to the reproduction of those contradicting beliefs that are at the core of Pidgin speakers attitudes
towards their own language.
of both hate and love. Previous discursive approaches to this topic have often focused on the strategic, pragmatic uses of the language for constructing identities and ideologies however the complex and
often contradictory nature of Pidgin speakers’ beliefs and attitudes towards their language is often missing from these analyses. In this article, the ideologies of Pidgin are examined through analyzing the comedic skits of Rap Reiplinger, a local comedian whose work still enjoys great popularity over 30 years after his death. By mapping out the indexical fields this article shows how multiple and sometimes opposing
ideologies may be simultaneously produced and reproduced in Pidgin comedy routines by the formation of multiple semiotic centers. The analysis will also show how these ideologies are then re-appropriated
by others through selective activation of these indexical fields and how the activation of multiple fields can lead to the reproduction of those contradicting beliefs that are at the core of Pidgin speakers attitudes
towards their own language.
of both hate and love. Previous discursive approaches to this topic have often focused on the strategic, pragmatic uses of the language for constructing identities and ideologies however the complex and
often contradictory nature of Pidgin speakers’ beliefs and attitudes towards their language is often missing from these analyses. In this article, the ideologies of Pidgin are examined through analyzing the comedic skits of Rap Reiplinger, a local comedian whose work still enjoys great popularity over 30 years after his death. By mapping out the indexical fields this article shows how multiple and sometimes opposing
ideologies may be simultaneously produced and reproduced in Pidgin comedy routines by the formation of multiple semiotic centers. The analysis will also show how these ideologies are then re-appropriated
by others through selective activation of these indexical fields and how the activation of multiple fields can lead to the reproduction of those contradicting beliefs that are at the core of Pidgin speakers attitudes
towards their own language.