Report of language and society#1– 総合職共働き人事コンサルのブログ

This my first report of language and society.
If you have a comment or you find a grammatical mistake, please fill in the comment space.
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In this essay, I introduce my language repertoire, the way how I use languages which are included my language repertoire, the factor which make me choice the language including domain and related content such as code-switching, code-mixing and diglossia. At first, as a introduction, I introduce my language repertoire. I can use several languages such as French and Portuguese in only greeting such as “Bonjour” and “Olá”. Without these cases, I have only two languages repertoire which are Japanese and English but Japanese can be divided into standard Japanese and Kansai accent. In this point, I have three languages repertoire. I will analyzes two relationships in this essay using sociolinguistics consept. The first relationship is between English and Japanese. The second relationship is between standard Japanese and Kansai accent.
Between English and Japanese
At first, I introduce background point about my ability of Japanese and English. In my life, I had been in Japan until I went to the school excursion when I was a second year high-school student. Therefore, I had studied English in only Japanese educational curriculum. According to this point, I did hardly have used the English colloquially before entering the International Christian University. So Japanese must be my first language and I use Japanese in daily life normally. But I use English sometime. In this part, I describe the factors which make me speak English rather than Japanese and the some reasons for code-mixing. At first, there are the two examples which show the situation when I use English rather than Japanese. These two examples show the influence of domain. The domain is clearly a very general concept which draws on three important social factors in code choice-participants, setting and topic- (Holmes p23). The first example is in class. Before starting English class, I talk with my friends in Japanese. But when a professor comes to class, we change the language from Japanese to English. This is one of code-switching which is that the changing linguistic form across sentence. In this situation, the influence of one factor included domain is working. The working factor is “setting”. In class, coming professor changes the setting of class. This means that the atmosphere let me use English because we have to use English in English class which is decided in regulation of university. Therefore, we change the using language. The second example is in conversation with foreign people. In this situation, I speak in English. When I went to Hakone (Japanese famous sightseeing area), I was addressed by foreign tourist. We talk each other in English. In this situation, the factor of “participates” was working. In general, I talk with Japanese in Japan. But in this case, participates change from Japanese to foreign people, the factor of participates operates and change the language to English. Because I know the foreign people tend to can speak English compare to Japanese. Therefore, we can remark that the factor of participates is working in this case. Secondly, there is other example show and describe the one reason why code-mixing happen. Some Japanese said that “watashitati ha nihonjin to shiteno identity wo motanaito ikenai”. It means that we must have an identity as Japanese. In this case, the code-mixing happens. The word of “identity” is used in the Japanese sentence. The one reason why this code-mixing come out is the lexical borrowing. The lexical borrowing is “borrowing words from another language to express a concept or describe an object for which there is no obvious word available in the language they are using” (Holmes p43). In this situation, there is no appropriate word which fit the meaning of “identity” in Japanese. In general, “jikodouitusei” is same meaning as “identity” in most English-Japanese dictionary. However, a lot of Japanese think that the word “jikodouitusei” do not betray the image of “identity”. Therefore, Japanese people use “identity” in most situations. That is one reason why code-mixing occur.
Between standard Japanese and Kansai accent
This part describes relationship between standard Japanese and Kansai accent. The Kansai accent is called kansaiben sometime. This is spoken in Kinki region. The standard Japanese is spoken in all over the Japan and which used in school textbook. In these two languages, domain is working as same as between Japanese and English. For example, when we talk with friends, we use Kansai accent sometime. First, when I use Kansai accent, we talk with friends who come from Kinki region in most instances. This point show the factor of participates is working. Second, on the occasion of in high spirits, I tend to use Kansai accent, which is the factor of setting. At third, in case of that we make light topic conversation, we often talk with friends in the Kansai accent. In this point, the factor of topic is influencing. In this context, the factors of participates, setting and topic which are all of domain is operating. In addition that standard Japanese and Kansai accent in the Kinki region can be regards as the diglossia which is two distinct varieties of the same language with one regarded as high variety and another low variety. In Kinki region, standard Japanese is the high varieties. The high varieties is not use every day conversation, usually has more complex grammar, and has a prestigious and economic, political and social power. Also Kansai accent is the low varieties. The low varieties is associated with home and used in local shopping. In Kinki region, people do not use standard Japanese in daily life and use Kansai accent. But in the business or social talking, they use standard Japanese. In this point, relationship between standard Japanese and Kansai accent is diglossia and standard Japanese is regarded as high variety and Kansai accent is set down low variety in Kinki region.
In conclusion, according to above explanation, the domain language is working in choices between Japanese and English and between standard Japanese and Kansai accent in a large way and lexical borrowing is one reason why code-switching between Japanese and English happens. At last, in Kinki region, relation between standard Japanese and Kansai accent can be called diglossia.
Works Cited
Holmes, Janet. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics Third Edition. Edinburgh: Longman, 2008.