The State of Gender Indexing in Japan - Essay Example

(College) Linguistics What do you think about the of gender indexing in Japan, does this have anything to do with gendered language including politeness and honorification? Supposing all the educated Japanese are now bilinguals, would this affect the gender indexing in Japan? What effect does the youth language bring about on social life and how does it differ from other languages? Just to start with, Linguistics is recognized as the scientific study of languages and its entire structure. This includes the study of syntax, phonetics, morphology and semantics as well. To a great extent, Linguistics can be associated with things like sociology and psychology as it plays a big part on these fields. There is power in language as language can be used to control just about anything. Wodak (1989) explores this opinion to reveal that language gains power in the hands of those who are powerful. According to the author it would be right to say that someone in power can even be represented by a specific language and fights about discrimination or status basically symbolize the fight for power. This study mainly purposes to explore some of the things that happen on the basis of linguistics which include politeness, gender-indexing, honorification, youth language and bilingualism more specifically amongst the Japanese community. Japan which happens to be one of the most industrialized nations on earth was ranked 105th out of 136 countries in terms of gender equality (The Bogen Project 2013). Under normal circumstances, most of us would think that a nation with the third largest economy as well as geographical power as Japan would have a positive gender index when it comes to equality. Surprisingly this is not the case amongst the Japanese. Statistics reveal that “According to the Gender Gap Index, Japan has slid from 94th place in 2010 to 98th in 2011, to 101st in 2012” (The Bogen Project 2013). This indubitably depicts gender inequality with the affected gender being the feminine ender. Japanese women have been misrepresented both in the government as well as in the field of employment. Does this have anything to do with gendered language including politeness and honorification? Unlike most languages in the world, Japanese language has some language associated with men or boys and another section associated with women or girls. This is what is termed as gendered language. In Japan, there are speech patterns associated with women who are termed as onna no kotoba (The Geology of Japanese, Womens Language, 1880s-1930s). When constituting Linguistic femininity there are two kinds or interrelated norms involved. The first one is centered on general stylistic features which include honorification, politeness, gentleness, politeness, and refinement. The second kind specifies particular linguistic forms which are lexical, phonological and morphological; these are also termed as the second order norms to distinguish them from the first order norms (Akamoto & Smith 2008). We could then relate the honorification and politeness from the first order norms to the gender-indexing amongst the Japanese. In my own opinion I have observed many of those who act polite, honorific and refined being regarded as weak and only suitable in pleasing others. Based on this observation we could conclude that perhaps these norms associated with feminine are what brings about the negative gender equality index. They are only perceived as those who are meant to please men due to their politeness and honorific nature. This comes out quite clearly in their Japanese speech pattern known as the onna no kotoba. With the growing level of literacy in Japan, there are several bilinguals. Now supposing all the educated Japanese are bilinguals it would most likely affect gender-indexing in Japan. Bilingualism would mean that most women would be taking advantage of the other language they know so well to work for their advantage. For instance, for a local Japanese feminine who perfectly knows English just as much as she knows her native language, it would be easier for her to be associated with other constructive intellectuals from other parts of the globe as they all now have a common communication tool. The literature The Geology of Japanese, Womens Language (1880s-1930s) is what gives me the feeling that females are disadvantaged by the Japanese language given that some part of the female speech pattern disgusts men. For instance the author “schoolgirl speech” which is depicted and as strange and unpleasant as it comes from the mouths of schoolgirls. Men currently “own” the nation and any disguise from females would make them not want to invite them even in the local firms hence the negative gender equality index. However, the commonly known “feminine” style speech is slowly losing its strength of disguise to men not because it is being abandoned but because females are learning other language and embracing modernity. Irony is outstanding in this scenario because the “schoolgirl speech” is being accepted by all gender and even being used to recognize the females. Perhaps foreign languages such as English are significant when it comes to how people relate and view one another. Keitai Shousetsu which is commonly known as the mobile phone novels has gained popularity in Japan (Coates 2011). This is an example of youth language that is used by the youth in Japan to express the youth colloquial style. The youth language makes them feel like a family of their own. This is because the youth like freedom without any restrictions as well as being casual in most occasions and the youth language just works this out. The youth language is one very easy language that most youth find easy to socialize with as it also induces some sort of pride to those who understand it perfectly. However, this is a language sometimes knows no politeness and honorification. Some of the terms used in the language are rather offensive yet the owners of the language who are the youth just view this as normal. It is also easy to find that this language has dominated the minds of many youth more that their native Japanese. This is because as people mature, they are taken through schools where they mostly learn foreign languages as English and socialize with their age mates in the youth language. If we are therefore tasked with ranking these languages in this very context, we could possibly rank the youth language first, English second and Japanese third. The youth language differs from other languages in the sense that it is flexible; it is casual and mostly common among the youth. This is a language built by blending other language such as Japanese and English. One question I cannot quite figure out is whether a “genius speaker” of the youth language who also knows Japanese perfectly well can be termed as bilingual? We could conclude by saying that a language in its natural state has got different impact compared to when it is foreign learnt. This is because a foreign language is differently viewed and at times those who learn it seem special and extraordinary just as we have observed in the discussion above. The manner in which words sound for instance in English differs from how they would sound when spoken in Japanese meaning a different effect will be experienced just as in the case of “schoolgirl speech”. Works Cited Wodak R., Language, Power and Ideology: Studies in Political Discourse. New York: John Benjamins Publishing. 1989. pp. 288. [Web] The Borgen Project, Japan’s Ranking in Global Gender Gap Index. The Blog. October, 2013. Retrieved on: April29, 2015. Retrieved from: http://borgenproject.org/japan ranked105th-136-countries-global-gender-gap-index/ The Geology of Japanese, Womens Language, Language, Gender and National Modernity. Part One. 1880s-1930s. pp. 37-74. [Print] Akamoto S., & Smith S., J., Constructing Linguistic Femininity in Contemporary Japan: Scholarly and Popular Representations. Gender and Language, Vol 2, No 1 (2008). [Web] Coates S., THE LANGUAGE OF MOBILE PHONE NOVELS: JAPANESE YOUTH, MEDIA LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICE. La Trobe University, Australia, 2011. [Print] Read More