‘Stupidest of all the primates’: The role of English in Japanese television:

Furukawa, Gavin

doi:10.1075/japc.24.2.03fur

Article published in:

Anxiety, Insecurity, and Border Crossing: Language Contact in a Globalizing World
Edited by Mie Hiramoto and Joseph Sung-Yul Park
[Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 24:2] 2014
► pp. 196–220

‘Stupidest of all the primates’

The role of English in Japanese television

Gavin Furukawa | University of Tokyo

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.

Published online: 22 December 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.24.2.03fur

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