The Mysterious Address Term anata 'you' in Japanese
| Victoria University of Wellington
The use of the second person singular pronoun anata ‘you’ in modern Japanese has long been regarded as mysterious and problematic, generating contradictory nuances such as polite, impolite, intimate, and distancing. Treated as a troublesome pronoun, scholars have searched for a semantically loaded meaning in anata, under the assumption that all Japanese personal reference terms involve social indexicality. This book takes a new approach, revealing that anata is in fact semantically simple and its powerful expressivity is explained only in pragmatic terms. In doing so, the study brings to bear a thorough understanding of key issues in pragmatics, such as common ground, sociocultural norms, and shared understandings, in order to fully grasp the meaning and usage of this single linguistic item. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in a range of linguistic fields, such as semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, anthropological linguistics, linguistic typology, cultural linguistics, as well as applied linguistics.
[Topics in Address Research, 4] 2021. xv, 208 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgements | pp. xi–xii
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Abbreviations | pp. xiii–xiv
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List of figures | pp. xv–xvi
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List of tables | pp. xvii–xviii
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Chapter 1. Introduction | pp. 1–36
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Chapter 2. The history of anata, person reference terms in Japanese, and social norms in Japanese communication | pp. 37–66
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Chapter 3. The perceptions of native speakers | pp. 67–90
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Chapter 4. Absolute specification in a socially undefinable relationship | pp. 91–116
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Chapter 5. Absolute specification in a socially definable relationship | pp. 117–144
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Chapter 6. Ideology, identity, reflexive processes, and the use of anata | pp. 145–170
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Chapter 7. Conclusion | pp. 171–174
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References | pp. 175–190
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Resources | pp. 191–192
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Data Sources | pp. 193–194
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Appendix | pp. 195–200
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Name index | pp. 201–203
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Subject index | pp. 205–208
Subjects & Metadata
Linguistics
BIC Subject: CFG – Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
BISAC Subject: LAN009030 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Pragmatics