Japanese Questions: Discourse, Context and Language 9781472593795

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To my father

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List of Tables 2.1 3.1 4.1 5.1 6.1 7.1

Interrogativity criteria Questions in TV interviews Questions in radio phone-in programs Questions in friends’ talk Questions in unacquainted talk Questions across four different contexts

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List of Figures 3.1 4.1 5.1 6.1 7.1

Questions in TV interviews Questions in radio phone-in programs Questions in friends’ talk Questions in unacquainted talk Questions across four different contexts

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Acknowledgements This book could not have been written without the help of many people including my family, friends, anonymous reviewers and former supervisors who have contributed directly and indirectly. First, I want to thank Professor Mayumi Usami of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies for kindly providing some of the data (BTS). The Japanese linguistic academic community is benefiting enormously due to her generosity. I am also very grateful for the support and encouragement given to me by my colleagues at La Trobe University and in particular Emeritus Prof. Judith Brett who gave me the opportunity to take a semester leave in 2009 that allowed me to write this manuscript. I can never thank my former supervisors enough: Dr Hilary Chappell, Dr Eric Berendt and the late Dr Yukio Takefuta for imparting their knowledge and their passion for research. Without their initial teaching and guidance this book would never have been written. A very special thank you to my friends and members of the Discourse Group: Kerry Mullan, Joe Taylor, Novi Djenar, Clodagh Norwood, Sandra Masel, Averil Grieve, Shimako Iwasaki, Hossein Shokouhi. Our meetings contributed to the development of my thoughts and gave me innumerable suggestions. I hope that we will continue enjoying wonderful discussions. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Teresa Castelvetere for her excellent editing skills and especially for her friendship. I would also like to thank Sudha Joshi for being such a wonderful friend and for her unwavering encouragement during all these years. I am also very thankful to the editors Gurdeep Mattu, Andrew Wardell and Srikanth for their support and editorial assistance. Last, but not least, my greatest gratitude goes to my family, Peter and Marcel, Nélida, my best friend Chikako, and my mother for their encouragement at every stage of this project.

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List of Abbreviations and Conventions COM COND CONJ COP DESID DM DO EXCL GEN HON HORT HUM INST LOC NEG NP ONMT PASS PAST PL POL PRE PROG Q Qt S SFP T TOP

sentential complementiser (no, koto, to) conditional affix (-ba, -tara, -to) conjunctive affix (-te, -de) copula (da, na, dearu, desu) desiderative affix (-tai) discourse marker direct object exclamation genitive case (no) honorific hortative (daroo, deshoo) humble instrumental locative negative form noun phrase onomatopoeia passive affix (-rare) past tense plural suffix (-tachi, -ra) polite present tense progressive (-teiru) question particle (ka) quotation marker (to, tte) subject marker (ga) sentence final particle title (-san, -chan, -kun, -sama) topic marker (wa)

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List of Data Transcription Conventions The following conventions suggested by Du Bois, Schuetze-Coburn, Paolino and Cumming (1990) were used for the transcription of the data. Hyphen Comma

(-) (,)

Full-stop Question mark @ mark Square brackets Two dots Three dots Single brackets Double brackets Capital X Single brackets bold Equal sign Oblique line Capital letters

*Hush sign

(.) (?) @@ ([]) (..) (...) (sneeze) ((gaze)) (X) (yes) (=) (/) TEXT

(#)

Truncated word Continuing intonation unit, usually signalled by intonational, semantic and/or syntactic factors Completed intonation unit Question Laughter Simultaneous speech Brief pause, 0.2 seconds or less Medium pause, 0.3–0.6 seconds Indicates type of vocal noise Indicates comment by researcher Indicates indecipherable syllable Aizuchi or backchannel Vowel lengthening Rising intonation marked quality possible utterance grammatically unfinished utterance

*Symbol devised for this study

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Romanization of Japanese Hepburn System The original Hepburn System uses â, û, ê and ô for the corresponding long vowels. However, for convenience’s sake I use double vowels instead. Vowels:

a

i

u

e

o

Long Vowels1 : Consonant+Vowel:

aa ka sa ta na ha ma ya ra wa ga za da ba pa

ii ki shi chi ni hi mi yu ri o gi ji ji bi pi

uu ku su tsu nu fu mu yo ru

ee/ei ke se te ne he me

oo ko so to no ho mo

re

ro

gu zu zu bu pu

ge ze de be pe

go zo do bo po

Consonant+Consonant+Vowel kya sha cha nya hya mya rya gya ja bya pya

kyu shu chu nyu hyu myu ryu gyu ju byu pyu

kyo sho cho nyo hyo myo ryo gyo jo byo pyo

Double consonant eg.

ikka kotto

jissai

Single/n/: Syllabic nasal:

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katte

ippen

n ‘n

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1

Introduction

Preliminaries It is known that the context is a major variable in how communication is conducted, nevertheless, how exactly it affects the use and production of questions is less known. The differences or similarities of questions used in spoken interactions have received less attention, in particular for languages where the structure of canonical questions is so different to their informal variants. This book examines how Japanese questions are used in different communicative settings and analyses their form, their use within the interaction and their influence in the course of the conversation. It analyses and compares the ways questions are used in formal, informal and unacquainted interactions to deepen our understanding of the use of questions in spoken Japanese. The book takes the viewpoint that language and context are mutually dependent and influence each other in a dynamic process. Factors such as the goal of interaction and the speakers’ relationships decide the linguistic choices of interlocutors which in turn shape their stances. Although the intrinsic relationship between context and discourse is widely acknowledged (e.g. Ervin-Tripp and Miller, 1977; Goodwin and Duranti, 1992; Gumperz, 1982; Holmes, 1984; Levinson, 1992; Schiffrin, 1987), with the exception of politeness-related studies, there are only a limited number of empirical studies on Japanese that show what linguistic changes occur in different contexts. Questions are the focus of this book because they are used in every communicative interaction. There are a multitude of other speech acts such as compliments, invitations, promises or advice, but questions are the speech act that is used in all interactions; they are essential for human communication. In some cases they are central in the interaction and the focal discourse type as in court hearings, interviews or classroom teaching. Most importantly, though, there are very few interactions or activity types (Levinson, 1992) where questions are not asked, be it a meeting, a meal with family members or a business transaction. We ask questions everyday; of family members, friends, colleagues, strangers and sometimes ourselves. We learn to ask questions early in life (Pine, 1994) and it is mainly through questions that we obtain new information, learn about the world around us, confirm something already known and, most importantly, communicate with others. Questions are a universal speech act as attested to by the fact that all languages of

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Japanese Questions

the world have some form of mechanism to express interrogativity (Mackenzie, 2009; Schulze, 2007; Ultan, 1978). Questions are considered to be a powerful communicative tool. In contrast to other speech acts, they have a particularly strong illocutionary force because they ‘compel’ a response (Goody, 1978). This is observed in all communicative situations regardless of the speakers’ social status. Thus, a lower status person’s question can force a higher status person to answer, albeit other factors might decide the course of the interaction. Questions allow complete strangers to start conversations and, most importantly, they enable speakers to ask another question once an answer has been given, effectively allowing them to have control over the interaction (Sacks, in Silverman, 1998). There are many aspects of questions (and of other speech acts) in relation to form and function where context is paramount to fully understanding how they are used. When exchanged by colleagues or neighbours the question ‘How are you?’, for example, is understood not as a question, but as part of a set phrase. Normally, it will elicit ‘Fine’ or ‘Good’ and no attempts will be made to ‘answer’ the question by reporting that one is feeling not so well or that one has received a salary increase. However, in a clinical encounter, the same question asked by a doctor will be understood as a genuine request for an account of one’s health (Sarangi, 2000) and as an invitation to explain how one is feeling (physically and mentally). These multiple interpretations are possible because of our experience as members of a social group and our cognitive knowledge of social contexts that include cultural and shared values (see e.g. Goffman, 1981; Levinson, 1992; Schiffrin, 1987). Language and context are in an interdependent relationship in which the type of interaction shapes the language and the language simultaneously displays characteristics of the context. As Schiffrin writes ‘not only does language always occur in a context, but its patterns – of form and function, and at surface and underlying levels – are sensitive to features of that context’ (1987: 4). The inquiry into the relationship between language and context has created enormous interest (e.g. Biber and Conrad, 2009; Ervin-Tripp and Miller, 1977; Fetzer and Oishi, 2011; Giles and Coupland, 1991; Goodwin and Duranti, 1992; Gumperz, 1982; Hymes, 1974; Levinson, 1992; Schegloff and Sacks, 1973) and generated a vast amount of genre-based research (see e.g. Atkinson and Heritage, 1984; Drew, 1992; Eggins and Slade, 1997; Gnisci and Bonaiuto, 2003; Greatbatch, 1988; Hayashi, 2003; Locher, 2006; Mori, 1999; Svennevig, 2000; L. Tanaka, 2004; Zimmerman and Boden, 1991). Researchers have shown that the relationship between speakers, for example, affects the patterns of speech. Therefore, differences in the interlocutors’ status will determine the use of tag-questions, hedges, and intensifiers or how turntaking is accomplished (e.g. Fishman, 1978; Maltz and Borker, 1982). Other studies demonstrate that the choice of words in the description of particular events can shape our perceptions of the event into something positive or negative (e.g. Fairclough, 1989; Ng and Bradac, 1993). Despite the importance of the symbiotic relationship between context and language, research on Japanese questions has focused on analysing them as independent entities. Recently some studies on modality have given some consideration to context in understanding the various differences between question forms by using examples from

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Introduction

3

novels (Adachi, 1999; Miyazaki, 2005). Only a handful of studies look at how questions are used in particular settings (Okada, 2006; Takagi, 1999; Yokota, 1994), and their results clearly indicate that the actions of the interlocutors (questions in political interviews, arguments, giving instructions) shape and define the type of questions used. Studies on different genres of Japanese are almost exclusively on casual conversation (e.g. S. Maynard, 1995; H. Tanaka, 1999) and research that looks at language in different settings is still scarce. While we know about some features particular to casual conversation or formal interactions such as verb endings, use or absence of slang and particular lexical choices, we do not know how the same speech acts are performed and delivered in different contexts. Besides the differences in style (e.g. informal and formal use of verbs and adjectives), how are questions exchanged in different settings? Are the differences only grammatical? How are they delivered? Are they pragmatically different? How do listeners react? These are aspects that are not fully understood. In order to understand how questions are used in different communicative settings, we need to look at a number of issues related to questions and interrogativity. First, there is the difficulty of defining what a question is. Can a statement that does not exhibit any grammatical features of interrogativity still be a question? Is rising intonation enough to change a statement that does not feature other syntactic interrogative elements into a question? On the other hand, should the question ‘How are you’, that was discussed earlier, be considered as an interrogative? Questions can be described from different viewpoints: syntax, semantics or pragmatic grounds. However, defining questions has proved to be a difficult task, as the attempts of many scholars have shown (Lyons, 1977; Mikami, 1972; Nakada, 1980; Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartvik, 1972; Tsui, 1992). In English, for example, questions are syntactically recognizable because of their structure; the inclusion of Wh-words; and/or their intonation contour. Japanese, by contrast, does not have a distinctive mechanism (such as word movement), and some have described questions as falling rather somewhere along a gradient, with higher to lower degrees of interrogativity (Mikami, 1972). It is generally accepted that rising intonation and the particle ka are two characteristics of interrogativity in Japanese, although there are cases in which the particle is generally omitted (e.g. in short plain structures). Similarly, interrogativity can be achieved with the use of other particles such as ne and kashira or copula endings such as deshoo. For example, if a speaker wants to confirm the veracity of a statement, the addition of the final sentence particle (SFP) ne to a noun or a phrase with rising intonation should suffice to convey the function. Moreover, there are differences between polite and informal styles, which are idiosyncratic of languages such as Japanese that express formality in their syntax, therefore different rules are needed to explain interrogativity for different speech styles (Oshima, 2001). There are also cases in which the addition of rising intonation is sufficient to ask a question. When a friend who is preparing a cup of coffee wants to know if you take sugar or not, they can simply ask ‘osatoo wa?’ ‘Sugar?’ instead of uttering the full question: ‘osatoo wa iremasuka?’ (or the informal version: ‘osatoo wa ireru?’) ‘Do you take sugar?’ with exactly the same result. Thus, a question can also consist of a single word with final rising intonation (plus a grammar particle in Japanese). If it is possible

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to ask a question by simply adding rising intonation, virtually any word, phrase or sentence can become a question.1 On the other hand, there are many utterances that might, on the surface, have all the characteristics of a question, but actually function to do something other than asking. For example, it is understood by all competent speakers that the question ‘How do you do?’ (example from Uwajeh, 1996: 97) is not a question despite having all the syntactic characteristics of a question, and similarly the question ‘nanji nanda’ ‘What time is it?’ uttered by an angry parent waiting for a son or daughter who comes home late from a party is not really asking for the time but is instead making a reprimand. Although it is known that ‘superficially interrogative structures . . . can be used to indicate non-interrogative utterances, just as superficially non-interrogative structures may function as questions’ (Schulze, 2007: 248) and that what might be interpreted as a standard greeting is understood differently depending on the speech event (Levinson, 1992, Sarangi, 2000), there are not many empirical studies in Japanese corroborating these observations with the notable exception of Takagi (1999) and Hayashi (2010). While these two works are excellent in their own right, there is still much work to be done. The problem of form and function is made even more complex in Japanese because of the existence of politeness levels. Questions in formal and informal styles are expressed differently depending on the context, and this is the cause of many other complexities that have led some scholars to argue that questions in Japanese are defined in terms of degrees of interrogativity rather than as a strict and clear category (Mikami, 1972). It is clear, then, that questions (as is the case with other speech acts) have three essential aspects: they may perform other functions; their syntactic form may not always correspond to the act of asking (Adachi, 1999; Berendt, 2009; Freed, 1994; Heritage, 1985; Heritage and Roth, 1995; Koshik, 2005; Labov and Fanshel, 1977; Lyons, 1977; Nitta, 1999; Schegloff, 1984; Takagi, 1999); and they can be interpreted differently according to context (see e.g. Berendt, 2009; Sarangi, 2000). These observations indicate that in order to conduct an effective study of questions in spoken discourse a combined approach that incorporates grammatical analysis and communicative interaction would be needed to address some of these difficulties. This is the viewpoint taken by many researchers looking at English questions in recent years (Freed, 1994; Tsui, 1992) who have placed greater emphasis on the inclusion of listeners’ answers in the analysis (Heritage and Roth, 1995; Koshik, 2005; Stivers, 2010). This book analyses how questions in Japanese are used and what form they take across different types of interactions or activity types. As mentioned before, this study takes the viewpoint that language both reflects and determines context and will show how context influences the choice of questions used by interlocutors, strengthening the notion that the goal of the interaction shapes the linguistic style (Freed and Greenwood, 1996; Holmes, 1995; Levinson, 1992; Okada, 2006). It incorporates interactional, grammatical and pragmatic perspectives in an attempt to understand what types of questions are most frequently used and what functions they perform across genres. It is hoped that this book will also contribute to the knowledge of interrogativity in general as seen in natural interactions and will enrich studies on modality, grammar

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and interaction. Most importantly, it is hoped that this study will contribute to further understanding of how context and discourse shape each other.

Studies of questions in English and other languages This section is a concise introduction to past discourse-based studies of questions in mainly English and other languages for readers who are unfamiliar with this topic. Research on Japanese questions will be presented in the relevant chapters. The level of interest in questions can be seen in the vast amount of research from various disciplines, and this summary cannot do justice to all that work. Due to space limitations, only the most relevant studies are briefly mentioned here. Grammarians have looked at the form and structure of questions (Bolinger, 1957; Fillmore, 1986; Lyons, 1977) and anthropologists have looked at how they are used in different cultures (Ervin-Tripp and Miller, 1977; Fanselow, 1988; Goody, 1978; Koshik, 2005; Ochs, 1996; Sidnell, 2005). Linguists and psychologists have studied question use in the classroom, and how babies and small children learn and acquire language through asking questions (Clarke, 2003, Sinclair and Coulthard, 1975, 1992). Scholars doing discourse and conversation analysis have argued that questions can be a powerful tool to control the topic and are strategically used in ‘institutional’ language such as interviews with politicians, gatekeeping interviews or examinations in courtrooms (Button, 1992; Clayman and Heritage, 2002; Drew, 1992; Drew and Heritage, 1992; Gnisci and Bonaiuto, 2003; Gnisci and Pontecorvo, 2004; Have ten, 1999; Macaulay, 1996; D. Maynard, 1992; Nylund, 2003; Wilson, 1991; Zimmerman and Boden, 1991). Others have studied questions in the context of gender and power (Freed and Greenwood, 1996; Holmes, 1982, 1984). It should be noted that the majority of these studies share the concept of power inequality between the interlocutors. There is an aspect of the act of asking a question that is intrinsically related to power. Athanasiadou has appositely written that ‘asking carries a command function apart from asking for information’ (Athanasiadou, 1991: 119). Questions are known to be used by people in positions of authority and thus many researchers have looked into their use in institutional language (Button, 1992; Clayman, 1988, 1992, 1993; Clayman and Heritage, 2002; Drew, 1992; Drew and Heritage, 1992; Gnisci and Bonaiuto, 2003; Gnisci and Pontecorvo, 2004; Greatbatch, 1986; Have ten, 1993, 1999; Heritage, 2002; Hutchby, 1995; Ilie, 1999; Karen and Robles, 2009; Macaulay, 1996; D. Maynard, 1992; Nylund, 2003; O’Keefe, 2005; Sinclair and Coulthard, 1975, 1992; Yokota, 1994). Even in mundane conversation, questions are known to give the questioner privileged access to first position in a sequence thereby giving the speaker control over the interaction (Sacks, in Silverman, 1998).

Questions in ‘institutional’ language Most studies of questions have focused on ‘institutional’ language because questions are one of the most important characteristics in these types of exchanges. These interactions are defined by the unequal distribution of rights in terms of speech acts.

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Questions are mainly used by speakers in positions of authority such as interviewers, prosecutors, doctors and so on. ‘Institutional’ settings include legal, medical and educational systems and the media.

Questions in court The use of questions in court, in particular in the examination of witnesses, has drawn particular interest. The use of highly conducive questions and the notion of polarity questions are central to the study of questions in court. It has been demonstrated that meaning is manipulated by witnesses and lawyers. Gnisci and Pontecorvo (2004), for instance, take the viewpoint that a question is a request for information and that the more coercive a question, the more frequently it is used by lawyers. Other studies show how attorneys use questions in cross-examinations in order to challenge the story of the victim or accused in a very aggressive manner (Atkinson and Drew, 1979; Drew, 1992).

Interpreting in court Some studies have looked at the way in which the illocutionary force of questions can change as a consequence of the inappropriate translation of questions. Berk-Seligson (1999), for instance, looks at how interpreters affect the coerciveness of lawyers’ questions in the US courts. She uses Woddbury’s classification (1984) of the typology of leading questions used in the courtroom ranging from the negative grammatical yes/no question to the most coercive type with ‘confirmatory negative tags’ in which the negative tag seems to be more coercive than when the main clause is negated. The findings indicate that at least half of the questions are interpreted inaccurately with omissions of tags and a change in the nature of the questions so that they were rendered less coercive.

Questions in doctor–patient interactions West (1984) shows that the asymmetric relationship between doctors and patients is reflected in the use of questions; most questions are initiated by doctors whereas patients’ questions are dispreferred. According to Have ten (1993), the asymmetry is not an inherent characteristic of the institution; it is rather the interlocutors who create that difference in the way they interact. However, he points out the difficulties of recognizing or categorizing what a question is by showing that patients have other ways of informing the doctor of their needs. Although, there are certain constraints in the way doctors deliver their questions, these are also closely related to the particular phase of the interaction; initial phases are more likely to have a strict question–answer format than later phases in the interaction (Have ten, 1993).

Questions in television and radio interviews Jucker’s work (1986) is perhaps one of the earliest comprehensive works on the questions used in radio interviews. Jucker looked at all the interviewers’ questions

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Introduction

7

and classified them as prefaced and non-prefaced questions; the former containing a preface related to the interviewee’s opinion and the latter including non-prefaced questions that include interrogatives, declarative forms, imperatives and mood-less questions. Interestingly, he found that very few of the interviewers’ utterances were in question form. The most important study of questions in television interviews is perhaps the work of Heritage and Roth (1995) because they were the first to attempt a definition and classification of what constitutes a question. Their comprehensive paper has provided a starting point for many studies on questions used by interviewers and interviewees (Bilmes, 1999; Clayman and Heritage, 2002; Have ten, 1999; Macaulay, 1996; Roth and Olsher, 1997).

Talk shows Even though talk shows are considered to be ‘institutional’ interactions they are different to news interviews in that they share some turn-taking characteristics with mundane conversations such as frequent use of backchannels and a less stringent turn pre-allocation (Clayman and Heritage, 2002). In fact, many shows resemble private conversations and are designed for the overhearing audience. While most of the works on talk shows are from the viewpoint of cultural studies, the work of Illie (1999) looks at the use of questions in talk shows. Because talk shows are less conventionalized, the question−answer pairs are sometimes succeeded by a follow-up which can include subjective comments. While most of the information eliciting questions in Illie’s data are used by hosts, non-standard questions are used by all participants, in particular, expository, rhetorical and echo questions. What is interesting in her data is that the less a question is seen as an information-seeking strategy, the more it seems to express the speaker’s point of view (Illie, 1999).

Gender and questions In her classic work Language and Woman’s Place, Robin Lakoff (1975) was the first to mention that the use of questions by women was a sign of their domination. In particular, she writes that the frequent use of the tag-question by women is indicative of their lower status in society. Other studies on the use of questions and gender inequalities point out that women use more questions than men because they have a different style of communication that emphasizes cooperation and collaboration (De Francisco, 1998; Fishman, 1978). The fact that women ask more questions is explained in these studies as resulting from the fact that they provide a new topic to keep the conversation going. However, other studies have challenged this approach indicating that it is the type of interaction and the role of the speaker that influences the type and frequency of the use of questions (Freed and Greenwood, 1996; Holmes, 1995; Okada, 2006; van Alphen, 2004). Despite the vast number of studies, research on questions in languages other than English is much more modest and, with a few exceptions, is mostly on syntax or typology. This is also the case with Japanese; questions have almost exclusively

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been studied in relation to their syntactic characteristics and modality (see, e.g. Adachi, 1999; Hinds, 1984; Kuno, 1973b, 1978; Mikami, 1987; Miyazaki, 2005). These works (explained in detail in Chapter 2) have relied on native speaker intuition using hypothetical examples or on literary works. Although their results have contributed enormously to the understanding of the diversity of interrogative forms, what occurs in authentic communicative situations is still not fully understood. The few works on questions in interactions will be discussed in detail in Chapter 2.

Discourse and questions The present study’s premises are based on the acknowledgement that discourse is context bound and interactive. Discourse is always produced in a particular context that defines and shapes it and at the same time it is shaped by the context (Biber and Conrad, 2009; Ervin-Tripp and Miller, 1977; Fetzer, 2007; Fetzer and Oishi, 2011; Giles and Coupland, 1991; Goffman, 1981; Goodwin and Duranti, 1992; Gumperz, 1982; Hymes, 1974; Levinson, 1992; Schiffrin, 1987). Unlike previous studies on Japanese questions where most of the examples were ‘created’ or were taken from literary works (see, e.g. Adachi, 1999; Hinds, 1984; Kuno, 1973b, 1978; Mikami, 1987; Miyazaki, 2005), the present analyses are based on spoken natural data where the focus is on the interaction. In order to explore what type of questions are being used in different genres an approach that allows for a detailed and minute analysis and yet one that considers the importance of context and the interlocutors was thought to be paramount. Thus, an ‘eclectic’ approach (Eggins and Slade, 1997) that incorporates grammar, the concepts of discourse as an interactive process and an interactional analysis was considered to be the best method of analysis. The inclusion of different perspectives proves to be a more effective way to observe communication as attested by the works of many scholars (e.g. Eggins and Slade, 1997; Fetzer, 2011; Mullan, 2010; Schiffrin, 1987; Tannen, 1984). In particular, when looking at the same discourse type in diverse interactions or activity types (Levinson, 1992) it is important to consider not only the type of interaction, but also the relationship between the interlocutors, including their social identity and the type of activity they are engaged in.

Communication as an interactive process Communication is always an interactive process where speakers and listeners construct the discourse. It is in this process that participants, as in any social interaction, must adhere to a number of rules that govern a communicative interaction. The basic rule is that one speaker speaks at any one time; however, there are cases in which overlaps and interruptions occur but these do not last very long and eventually the rule of one speaker at a time prevails (Sacks et al., 1974). This is known as turn-taking. While some differences are recognized depending on the various speech communities, this basic rule seems to be universally shared (see e.g. Mullan, 2010; H. Tanaka, 1994; Tannen, 1981, 1984). The basic unit in the turn-taking system is the adjacency pair. As the name indicates, some speech acts come in ‘pairs’ such as question–answer, invitation − acceptance/

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Introduction

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refusal, greetings and so on. One of the characteristics of adjacency pairs is that they have to be uttered by different speakers. So, if a speaker asks a question we expect the listener to answer. Thus, it is not possible to have an acceptance to an invitation prior to that invitation being extended or spelled out and similarly to have the same person complimenting and accepting the compliment. Another aspect of adjacency pairs is that they have to be adjacent to each other (Sacks et al., 1974). As a general rule the second part of the pair follows immediately after the first, although there are cases in which the former might be placed slightly later in other combinations. For example, when a question is answered with another question or when utterances are inserted between first and second pairs. In some instances the second pair or a request is given many turns later (Schegloff, 2007). More importantly, in an interaction where a question is asked by the speaker and it is answered by the listener, it is not enough for both interlocutors to follow these turn-taking rules; they need to make inferences. The participants need to know what is expected from them, what are the terms and what is the goal of the interaction. So, in some cases, understanding the syntactic features of a first pair is not enough to achieve successful communication. The question ‘Are you married?’ in a radio counselling session, for instance, will be interpreted as a legitimate one by the caller. However, the same question in a meeting, for example, might be taken as an intrusive one and resisted by the listener. Similarly, when a mother asks the question ‘Are you ready?’ with a distinct prosodic feature to her daughter who is still in pyjamas, it will be interpreted as a reprimand more than a genuine question. How do interlocutors manage to interpret these questions (and other activities) correctly? This is because the ‘rules’ are contained in the language such as the syntax, prosody, in formulaic expressions or in closing and openings of conversations and other conventions. All these features of communication are known as contextualization cues. Contextualization cues have been described as ‘any feature of linguistic form that contributes to the signalling of contextual presuppositions’ (Gumperz, 1982: 131). These cues are used habitually by interlocutors and their meaning is implicit yet they are essential in order to carry a communicative interaction successfully. In a similar way, they are used in this analysis to understand how the process of communication is accomplished.

Context Context is a key element in understanding human behaviour, in particular, in ethnomethodological studies (Goodwin and Duranti, 1992; Gumperz, 1982; Hymes, 1974). Context is what allows interlocutors to interpret ambiguities such as the question ‘How are you?’ when asked by a neighbour or a doctor. It enables the listener to interpret it as a greeting in the former context and a genuine question in the latter. It provides the framework for interlocutors to define the meaning and function of words, sentences, utterances or speech acts. It enables listeners to distinguish a question from a request, for example, or a comment from a compliment and so on. Although context has been one of the most important elements in the study of language, defining it has been a very difficult task (see e.g. Fetzer, 2007; Goodwin and

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Duranti, 1992; Mey, 2003). Some even write that a simple and technical definition might not be possible (Goodwin and Duranti, 1992) because the meaning and scope can vary widely depending on the discipline that includes sociology, anthropology, philosophy, pragmatics and so on. Although context is essential in many disciplines such as in philosophy, artificial intelligence or psychology, this book will concentrate on context in language interaction. It should be noted, though, that many theories with roots in sociology and anthropology have one common purpose: to find out how social life, social order and organization are construed. Talk is, by and large, a social activity; therefore, what we learn about how people communicate is also adding to our knowledge about human social organization. Context can be understood more readily when we discuss the distinction between figure and ground. Goodwin and Duranti (1992) introduce these two juxtaposing concepts to refer to the focus of research, the language, (figure) and the stage where the figure takes place (ground) (Goodwin and Duranti, 1992). They explain that research that ignored context was very productive because it is much easier to study the figure away from its environment and to analyse it as an isolated phenomenon when the boundaries and shape are clear. Context has many dimensions and they might mean something different depending on each perspective. Linguistic context refers to the elements that surround a particular utterance. They can be discourse markers, phonological elements, lexical forms, etc., that are used by speakers and they are crucial to understanding not only what is said but also what is implied. Gumperz (1982) has termed these elements contextualization cues, and they are crucial for a successful communicative interaction, in particular, when interlocutors belong to different cultural groups where the same elements may have different connotations. Non-verbal behaviour and how the body is used are also regarded as context. These elements are finely tuned with how talk is accomplished. So, for example, the use of gaze can select the next speaker and other actions can help participants ascertain what is about to occur. Similarly, people place themselves in order to enable them to participate in an activity or frame (Goffman, 1974) in what is known as an f-formation (Kendon, 1992). One of the most commonly known parameters is the social context which includes the participants’ social status, relationship, gender, roles and the environment (institutional, private). The most renowned scholar for including the participants in the analysis and taking the figure and ground is Hymes (1974). He created a model, known by the acronym ‘SPEAKING’, that includes the settings and scene, participants, ends, act sequence, key, instrumentalities, norms and genre. This approach provides a tool for studying human linguistic interaction integrating both the focus and the ground. Another important aspect of context is the need to include knowledge that is beyond the immediate linguistic, social and physical environment (Cicourel, 1992). Therefore, not only ethnographic details but also common and shared knowledge that the participants possess can be extremely important, particularly in institutional interactions. This approach is in contrast to that of Conversation Analysis (CA) scholars

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who consider that the only information that should be referred to is that provided by the participants through their talk; however, an increasing number of scholars advocate the inclusion of context details in the analysis (see e.g. McHoul, Rapley and Antaki, 2008). One of the common trends in recent research into context and language is that context is taken as a dynamic and interactive process that is established, verified and updated as talk proceeds. In other words, language and context are co-created and negotiated as the talk proceeds (Biber and Conrad, 2009; Ervin-Tripp and Miller, 1977; Fetzer, 2007; Fetzer and Oishi, 2011; Giles and Coupland, 1991; Goffman, 1981; Goodwin and Duranti, 1992; Gumperz, 1982; Hymes, 1974; Levinson, 1992; Schiffrin, 1987). In this study, context refers to the linguistic and social environment. It also includes the shared knowledge that is common to the interlocutors.

Japanese questions and interrogativity If questions have an ultimate basis, it is an attitude, and is non linguistic. (Bolinger, 1957: 3)

As stated in the introduction to this chapter, just as is the case with other languages, it has been extremely difficult to define what a question is in Japanese. Researchers have tried to classify questions based on syntactic form (Kuno, 1973a, 1973b; Mikami, 1972; Nakada, 1980); on form and function (Hayashi, 2010; Hinds, 1984); on modality (Adachi, 1999; Masuoka, 1991; Masuoka, Nitta, Takao and Kinsui, 1997; Miyazaki, 2005; Nakajima, 1997; Nitta, 1999); on the particle ka (Oshima, 2001); and on form and conduciveness (Yokota, 1994). While some works have focused on issues other than interrogativity, many scholars have encountered difficulties categorizing questions (e.g. Oshima, 2001). We also know that questions do not only ask for new information, or confirm known facts but are used for a range of other purposes such as invitations, suggestions and complaints (Koshik, 2005; Schegloff, 1984, 2007). Grammarians have explained that questions in Japanese can be created with the addition of the particle ka and rising intonation and may include the use of question words such as dare “who,” doko “where,” nani “what.” Sentence (i) below can become a question as seen in (ii) where the only difference is the addition of the particle ka and the intonation. ( i) ashita wa hare tomorrow TOP sunny ‘Tomorrow will be sunny.’

desu COP

(ii) ashita wa hare desu ka? who TOP sunny COP Q ‘Will tomorrow be sunny?’

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The use of a question word, on the other hand, does not require any movement of constituents as is required in languages such as English. If a listener has not understood a time-related word in the statement in (iii) (below), he/she can ask the question in (iv) where the only changes are the substitution of the piece of information with a question word, the addition of the particle ka and rising intonation. (iii) kyoo ikimasu today go-PRE ‘I am going today.2’ (iv) itsu ikimasu ka? when go-PRE Q ‘When are you going?3 However, there are many counterexamples to this rule (Oshima, 2001; Shooji, 1992). First, in formal and informal speech the use of the question particle ka is significantly different. The following question ‘Who is it?’ produces a grammatical and an ungrammatical version even if they follow the same rule: (v) dare who

desu ka? COP Q

(vi) *dare da ka? who COP Q ‘Who is it?’ Example (v) is the question ‘Who is it?’ in the formal style while (vi) is the informal or short form, which is unacceptable. The grammatical version of the informal form, shown in (vii), is accompanied by rising intonation alone but is not accompanied by the particle ka. (vii) dare? Who ‘Who is it?’ Second, the particle ka does not always indicate interrogativity (Oshima, 2001; Shooji, 1992). The following phrase is frequently used in colloquial Japanese as a backchannel expression in response to a piece of new information and is pronounced with falling intonation. Despite the particle ka, the expressions (viii) and (ix) are hardly questions. The omission of the particle would produce a pragmatically incorrect phrase. (viii) soo that

desu ka. COP Q

(ix) soo ka. that Q ‘I see.’ Similarly, a rising intonation associated with questions as in the examples above would produce a different meaning. Instead of a simple backchannel or acknowledgement,

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examples (viii) and (ix) question or challenge the interlocutor. The short form (xi) is considered inappropriate for women. (x) soo desu ka? that COP Q (xi) soo ka? that Q ‘Do you really think so?’ Third, the following examples appear similar on the surface; however, pragmatically they are quite different. When two or more speakers have finished a long and leisurely lunch and have to go back to work, although no one is enthusiastic about the idea of leaving, they might utter the following exchange where (xiii) could be the response to the suggestion in (xii). (xii) kaerimasu ka? return-PRE-POL Q ‘Shall we go back?’ (xiii) kaerimasu ka. return-PRE-POL Q ‘So, shall we head back, then? (Although I do not want to, it cannot be avoided)’ The intonation, which in the first sentence is rising, makes the question in (xii) an invitation to another person/s to go or to leave together. The second version with falling intonation, (xiii), is an utterance that indicates the speaker’s unwillingness to go and it can be directed to others or used as a monologue. These two examples do not function as questions (although (xii) can be used as a question in a different context) and (xiii), in particular, is an unenthusiastic remark that the speaker largely directs towards him/herself. Fourth, one of the informal versions of the following question has some social restrictions regardless of the fact that in grammar books these would be indicated as versions of the same question in different styles. While example (xiv) can be asked by anyone in order to know whether the listener/s has/have eaten or not, (xv) is the plain version that can be used exclusively by men whereas (xvi)4 is used by women. (xiv) tabemashita eat-PAST-POL (xv) tabeta eat-PAST

ka? Q ka? Q

(xvi) tabeta? eat-PAST ‘Have you eaten?’ Besides gender differences, it appears that examples similar to (xiv) are not often found in authentic data and, in fact, speakers try to avoid using them (Oshima,

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2001). However, it is quite intriguing that questions without the particle ka in formal interactions seem to pose little problem in terms of grammar and pragmatic acceptability. Oshima (2001), for instance, has argued that the use of the short forms might neutralize the illocutionary force of the question. This observation is supported by L. Tanaka’s (2006) and Yokota’s (1994) works. It appears that Japanese speakers avoid using grammatically complete questions and instead use strategies to soften the force of the question or use other forms of interrogativity (L. Tanaka, 2006; Yokota, 1994). It is clear that the use of some interrogative features is interrelated with pragmatic aspects such as style differences in certain constructions. In Japanese, there are two styles known as the formal or desu/masu and the informal or da forms. The Japanese terms refer to the endings of adjectival and nominal forms (desu) and verbal forms (masu) in the polite style, the informal forms end in da or in Ø after verbs. The use of these two styles is governed by the relationship between speakers: their degree of closeness, and age and status differences5 and other factors. We have seen that rising intonation alone can transform a sentence into a question as in xvi) or the following examples: (xvii) ikimasu? go-PRE (xviii) iku? go-PRE ‘Are you going/ Will you go?’ The first example, (xvii), has been associated with softness and politeness and also with female language (Shibamoto, 1985; Shooji, 1992; L. Tanaka, 2004) while (xviii) is the informal form which is used among close friends, family members or when addressing younger or lower status people. However, if the same rule of rising intonation is applied to adjectival or nominal structures, this produces ungrammatical questions as seen below (Shooji, 1992). In (xix), the question is made up of an adjective followed by the copula in the present tense; however, the addition of rising intonation does not produce a grammatical question. The nominal with rising intonation alone produces an unacceptable question when it is accompanied by the copula in formal and informal style as in (xx) and (xxi). (xix) *akai desu? red COP ‘Is it red?’ (xx) *sensee desu? teacher COP ‘Are you/is he/she a teacher?’ (xxi) *sensee da? teacher COP ‘Are you/is he/she a teacher?’

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However, if the above examples are produced with the Ø ending, the questions become acceptable even if there is only rising intonation. (xxii) akai? red ‘Is it red?’ (xxiii) sensee? teacher ‘Are you/is he/she a teacher’ Shooji (1992) argues that while both masu and desu endings are markers of polite speech, when the latter is used in a statement it includes an element of judgement or conclusion therefore questioning cannot be achieved by intonation alone. She also introduces a system of categorizing questions according to a hierarchy based on the degree of interrogativity of their elements (Shooji, 1992: 45) as follows: 1) 2) 3)

Use of Wh-words Rising intonation Addition of the Q particle ka

This hierarchy of interrogative elements can be applied to Wh-questions (Wh-Q) but in the case of Y/N questions (Y/N-Q) the foremost element should be rising intonation. However, statements ending in desu have a slightly different hierarchy of elements: 1) 2) 3)

Use of Wh-Q word Rising intonation + Q particle ka Rising intonation

This hierarchy correlates to the degree of resistance that da-desu-Ø offer. Thus, when a statement contains the more interrogative-resistant ending da, the use of a Wh-word becomes essential to attain interrogativity while the use of the Ø requires the use of rising intonation alone6. As we have seen, defining questions in Japanese is extremely complex and there are many aspects, such as politeness and gender differences, that are interwoven with the production of questions. As stated previously, any speech act, utterance or sentence has various aspects that make it recognizable as performing a particular action. In the case of a question, listeners must recognize it by not only its grammatical structure, but also by other cues such as intonation or phonological contours and its pragmatic function. All these factors are interconnected and thus facilitate the interpretation of a turn as a question, an invitation or another speech act. By looking not only at the grammatical structure and the intonation, but also at the responses and at interactional features, it is hoped that questions in the data will be more easily recognized. In Chapter 2, the definition of a ‘question’ that is used in the analysis and throughout the book will be presented.

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Characteristics of Japanese communication There was a tendency in the 1970s and 1980s to describe Japanese speakers as members of a monocultural and harmonic society where communication could be accomplished without needing to utter every word (Haga, 1979; Lebra, 1976; T. Suzuki, 1975). The concept of ishin denshin or telepathic communication was stressed to explain some observations of Japanese communication such as the tendency to leave sentences grammatically unfinished (Lebra, 1976). This myth was further emphasized by many Japanologists who stressed that Japan was a unique society in terms of social and cultural features (Doi, 1977; Lebra, 1976; Nakane, 1970). Hinds (1978), for instance, studied how Japanese speakers manage overlaps, polite speech and turn-taking, and explained it in terms of conversational harmony. Hinds noted that pitch lowering, very often accompanied by sentence final particles and syntactic signals, is a cue for turn completion, and that this is mostly accompanied by some non-verbal signal. Although his work was innovative because he demonstrated his argument using real data, the emphasis on harmonious communication without really looking into details is problematic. The idea of harmonious communication was refuted by many scholars who looked at turn-taking patterns in Japanese and showed that the majority of the turn-taking points occur at ‘the grammatical completion point’ (S. Maynard, 1989: 145) and that the syntactic structure (SOV) does not have the same degree of ‘projectability’ as in English, but that it allows speakers to hold the floor by ‘incremental transformability’ or end their turn (H. Tanaka, 1999). Smooth next speaker transitions are accomplished by devices such as sentence final particles, copulas, or final verb suffixes and rising intonation which signal turn completion (S. Maynard, 1989; H. Tanaka, 1999). However, it appears that while grammatical completion in English is an indication of turn-taking, in Japanese the syntactic completion and turn change occur less frequently and pragmatic completion points were added as ‘likely candidates for possible turn relevance points TRPs (Transition Relevance Point) in Japanese’ (H. Tanaka, 1999: 219). The nature of syntactic incompletion at the end of turns has been observed by many other researchers (Mori, 1999; Okamoto, 1985; H. Tanaka, 1999; L. Tanaka, 2004, 2006). For instance, connective particles and connectors used to tie together two clauses with different relations such as disagreement or agreement are commonly used in sentence final position (Mori, 1999). They are used as a strategy in delivering agreement or disagreement; and it is interesting that even though the turns are syntactically incomplete turn-taking occurs smoothly. This aspect is also observed in the present study (see Chapters 3 and 4 in particular). In other types of discourse, Furo (2001) for instance looked at turn-taking in casual talk and political news interviews and found that the joint completion of grammatical, intonational and semantic properties project turn-transition, and that the majority of speaker changes occur at these points. One characteristic of her Japanese data is the overwhelming use of reactive tokens or backchannels in both contexts which is also observed in other studies of informal interactions and television interviews (S. Maynard, 1989; L. Tanaka, 2004, 2006). The level of interest in backchannels or

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aizuchi is demonstrated by the vast body of works on this subject, in particular with an emphasis of cross-linguistic comparisons (Clancy, Thompson, Suzuki and Tao, 1996; Horiguchi, 1997; Kurosaki, 1987; Lo Castro, 1987; S. Maynard, 1986; White, 1989). These studies show that in comparison to other languages such as English and Chinese, Japanese tends to use more backchannels regardless of the type of interaction (L. Tanaka, 2004). Another feature that has been discussed as pertaining to Japanese communication, in particular, when the interaction is between friends is the frequency of overlaps or instances of more than one speaker talking at the same time (Hinds, 1978; Murata, 1994). In particular, Murata argues that the concept of interruptions as aggressive and competitive moves in interactions is completely different in Japanese where interruptions are of a ‘cooperative’ nature (Murata, 1994). Japanese speakers interrupt each other not in an aggressive manner but rather to show their interest and involvement in the interaction. These are the major characteristics of Japanese turn-taking that will be referred in the following chapters.

The data The data used in this book consists of four different sources: television interviews, radio phone-in programme, dyadic interactions among friends and unacquainted people. Fourteen television interviews broadcast by the Japanese national broadcaster NHK and by a private channel were recorded and transcribed. These programs were mainly cultural interviews with prominent figures from Japanese society such as artists and writers and two founders of NGOs. On the other hand, the ten recorded radio phone-in programs Terefon Jinsei Soodan (Telephone Life Counselling) are designed to give advice to people who call in and also indirectly to the audience. The callers are ordinary people and their problems range from legal troubles to family and relationship issues. The third source of data consists of transcriptions from the BTS (Basic Transcription System, 2007) corpus of Dr Mayumi Usami at the Tokyo University of Foreign Languages.7 The dyadic interactions chosen for this study are conversations between Japanese university students. These transcriptions are available to the academic community and every conversational detail is indicated by a systematic method that includes overlaps, phonological changes such as contour, emphasis, vowel lengthening and so on. Fourteen conversational interactions among close friends and ten dyadic talks between unacquainted people were chosen at random. The number of interactions was chosen in order to obtain a uniform number of questions.

The structure of the book The present chapter has provided an introduction to the study of questions and to the main ideas underpinning this book. An abridged summary of some of the most important studies of questions is also given. Chapter 2 contains a survey of the

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literature on questions in Japanese that is relevant to this study and a typology of questions based on the data of the present study. Chapter 3 focuses on questions used in institutional discourse, more precisely in television interviews. Given that this type of exchange is particularly known for its question–answer format, the data provides an array of examples of question forms. Some can be categorized as canonical questions that exhibit syntactic and phonological features of interrogativity. Interestingly, many turns do not end in question forms, yet turn-taking is accomplished successfully, indicating that the interview format has a pre-allocated format. Most of the questions fall into the Wh-category indicating the interviewers’ strategic choice to maximize interviewees’ input in the interview. Questions used in radio phone-ins are analysed in Chapter 4. Advice giving is preceded by a long and complex exchange of questions and answers in order for the expert to gauge the whole problem and be able to deliver the best possible advice. However, notoriously, many advice seekers do not provide all relevant information at once and often their problems turn out to have been caused by completely different reasons some of which even the callers had not been aware. The questions found in the programs are both formal and informal providing a broader look at the relationship between questions and power distribution. Chapter 5 focuses on questions found in conversations among close friends and it is indirectly an analysis of interrogatives in informal interactions. The chapter looks in detail at questions in the informal style and issues of shared knowledge that are characteristic of conversation among very close people. Chapter 6 explores the questions used in unacquainted talk where their frequency and use are one important characteristic. As opposed to conversations between friends, questions in these interactions are used to obtain information about the interlocutors in order to enable the speakers to choose topics that are safe. Similarly, questions are used in a cooperative manner and function to maintain the conversation. Chapter 7 compares and discusses the major findings and provides a conclusion to the book.

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Japanese Questions and Interrogativity

Introduction This chapter provides an overview of existing literature on Japanese questions, including research from the viewpoint of syntax and modality and discourse, organized according to methodological approach. These studies provide a general synopsis of the existing literature on Japanese questions. The second section focuses on the features of interrogativity used in this study to determine and identify questions in the discourse. This is followed by a taxonomy of questions found in the data. While the list is not exhaustive it is representative of various types of Japanese authentic interactions.

Past studies Most of the research on Japanese questions published thus far has been concerned with syntax and modality (Adachi, 1999; Hinds, 1984; Kuno, 1973b; Masuoka, 1991; Miyazaki, 2005; Nakada, 1980; Nitta, 1999; Nitta and Masuoka, 1989; Shinzato, 2002; Teramura, 1984, to name a few). Studies based on discourse are considerably fewer and have focused on a particular question form (S. Maynard, 1995; Okada, 2006; Oshima, 2001; Takagi, 1999) or on interviews (L. Tanaka, 2006; Yokota, 1994) or on comparative analysis (Berendt, 2009). More comprehensive studies of questions based on natural data are those of Hinds (1984) and Hayashi (2010), but these are mainly descriptive in nature. One of the earliest and most comprehensive works on the syntax and semantics of questions is that of Nakada (1980). His book is a comparative study of questions in English and Japanese from the viewpoint of Generative Semantics which developed from the theory of Transformational Grammar. Nakada focuses on different question structures (independent and embedded); in particular, he argues against other generative syntax approaches towards questions. His book is based on the analysis of semantic, pragmatic and functional properties of questions in these two languages. Japanese questions, he explains, exhibit certain features such as the question particle ka (that are very different to English), rising intonation and the use of Wh-question words (Nakada, 1980). Furthermore, he states that all questions in Japanese end in the particle

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ka unless ‘a later rule yielding informal speech has deleted it’ (Nakada, 1980: 112). Nakada also notes that Japanese Y/N questions are no different from the English forms except for the particle ka. However, he acknowledges the interest of some linguists in negative questions as a result of their different characteristics. His analysis of tagquestions is very important in understanding this type of question. He explains that there are two types of tag-questions in English (with and without intonation in the tag) and that a similar pattern is observed in Japanese. Tag-like questions in Japanese are formed by the addition of the SFP ne or the copula deshoo. Ne is used when the speaker is quite sure of the proposition while deshoo is used when the speaker requests the listener’s agreement. While Nakada offers an interesting comparison between English and Japanese, he does not focus on the actual use of questions. Given the syntactical focus of Nakada’s work, which differs from the objective of the present study, this short summary of his work should suffice as a background. Researchers focusing on modality, on the other hand, argue that questions are used by speakers to obtain a particular piece of information from the listener and that this is not arbitrarily accomplished (Adachi, 1999; Miyazaki, 2005; Nitta, 1999). The speaker’s question reflects the type of information he/she is after (Adachi, 1999). Three aspects are important in the production of questions: a) the nature of the speaker’s hypothesis or expectation; b) how the information can be obtained; and c) the speaker’s attitude which, in Japanese, is expressed in the question endings. Adachi (1999) focuses on how a speaker’s attitude is reflected in questions, in particular, on the relationship between conduciveness and negative polarity questions (Adachi, 1999). He provides ample examples to demonstrate the differences in nuance between negative questions and questions ending in –nodewanaika, −dewanaika and daroo. Adachi concludes that there are two types of negative questions: those that are used irrespective of the speaker’s or listener’s knowledge and those in which the state of knowledge is the same for both the listener and the speaker. The –nodewanaika type question, on the other hand, is more grammaticized than the negative question, and while there is a distinction between the daroo type and the dewanaika type, only the first has an interrogative nature, which the latter has lost. The dewanaika type question functions to compare the listener’s understanding with what the speaker has said (Adachi, 1999). Miyazaki’s study is very similar to Adachi’s (1999), but he covers linguistic elements that are missing in Adachi’s work. He takes his analysis a step further using adverbs and the inclusion of the SFP ne. Although there are overlaps between the two studies, Miyazaki’s is interesting because it points out that darooka type questions can be asked when neither the speaker nor the listener knows the answer. Similarly, the SFP ne and daroo can be interchanged without a change in meaning (Miyazaki, 2005). Nitta (1999) categorizes interrogatives into two types: those in which the object of the question is embedded in the question itself and those where the speaker’s stance is embedded in the question form. He bases his classification on these differences and on the canonical question form which he calls handan no toikake. The process takes the following forms: a) the speaker is unclear about something, b) the listener can provide the information, and c) the speaker asks for the information. Handan no toikake is made up of the toikake ‘questions’ and doubt. Nitta (1999) describes three types of toikake. There are Y/N questions, that can take many endings such

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as the particle ka, the sentence final particle no, or informal endings; Wh-questions that contain Wh-question words or ‘auxiliary demands’; and structures that contain the expression to omou ‘think’. Repetitions are questions that indicate surprise or shock where the informal copula endings form a grammatical question that is not allowed in other forms. Short questions which ask for repetition of the whole turn such as ha and n are included. Doubt, on the other hand, can be indicated in two ways: a) questions ending in particles such as kashira, kana, although polite forms cannot be used in the majority of these cases or b) questions where the unclear information cannot be retrieved because the elements that can help a decision are unclear. There are also descriptions of self-questions and self-directed expressions with falling intonation. They are uttered when something that had been unclear suddenly becomes clear. Besides providing a classification of questions, Nitta also describes how conduciveness or assumption is expressed in negative question forms. This occurs in what he calls hango – structures where, despite their interrogative form, the speakers’ stance is strongly indicated. Hango questions include final expressions such as janaika ‘isn’t it?’ Other forms are what Nitta calls quasiquestions, expressions that request the listener’s agreement or confirmation. The studies of Adachi (1999), Nakada (1980), Miyazaki (2005) and Nitta (1999) are very important to the understanding of question modality in Japanese and they have been included in this chapter to provide readers with some background information about interrogative studies on Japanese. Research from the viewpoint of discourse looks at how questions are used in spoken Japanese or at how they are used within a broader communicative context. S. Maynard (1995), for instance, focuses on the use of rhetorical questions in spoken and written Japanese and treats them as tools to express the speakers’ feelings. She argues that the form and meaning of rhetorical questions do not correlate but that they are closely linked to the status of information and to whether an answer is being sought or not. Maynard also uses the concept of hidden dialogicality to explain the functions of rhetorical questions. The importance of the context of the interaction makes the interpretation of rhetorical questions possible and this process is again supported by the question–answer sequence (S. Maynard, 1995). Two works that look at how the use of questions is related to the gender of the speakers in natural discourse are Oshima (2001) and Okada (2006). Oshima’s (2001) paper on the question particle ka shows that in informal conversations most interlocutors avoid using questions that end with the ka particle. Instead, they mostly choose to use statements with final rising intonation. She explains that this is partly due to the syntactic structure of informal statements which allows them to become an interrogative without the addition of the particle ka. Moreover, she compares female and male usage of ka as this particle is associated with the speaker’s gender speech style. She writes that while men can use questions in the informal style ending with the particle ka, women avoid using this form. She also reports that her subjects relate the use of the particle ka to status differences in a similar manner to Athanasiadou (1991)’s description. She explains that the act of asking among equals does not present any problems; however, when there is a status difference the situation changes (Athanasiadou, 1991).

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Okada’s study focuses on non-particle questions (those without the particle ka). This paper provides an interesting look at questions used in informal speech that are formed exclusively by rising intonation and involve either a single word or a whole noun phrase. She demonstrates that these are used for different purposes such as requests for confirmation (Okada, 2006) and are not related to gender differences but more to their function. Her work, based on recordings of orchestra rehearsals, finds that many of the questions are asked by members who have to make decisions for the next meeting and that the questions are not related to the gender of the interlocutors, but rather to their duties in the orchestra. Questions in Japanese television discourse are also very important management tools (L. Tanaka, 2006; Yokota, 1994). Yokota (1994) uses an argumentative setting with eight participants and looks at the functions and use of questions in a television program that includes politicians. Questions, she argues, are used to mitigate potential conflict, in particular the use of ambiguous questions as opposed to narrow ones. The former are the most frequent in the discussion, and participants use them strategically. Conducive questions are rare and Wh-questions that exert moderate control over topic and sequence are more common. However, questions exerting the least control, such as ne-questions, are the most frequently used. She concludes that her results show the cultural aspect of Japanese communication where open conflict is avoided (Yokota, 1994). L. Tanaka’s and Takagi’s works are perhaps of most consequence to this book and will be mentioned in more detail in subsequent chapters. In L. Tanaka (2004, 2006), the present author focuses on interviewers’ questions in television interviews. These studies analyse the turn-taking that occurs in formal television interviews and find that most of the interviewers’ turns do not end in the interrogative format despite the fact that interviews are understood as interactions where the question–answer sequence is the core structure. Instead of direct questions, interviewers seem to use the particle ne or syntactically unfinished questions which impose less on the listeners. Takagi’s study (1999) explores how questions are used in argumentative talk and focuses on grammar and interaction. She shows the multi-functional nature of questions based on a detailed analysis of the use of questions in a couple’s quarrel. Takagi’s study demonstrates that syntactically formed questions do not always perform a questioning function. Questions used in the course of an argument can have other functions such as challenging or accusing, and this suggests that ‘interrogative grammar is grammaticized in such a way that it reflects the fundamental interactional unit of [recipient-oriented action]-[response]’ (Takagi, 1999: 418). One of the first papers published in English on Japanese questions (Hinds, 1984) and the most recent on the same topic (Hayashi, 2010) have almost identical purposes. Hinds’ work provides a thorough description of different types of questions in Japanese that range from the canonical question to the use of particles, echo questions, selfdirected questions and truncated questions. What was new and interesting for a study published more than 20 years ago is the inclusion of authentic data and a section on the pragmatic aspect of question exchanges that includes politeness shifts.

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The most recently published paper, by Hayashi, is a taxonomy of questions which serves as a valuable reference work. It also addresses the problem of authenticity as all the examples are taken from real conversations. Hayashi not only provides a categorization of questions, but he also supplements the study with the inclusion of a functional analysis of questions, which are based on their format, that he calls social actions and the responses of the listeners. He writes that there are three types of questions in Japanese: polar (which account for more than 80% of his data), Wh-questions (which he calls Q-questions) and alternative questions. Among the polar type, he recognizes three types: interrogative, declarative and tag-questions. Declarative questions, statements without the interrogative particle, are used very often. What is interesting is that they are used to confirm information or B-state events (events about which the recipient of the statement has privileged knowledge (Pomerantz, 1980)) and some are produced with rising intonation while others do not have any prosodic features. Thus, declarative questions can be considered to operate as questions only in the functional sense. Hayashi (2010) also includes tag-questions – those ending in janai, deshoo – and final particles yo and ne. He further provides all examples of Wh-word questions and points out that, in conversation, the position of the Wh-word is initial, in contrast to the canonical forms where the Wh-word appears in place of the requested constituent. The subsequent analysis of the social actions that questions seek shows interesting results. Although questions are widely regarded as being used to obtain new information, this is not the most common action that they perform. Requesting confirmation seems to be the most frequent function in the case of all types of questions. Questions are also used to select the next speaker and Hayashi reports that although address terms are rarely used, gaze is used to indicate the next speaker in multi-party interactions as well as the formal or informal style. Many other works on Japanese conversation do include questions in their analysis; however, they are not the focus of those studies. For instance, H. Tanaka (1999) has included a short section in her book on Japanese turn-taking about case and adverbial particles used in questions. She points out that questions can be realized by using rising intonation after a grammatical particle thus ‘projecting’ possible predicate endings so that listeners understand them as questions. This observation explains why this type of question form is common in colloquial Japanese but she does not delve into this topic in detail. As we can see, past research has contributed considerably to the understanding of questions; however, there are many areas that need further exploration. Foremost among these is a consideration of the role of context.

The Japanese canonical question As mentioned in Chapter 1, the canonical question in Japanese is created with the addition of the ka particle at the end of the sentence and rising intonation, and may contain Wh-words like nani, doko, dare, itsu (iii). On the other hand, Y/N questions also end with the particle ka (ii), with the sentence final particle ne (iv) or other endings

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such as daroo or deshoo. These endings work in a similar way to English tag-questions. Many questions, however, might not end with rising intonation (v) (Yokota, 1994). (i)

Taro wa gakusee desu Taro TOP student COP ‘Taro is a student.’

(ii) Taro wa gakusee desu ka? Taro TOP student COP Q ‘Is Taro a student?’ (iii)

Taro wa doko desu ka? Taro TOP where COP Q ‘Where is Taro?’

(iv)

Taro wa gakkoo ne? Taro TOP school FP ‘Taro is at school, isn’t he?’

(v)

doko ni ikimashoo ka\ where to go Q ‘Where shall we go?’

Many scholars have written about the difficulties in defining a question. It has even been suggested that questions should be classified along a continuum with declaratives at one end and questions at the other (see e.g. Mikami, 1972). This is because in Japanese there is no clear grammatical question system as such in which there is an explicit process such as subject-verb inversion, or the inclusion of auxiliaries or tags. Although many questions (Wh-questions, for instance) can be uttered without any interrogative prosodic contour and interpreted correctly, intonation is one of the most crucial features in determining Japanese interrogativity. In particular, this is the case for non-polite or short form questions that do not end with the particle ka (vi). The inclusion of the particle ka adds a rough stance to the question, something that is generally avoided; in some situations it yields an unacceptable version such as in (vii). (vi) Taro wa doko? Taro TOP where ‘Where is Taro?’ (vii)

Taro wa doko ka?* Taro TOP where Q ‘Where is Taro?’

Before we continue, the notion of polite and non-polite styles must be introduced as it is crucial to the understanding of questions. In Japanese, there are two styles of speech known as polite or masu (i, ii, iii and v) and non-polite or short form (iv and vi). Polite forms are used when speakers want to keep social and psychological distance as well as to show difference in status. Thus, higher status speakers can use short forms towards interlocutors of lower status; however this is not reciprocated. Family members and close friends, on the other hand, choose short forms which denote close relationships.

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Naturally, polite forms are used in formal situations by speakers of unequal status, or between newly acquainted persons. However, the use of polite and non-polite forms is not clear-cut as style shifts with a particular purpose occur in all exchanges. The use of formal and informal styles is more complicated than just status differences, as there are many factors that can influence the choice and the shifts in styles within the same exchange. These are used according to the relationship between the speakers, the situation and the interlocutors’ psychological changes (Kochiyama, 2003; L. Tanaka, 2006).

The questions in this study Thus far, we have discussed the issues related to interrogativity and the difficulties in defining questions. However, a number of critical features, such as rising intonation, are essential in a question. The features that were used to determine interrogativity in the analyses of the present study were: 1) 2) 3) 4)

Use of Wh-Q1 words Rising intonation + Q-particle ka Rising intonation Final particles kke, tte, ne, no

In addition, if the speaker’s turn contained a question that was syntactically incomplete, but it was interpreted by the listener as a question and followed with an answer, that incomplete structure was identified as functioning as a question. Therefore, an additional feature was added to the list: 5)

Pragmatic questions (grammatically unfinished questions (UUQs))

The list is based on Shooji’s (1992) hierarchy of degree of interrogativeness presented in Chapter 1. In this study, an utterance was identified as a question if it exhibited one of the features listed above. Thus, both an utterance with rising intonation, and one with Wh-Q words, rising intonation and the Q-particle ka were equally regarded as questions. Two features that are not in Shooji’s list are 4) and 5). The final particle kke can be attached to any unit of talk and is equivalent to the expression ‘did you/ he/they say?’ and functions to confirm information known to the interlocutors. Tte is also used as a hearsay particle and is more formal than kke. Ne is the particle most commonly used to invite agreement or confirmation from the listener and can appear independently in almost any position in a turn, unlike kke or tte that are always final. On the other hand, the particle no indicates that the question is directed at the listener, and it has a number of pragmatic uses which differ according to the context, the topic and other factors. Grammatically unfinished Qs are of two types. One is the short elliptical type (also referred to as non-particle Qs (Okada, 2006)) and the second includes utterances that may or may not contain a Wh-Q word, but turn-taking occurs after a conditional clause or a conjunctive phrase. This type of shared understanding when turn-yielding occurs, despite grammatical incompletion, seems to be quite common in the Japanese

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Table 2.1

Interrogativity criteria

y Wh-Q words y Rising intonation + Q-ka particle OR rising intonation alone

Y/N Qs Alternative Qs Negative Qs wake/koto Qs y Rising intonation y Ending particles

Tag-like phenomena ne particle Qs deshoo Qs tte Qs kke Qs no Qs y Pragmatic questions: Grammatically Unfinished Qs (UUQs)

language (Hayashi, 2003; L. Tanaka, 2004, 2006). In addition, the content of the talk and the listener’s response were also used, in this study, to determine the function of grammatically unfinished Qs. Table 2.1 shows the four main criteria used to identify questions in the data. As Table 2.1 shows, many informal questions just require rising intonation. On the other hand, the addition of the question particle ka and rising intonation can transform any sentence into a formal question. However, while the ka particle is the default question particle, less well-known is the use of the particle no as a question particle (Hinds, 1984) or the particle ne (Hayashi, 2010). Although these two particles are generally not considered to be question forms per se by most researchers, they exhibit many functional features of interrogativity in that they appeal to the listener. Moreover, they are used with overwhelming frequency in our data and thus they cannot be ignored. In order to identify and classify the types of questions used in the data, the observations of linguists such as Shinzato (2002) and R. Suzuki (2006) on the position of markers of inter-subjectivity were very helpful. They argue that those markers that indicate the speaker’s attitude towards the listener are positioned at the edges of a clause, either at the beginning or at the end. However, markers that occur immediately after a proposition indicate the speaker’s attitude towards the content (Shinzato, 2002; R. Suzuki, 2006). Therefore, some questions that contained more than one marker were categorized according to the type of marker. In other words, a question that ended with the particle ne was not automatically categorized as a ne question. For example, if the question ended with ne but had a marker such as wake or koto they were categorized as wake/koto Qs but they were counted in a sub-category.

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The following is a presentation of the above-mentioned questions found in the present data.

Wh-Qs In Japanese, canonical Wh-Qs consist of a Wh-Q word, the ka particle in final position and/or rising intonation. However, unlike other languages such as English, no movement of constituents is required. Wh-Q words in Japanese with their English equivalents are as follows:

Japanese Wh-Q words

English equivalent

Dare Doko Dore Doo (yatte) Donna Dono Itsu Ikutsu Nani Naze/dooshite

Who Where Which How What type Which one When How many/how old What Why

There were many Wh-Qs in the data, and three examples are presented here. The following three questions have a question word: doo ‘how/what kind’, nani ‘what’ and ikutsu ‘how old/how many’. The early inclusion of Wh-Q words in utterances allows listeners to predict the course of the turn and this might be a reason why they can be uttered without rising intonation, as in constructed example vi) earlier in this chapter. Example (1) below is in the polite form, while (2) and (3) are in the short form and require rising intonation only. Note that although question (2) contains an honorific form, it can end in the short form showing a more relaxed stance. (1) (FM2) 1 H: doo how

na COP

2 G:

chijoo surface

3

[(eh. eh. eh.)] yeah

n desu ka? COM COP Q

ni orita in come-down [desukara.] therefore

orinai doobutsu come-down-NEG animal idoo movement

wa TOP

((continues)) ‘H: What is it like? G: It is an animal that came down doesn’t come down, [(therefore)] [(yeah. yeah. yeah)] when it moves ((continues))’

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(2) (JM1) 1 H: un. yeah 2 Ca:

ano: otoshi uhm year

sanjuuyon thirty-four ‘H1: G:

deirassharu COP-HON-SHORT

no? FP

desu. COP

Yeah. Uhm- how old would you be? Thirty four.’

(3) (JSXII) 1 M2: kore nani this what 2 M1:

wa ikutsu TOP how:old

ga mieru? S visible

anne: toriaezu DM first-of-all

are ga that S

(un. un) ((continues))

‘M2: This. What can you see? M1: You see, first of all, that is (uh-huh) ((continues))’ These examples above come from a television interview (1), a radio phone-in program (2) and a conversation between close friends (3). As can be seen in the answers, they are all immediate and do not show any interactional problems such as pauses or false starts thus indicating that the listeners understood the questions as asking for information that only they had. These three questions each have a very different stance from one another as will be explained in detail in subsequent chapters.

Rising intonation + Q-ka particle or rising intonation Y/N-Qs Any sentence that has a question particle can become a Y/N-Q even without a question word (Hayashi, 2010; Hinds, 1984). However, its projectability is delayed as listeners do not know until the end of a turn whether the turn will end as a question or not. There are many questions in the data that can be interpreted as Y/N-Qs; however, because many are syntactically incomplete we can only speculate as to whether they were intended to be Y/N-Qs or not. There are Y/N-Qs that end with the Q-particle ka and rising intonation while others exhibit only final phonetic contour. Example (4) shows a polite Y/N-Q formed with the additional n2, which is used in questions and answers or explanations. It provides an account of events in a more explanatory way. Example (5), on the other hand, is in the short form and the only feature of interrogativity is the rising intonation. (4) (FF1–1) 1 H: de sore mo, mo and that too well 2

no of

kawaisoona poor

egakikata datta depiction-way COP-PAST

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kawaisoona onna poor woman

n [desu ka?] COM COP Q

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Japanese Questions and Interrogativity 3 G: [soo yes 4

na no.] COM FP

totemo nanka ne. very DM FP

ano well

29

jibunjishin oneself

no of

kimochi no naka ni mo ((continues)) feelings of inside in also

‘H1:

And, also that, would you also say, that (the Japanese) women were depicted as really poor and [wretched]? [Yes, that’s right, you see] It is, how shall I say, well even deep in my own feelings ((continues)).’

G: (5) (JM3) 1 M06: 2 M05:

[e], kookoo oh high-school

jidai? times

ya, shiranai. no know-NEG ‘M06: Oh, during high school? M05: No, I don’t know.’

Here again, the answer in both examples is immediate and without any problems. In example 4 there is a slight overlap indicating that the listener predicted the interviewer’s turn as a Y/N-Q because of the copula in the past form datta in line 2. Although there might be several ways of completing the question with to omoimasuka ‘do you think’ or deshooka ‘was it possibly’, nevertheless, listeners can be confident that it is a Y/N-Q. In 5, although the only indication that M06 is asking a question is the rising intonation, M05 takes the floor immediately, even though his answer is in the negative form. Other examples show that, even in formal style, questions can be asked with just final rising intonation. The following excerpt from a radio phone-in program shows the host asking standard questions about the caller’s age and marital status. The only interrogative sign is rising intonation as this utterance does not contain the question particle ka; showing that in Japanese it is possible to form a question with final intonation and no movement of constituents. (6) (JS.1) 1 H: kekkon saretemasu? married do-HON 2 C: hai yes ‘H: Married? C: Yes.’ However, in non-polite forms, intonation is particularly crucial because the question particle ka is omitted, and both the ellipsis of subject and omission of particles is quite common in colloquial Japanese. In the following example, two friends M06 and M05 are talking about M05’s hometown. M06 asks his friend about the activities he pursued when

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he had free time in his home town (with the inference that it was a very isolated and boring place). In line 1, M06 asks his Wh-Q laughingly, but it, in fact, sounds more like a demand because of the SFP yo. The first instance of a question with rising intonation is seen in line 2; the token e, with rising intonation, indicates that either the speaker had not understood or did not hear the question. However, we can see that M06 does not repeat his question but asks one in reference to his previous turn. M05 replies that he did nothing. Then, M06 asks again whether he went fishing. Note that the question does not contain a subject and it consists only of the noun tsuri ‘fishing’. The only indication that this is a question is its final intonation. M05 answers by repeating the same word. (7) (JM.1) 1 M06: nani yatteta n da what do-PAST COM COP 2 M05:

e? yeah

3 M06:

tsuri? fishing

4 M05:

nanmo nothing

nai be-NEG

yo ((laughingly)) FP

yo FP

5 M06: tsuri? fishing 6 M05:

tsuri. fishing ‘M06: M05: M06: M05: M06: M05:

What did you do (in your free time), tell me. ((laughingly)) Yeah? (What?) Fishing? There was nothing. Fishing? Fishing.’

This example contains many interesting features such as the questions in lines 2 and 5 that are characteristic of everyday talk among close friends. Some of these questions do not ask for new information but are used to indicate surprise, or failure to understand or to gain time. The question in line 5 is in many ways conducive as we can see from the fact that M05 repeats the same word to indicate agreement.

Alternative-Qs The structure for alternative-Qs in Japanese, such as when asking whether ‘something/ someone/somewhere is X or not X’, usually has the affirmative option first followed by the negative as in the following constructed example: vi)

Taroo wa kuru no? konai Taro TOP come SFP come-NEG ‘Is Taro coming? Is he not coming?’

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no? FP

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The options do not have to be immediately adjacent. Another alternative question may take a slightly different form, where the option is X or Y, as illustrated in the following fragment from the data. The speaker in (8) is asking her friend about a lecturer. Prior to this question the friend had asked whether she was talking about the lecturer’s marital status, however it becomes clear that what she wanted to know was the lecturer’s status at the university. Although F09 does not know the answer, she nevertheless answers immediately in line 2. (8) (JF14) 1 F10: iya iya iya iya. kyoojuu na no? no professor COP COM 2

jokyoojuu associate-professor

na no? COP COM

3 F09: doo na how COP ‘F10: F09:

n daroCOM COP

No, no, no, no. Is he/she a professor? Is he/she an associate professor? I wonder.’

Interestingly, there were almost no alternative questions in the ‘institutional’ data and this might be due to the fact that these types of questions are very restrictive as they allow only one option as an answer. It is known that alternative-Qs are frequently used in the teaching environment as pedagogical tools in order to correct students or elicit the correct answer (Koshik, 2005) as well as in court hearings (Gnisci and Bonaiuto, 2003; Gnisci and Pontecorvo, 2004). Those found in interactions between friends were too few to be included in the analysis.

Negative-Qs Negative-Qs in Japanese have attracted the attention of scholars because of the way in which they are answered. The question ‘Aren’t you going?’ can elicit two possible answers: ‘Yes, I am’ or ‘No, I am not’. The Japanese equivalents are Ikimasenka ‘Aren’t you going?’ with the answers: Iie, ikimasu ‘No, I am going’ and Hai, ikimasen ‘Yes, I am not going’ (examples from Mizutani, 1985). As is clear, the answers in English and Japanese are quite different and that is because in Japanese the answer to a negative question is in reference to the form of the question and not to the content. Moreover, there are two types of negative questions (Nitta, 1999): questions that end in negative forms such as in (viii) below and questions in the janai form (ix). These questions might or might not be accompanied by the Q-particle ka. (viii)

kirei da to omoimasen? pretty COP Qt think-NEG ‘Don’t you think it is pretty? (You think it is pretty, don’t you?)’

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Japanese Questions (ix) kireijanai desu ka? pretty-NEG COP Q ‘Isn’t it pretty? (It is pretty, isn’t it?)’

We can see the conducive nature of question (viii) in the fact that the preferred second pair for this is kirei da to omoimasu. In the case of the negative question there is clearly an expectation on the part of the speaker that the listener will give a particular answer. However, question (ix) is used in a similar manner to tag-questions, despite being a negative question; janai forms closely resemble deshoo-Qs (Adachi, 1999; Miyazaki, 2005; Nitta, 1999). Conducive questions have been associated with particular interactions such as police interviews or court hearings because they can be used strategically (see e.g. Heritage, 2002). However, in the institutional interactions in the data upon which the present study is based (see Chapter 3) there were very few negative-Qs. Negative-Qs were, however, found in conversation with friends where they were used to criticize or disagree. In (9) two friends are talking about the shop where F06 is working part-time. From this conversation we learn that the manager of the shop is very strict and has high expectations of his/her employees (even if they are part-time). Just prior to line 1, F06 mentions that there are many new staff members. F05 asks a negative-Q which clearly anticipates a particular answer (that the new staff are quitting). We can see that F06’s answer is hesitant. The fact that she uses the –te form, which implies that the new staff have not quit for the moment but might leave in the future, is another indication of the conducive force of the negative-Q. (9) (33) 1 F05

yamenai no? quit-NEG COM

2 F06: yame, tenai quit-NEG 3

ne FP

4 F05: eh. oh

(un) yeah

ne, mada FP yet

ima no hitotachi wa now of people TOP

tenchoo butsubutsu manager complain

itteru ne. say FP

nande? why

‘F05: They are not quitting? F06: They haven’t left yet, the new people, you see (yeah) the manager is complaining F05: Oh, why?’ As mentioned before, not all negative-Qs are used conducively. Negative-Qs with adverbs such as ‘mada’ and ‘amari’, for example, should be treated differently, as well as those that are used as invitations. Similarly, there are questions used when the questioner is looking for someone or something that are not conducive, or when the questioner wants the agreement of the listener (Adachi, 1999).

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Koto/wake -Qs Some Japanese questions have nominalizers no, to, koto, mono and wake in their structures. These nominalizers not only function to make complement clauses, but they also indicate whether the information was obtained by hearsay (to), whether the speaker’s conviction is weak (to) or strong (koto/no) and when they ask for or provide explanations (no) (S. Suzuki, 2000, 2005). Considerable research on this topic has been carried out from different viewpoints (Horie, 2000; Kuno, 1973b; S. Maynard, 1997; Miura, 1976; S. Suzuki, 2000, 2005 to name a few), and this section will focus only on the nominalizers koto and wake because they are common in this data. As with other questions presented so far, some questions in this section also have the Q-particle ka, depending on the speech style. It has been argued that koto is used when the speaker believes in the truth of the action, situation or event referred to in the clause (Kuno, 1973b); when the speaker is strongly convinced of the ‘reality of the information’ (S. Suzuki, 2000: 1601); and when speakers ‘frame’ the information as a ‘defined conceptual region’ (S. Maynard, 1997: 391). S. Maynard (1997) argues that koto and no in television interviews are used to indicate subtle details. Koto is defined as a distal framing linguistic strategy that appears in non-predicate positions and indicates shifting contexts. On the other hand, Bizen (1990) argues that koto has the inherent meaning of ‘importance’, and thus is used to convey orders, to exclaim, to explain cause/reason, to summarize and to express conjecture. Given that all these interpretations can be attributed to koto, it is important to consider a variety of discourse situations. Many of the examples were accompanied by the particle ne, which softens the illocutionary force of the question. A koto-Q can be seen in (10). This extract is from a radio program which features a problem about the caller’s delinquent son. Here, the host believes that both parents were working from the time that their children were very small. However, we learn that this was not the case. It is clear that the host’s choice of the koto-Q demands that the caller explain or agree with what the host had understood to be the case. This extract from a radio program shows that one of the other functions of these questions is to help the audience understand the gist of the problem or situation. (10) (JS.01.09.05) 1 H: hataraiteiru work

sono ano: okusan: that uhm wife

2

hataraitieru to work Qt

3

moo well

4

chiisai little

kono this

5 Ca: ie e: no yes

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koro when

iu say

ofutari two to Qt

to and

no ga (hai) COM S yes no of iu say

okosan children

anata you

ga S

kore this

ga (hai) taihen S yes very

koto desu ka? COM COP Q

ie: shoogakkoo ryoohotomo no primary both-of-them

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shoogakkoo primary

dete . . . leave

‘H:

Working, uhm: you say that you and your wife were working (yes) this uhm, you say that (yes) you were working from the time that your children were very young? Ca: No, ye::s, no. primary school, when they both left primary . . . ’

Wake is another nominalizer used commonly in spoken and written Japanese. The etymology of wake derives from the word wakaru which means to understand something very complex and intricate (Morita, 1989). It has other meanings such as ‘reason, basis, foundation, grounds’ and is used to explain a process from A to B, a development or result, the reason for or natural outcome of an event; an inevitable result or consequence; and intentional result. This is another type of question used in ‘institutional’ settings, as observed in Chapters 3 and 4. It is also used in talk between friends although less frequently. In (11), F09 asks her friend why she has come to university today. Note that there are two questions in lines 1 and 2. The first is a Wh-Q consisting of one word nande ‘Why’. This connects to the second question that asks if she had something to hand in. The most logical connection between the first and the second questions are the reasons for her coming to university. The final part of the first clause nande, kyoo wa ‘why, as for today’ could be kitano ‘did you come?’ which connects to the second clause. In other words, the friend had come to university because she had to submit something (e.g. an assignment or essay). We can speculate that the day when the friends were talking was one when F10 would normally not come to university. (11) (35) 1 F09: 2

nande, kyoo wa nanka dasu why today TOP something submit

mon atta thing be-PAST

wake? COM

3 F10: atta. be-PAST 4 F09: atta no. be-PAST COM ‘F09: F10: F09:

Why, as for today, is it because you had something to hand in?’ I did. ‘You did?’

Wake has been also described as an auxiliary that comprises an ‘explanatory’ attitude of the speaker (Teramura, 1984). On the other hand, wake is used as a non-lexical item that has ‘pragmatic’ uses (R. Suzuki, 2006). Contrary to the traditional explanation that the nominalizers wake and wake da are different in terms of informal versus formal forms, R. Suzuki (2006) argues that the bare wake is developing into a ‘modality marker with increasing inter-subjectivity’ (R. Suzuki, 2006: 36). She maintains that the

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clear syntactic and semantic relationship between the clauses, the wake clause and the one that precedes it, no longer exists. Despite this lack of connectivity, there is still an implication that there is a process of cause and effect.

Rising intonation Tag-like phenomena Tag-questions in English are produced with a main declarative sentence and a tag in reversed polarity. In Japanese, there are two ways in which a similar structure to that of the tag-question in English is expressed. Both have a main sentence; one is followed by the sentence final particle (SFP) ne and the other by the copula deshoo (in the hortative case). However, these two forms are not equal in meaning (Nakada, 1980). While ne indicates that the speaker is confident of the statement with which he/she asks the listener to agree, deshoo is used when the speaker wants to know whether the listener agrees with the proposition. While structures ending in ne may have two different interpretations, those ending in deshoo have only one meaning.

Ne-Qs The use of the particle ne has been researched thoroughly as an important pragmatic tool in Japanese communication (Cook, 1990, 1992; Martin, 1975; S. Maynard, 1989; Sakata, 1991; H. Tanaka, 2000; L. Tanaka, 2004; White, 1989) and there is general agreement that the use of ne, whether it is categorized as a simple particle, or as part of a tag-question, has a very clear interactional function: it invites an affiliative response. Ne is a sentence final particle (SFP) and, unlike grammatical particles, it does not have any syntactic function; however, it is an important pragmatic element in spoken discourse. SFPs in Japanese add an extra meaning to the utterance, such as the speaker’s point of view and/or an ‘additional hint as to what the speaker is saying: doubt, conviction, caution, inquiry, confirmation or request of confirmation’ (Martin, 1975: 914). Like many other similar particles, ne can be used after nominal, adjectival or verbal phrases or after complete sentences. It can be used with various SFPs and in sequences such as in the following examples, although some restrictions apply in the sequence. These include the obligatory final position of ne in relation to other SFPs, as other SFP combinations could render the sentence ungrammatical. (a) kirei pretty

desu COP-POL

(b) kirei pretty

ne FP

(c) kirei pretty

da COP-Plain

ne FP

ne FP

(d) kirei da yo pretty COP-Plain FP ‘It is pretty/nice, isn’t it?’

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ne FP

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Note that the propositional meaning in all these examples is exactly the same. However, the different endings to these declaratives convey additional pragmatic information such as the degree of formality (a); degree of informality and index the gender of speakers (b) and (d); and informality (c). The difference between (a) and the other choices is in the polite and plain forms of the copula. Even though plain forms are said to occur more frequently in male speech, note that women also use plain forms ((c) and (d)) in informal situations or when talking to interlocutors of lower status. Interestingly, (b) would probably be avoided by men as it might be considered too feminine. Although ne is an extremely versatile particle that appears in turn-initial, turnmiddle and turn-end position, this study concentrates on cases where it occurs with a question or as a question. When ne occurs in turn-final positions, it invites speaker-change and a ‘supportive action in the next turn’ (H. Tanaka, 2000: 1171). The use of the SFP ne, however, does not warrant an automatic response, even though it might be accompanied by rising intonation, thus creating a possible (Transition Relevance Point) TRP. In the next excerpt, there are two occasions when the host of a television interview uses ne (lines 2 and 3). In both cases, ne is accompanied by rising intonation, inviting the guest to either continue talking or to provide additional comments. On both occasions no turn-taking occurs although in the first instance the listener does respond without taking the floor. In addition, one more potential TRP is missed in line 6. Prior to this excerpt, the guest explains how gratifying it is to see the responses of the people that they are helping. She says that they are even more appreciative after they learn that ordinary people have donated the money. The host’s comment in lines 1–2, followed by the use of ne, is not a request for information but an affective display of empathy that functions as a strategy to elicit more talk. The use of ne in this context proves to be more versatile than asking a question or agreeing as a means of seeking more information (Kamio, 1994; Nakada, 1980; Yokota, 1994). (13) (MF2. Yy-44 ) 1 H: uhn. (hai.) sono yorokobu kao (hai.) miruto yeah yes that happy face yes see-COND 2→

hontooni really

3→

hai.

hai.) nee?

soo

desu

ka. maa iroiro

yes

yes

yes

COP

Q

4

[ureshii deshoo] happy COP-HORT FP

ne? FP

[(soo yes well

desu.] COP various

hontooni

NGO

de

katsudoosuru

sono

genba

no

really

NGO

in

activity-do

that

place

of

5

hanashi story

kikimashita. sooshita hear-PAST that-type

6→

o DO

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tsuzukeru continue

NGO, NGO

sono that

enjookatsudoo help-activity

(hai.) .. korekara, yes from-now-on

donna what-type

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yaku[wari] role

[(hai.)] yes

(hai.) yes

8

( hai.) omou n desu yes think COM COP

37

ga kitaisareteiru to S expect-PASS Q ka? Q

‘H:

Uhm (yes), I suppose it must be really rewarding (yes) to see such happy faces, [isn’t it ]? [(yes, yes. It is.)] It would be, wouldn’t it? Now then, well, we’ve heard a lot about what really goes on within the NGO. What kind of activities (yes) do you think will be expected of NGOs that continue with that type of aid activity in the future? What kind of [roles] [(yes. yes)] do you think (yes) are expected?’ On the other hand, ne in turn-final position can function as a ‘request’ for agreement when there is some shared information, as exemplified below: (14) (Yy MF.1) 1G: hai. nihon yes Japan (un) uhm

ni LOC

mo, also

chuushinni mainly

tokuni especially

2

o DO

3

oraremashite, be-CONJ

4

shingaku study

5

o odashishitari, e. DO give-HUMB-CONJ uhm

6

natsu ni summer in

7

ni to

8

hai. yes

anoo well

no of

sooiu that-type

otetsudai help

wa TOP

o DO

afuganisutan Afghanistan

no of

ga S

no of

shitari, do-CONJ

shoogakkin scholarship

shite do-CONJ

to isshoni with together (un) yeah

gasshuku camp

imasu. be-PRE

(hai.) desu ne? yes COP FP

hai. yes

ano- afuganisutan no well Afghanistan of

10

ano: well

jirai no jokyoo no shien mine of removing of help

11

kyuujuukyuunen 1990

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kata person

katatachi form

10 G:

kara from

indoshina/ Indochina

sorekara ano, then well

minasan everybody

ittari toka go-CONJ like

9 H: → soshite, and

nanmin refugees

ano, uhm

baai situation

atashitachi we o DO

shite:orimasu. ((continues)) do-HUMB-PRE

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Japanese Questions ‘G:

Yes, also in Japan and in Indochina (uh-huh) there are many refugees, and we help them to continue studying by providing scholarships. And in summer we do things like taking them on camps (uh-huh). Yes. H: And then there is Afghanistan, (yes), isn’t there? G: Yes, well in the case of Afghanistan, we have been helping since 1999 with the removal of mines. ((continues))’

Examples (13) and (14 ) above are from the same interview with a volunteer working for an NGO. In (14), lines 1–6, she talks about the activities of the organization in Japan and Indochina. Line 9 is a comment by the host, which ends with the SFP ne. In this case, we can observe that both share the same information; the host knows that the organization also works in Afghanistan. The turn-final ne is used as a request for confirmation, as we see in the following guest’s turn, in which she provides a detailed account of the organization’s activities in that part of the world. The use of this SFP is also a very efficient communication tool because there is no need for the host to utter a whole question. Returning to the issue of interrogativity, it should be reiterated that traditional grammarians do not consider ne to constitute a category of questions (Masuoka et al., 1997). Nor does a general consensus exist on its varied functions in discourse. However, scholars who have considered these particles to be important tools in communication agree that the particle ne is used to confirm information (Nakada, 1980; Nitta, 1999). Nitta (1999), for example, writes that ne is used to get the hearer’s confirmation on a matter that is known to both (speaker and listener) but not to obtain unknown information. In addition, ne is a multifunctional particle as speakers can use it even in the absence of a preceding statement with a propositional or information content (Cook, 1990; H. Tanaka, 2000). Moreover, the SFP ne appeals for an ‘affective’ response from the listener, rather than for the propositional content of the statement (Cook, 1990). In this respect, it functions very differently to a question where the main function is to inquire about unknown information. Kamio (1994) explains the usage of ne in terms of the amount of information shared between the speaker and the listener. He argues that the use of ne is possible only when the information is highly accessible or predictable. On the other hand, Nakada (1980), who uses the term tag-like phenomena (the term adopted in this study), compares ne to the English tag-question. The reluctance to use the same term for Japanese is explained in terms of its difference in structure. On the other hand, Hayashi (2010) includes the particle ne as a unit with the particle yo and treats it as a ‘type of polar question’ (Hayashi, 2010: 2690). In the present study, questions ending in ne function in two ways: one that is similar to the tag-question and another as a mollifier. This might be one of the reasons why many of the questions containing the nominalizers koto and wake are accompanied by ne (see Chapter 4, in particular).

Deshoo-Qs Another tag-like question in Japanese is the deshoo-Q (Nakada, 1980). Deshoo (the copula in the hortative case) can follow a declarative and might be accompanied by

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rising intonation. Questions with the copula in the deshoo or daroo ending have mainly been studied from the viewpoint of modality (Adachi, 1999; Moriyama, 1992; Nitta, 1999), but in this chapter only those that are pertinent to this study are included. Deshoo-Qs are used frequently in Japanese discourse. Nitta (1999) calls them gishigimon or quasi-questions because these types of questions try to eliminate or diminish the element of doubt rather than to obtain new information. They are considered light questions (McClain, 1990) and are used to obtain the listener’s agreement (Makino and Tsutsui, 1992). Moriyama, on the other hand, explains three characteristics of deshoo/ daroo-Qs: they work as an expression of doubt and are used as soliloquy; they are used when it is expected that the listener will not give an answer; and they are used as a ‘politeness’ strategy (Moriyama, 1992). In this study, however, deshoo-Qs are mainly used to obtain the listener’s agreement as seen in example (15) from a radio phone-in program. The caller wants some advice in relation to his delinquent son. The counsellor talks about a previous arrest while the son was still underage. His question ends in the deshoo form and it is clear that this is not a question per se, but a type of confirmation. Nitta (1999) and others have pointed out that these questions are conducive. In this case, it is clear that the counsellor expects a positive answer. (15) (JS01.09.05) 1 Co: sono saishoo that first

no of

2

shoonen shinpan juvenile court

3

deshoo. COP

pakurareta nab-PASS ka Q

toki ne when FP

nanika something

(hai) yes

uketa n receive-PAST COM

4 Ca: soo desu. yes COP ‘Co: Uhm, when (your son) was first nabbed (yes), he was sentenced in the juvenile court or something, wasn’t, he? Ca: Yes, that’s right.’ As shown in the examples, ne and deshoo-Qs, which pervade the present data, function in a very similar way to tag-questions, where the speaker seeks the listener’s agreement or confirmation, and are very collaborative and inclusive pragmatic tools.

Tte-Qs Another question form that does not follow the canonical structure uses a colloquial quotation particle, which literally means ‘you/someone said that, I’ve heard that’. In the following example (16), the guest is a famous and versatile Kabuki actor who received the Chevalier Prize for outstanding artistic performance. In line 1, the host asks a tte-Q to inquire about the French government’s awarding of the prize in contrast to the rigid

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Japanese Questions

and ceremonious Japanese way. The host says in line 1 that she had heard or that she knew that the manner in which the prize is given is splendid. (16) (M10. S-2) 1 T:→ de and

sono that

2

tte? Qt

3 G:

soo yes

4

rondon London

desu COP

‘T:

kudasarikata way-of-giving

ne. FP

no GEN

eeto: uhmm

tte Qt

sutekina splendid

rondon London

n COM

ototoshi year-before-last

kooen no toki performance GEN time

desu COP

rondon London

ni ((continues)) LOC

(You/They said that) the way in which it [the Chevalier Prize] is given is splendid. Yes, well when I went to London the year before last, at the time of my performance ((continues))’

G:

The tte-Qs indicate that the speaker has the information, and the question is used to elicit talk. Another question form used to confirm something known ends in kke. This denotes informality and, therefore, its usage is limited to casual speech in the same way as tte-Qs. In both kke and tte-Qs, there is shared information between the speaker and the listener; the second type of question, in particular, is only possible if the speaker has come by the information through hearsay or other similar means and is confirming its accuracy.

Kke-Qs When the particle kke is added to any unit of talk, it has the function of confirming what is known to both the speaker and the listener. It is used in polite and non-polite forms, although it has a very informal flavour and can be roughly translated as ‘did you say?’ (Hinds, 1984: 162). In the next example, the interviewee is a famous actress from the Takarazuka all-female troupe who performs in male roles, and thus she is much taller than the average Japanese woman. Here, the host asks her about her height implying that she knows it but is not sure or has forgotten. (17) (FF10.) 1 T: nan how

senchi cm

deshita kke? COP-PAST Q

2 G: hyakunanajuunana 177 ‘H: C:

senchi desu. cm COP

How tall are you, did you say? I am 177cm tall.’

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It should be noted that this question form is rather informal and therefore not used very much at all in institutional discourse unless the speaker is of higher status than the listener. The host, in this case, is much older than her interviewee and is a renowned personality in Japan. These two factors might have given her the latitude to use informal language.

No-Qs In Japanese, the particle no is used in situations where the participants ‘recognize a situation, and they try to understand it or they want the listener to understand it’ (Teramura, 1984: 309). No follows plain forms of verbs, adjectives and nouns and appends an additional pragmatic meaning to the sentence or question. A question which contains no or the shortened form n assumes that the speaker and hearer share the same information (Makino et al., 1992). The use of n before the copula desu has been observed as a marker that changes the pragmatic aspect of a question. It has been associated with politeness and softness (Jorden and Chaplin, 1963); with requests for explanations (Kuno, 1973a, 1973b); with the creation of harmony and the establishment of commonality or shared-ness between speaker and hearer (Cook, 1990); and with indications of shared knowledge (McGloin, 1980). While many researchers have tried to explain the differences between questions or statements with and without n, Hinds (1984) is, to my knowledge, the only one to have considered it as a question particle. He argues that although no is a nominalizer, there are three reasons why it should be considered a question particle: 1) it does not share all the features of other nominalizers (Hinds, 1984; McGloin, 1980); 2) a speaker who uses a question ending with no assumes that the listener knows the answer (McGloin, 1980); and 3) there is no clear lexical distinction between a question with and without no. On the other hand, Noda (1995) argues that when used with falling intonation, sentences with either no or no+da do not function as questions and, therefore, no should not be treated as a question particle. However, the examples below show the importance of this particle in constructing a question in the informal style. There is a difference in the meaning of the question with no and without it. (x) nanji ni dekakeru? what-time at go-out ‘What time are we going out?’ (xi) nanji ni dekakeru no? what-time in go-out COM ‘What time are you going out?’ In (x) the implication is that the speaker AND the listener are going out and the question has a consultative stance. However, in (xi) the speaker wants to know about the listener’s plans. This inclusiveness or lack of it is conveyed in the particle no. Thus, no does, in fact, exhibit an interrogative function and has a pragmatic weight that ka does not. No adds weight to the function of the question as it is directed at the listener. This division of ‘inclusiveness’ and ‘listener-oriented-direction’ also seems to apply to

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Japanese Questions

other structures that do not contain a Wh-word. Nevertheless, as with the use of many pragmatic markers, there are situations in which a question with no may include the speaker and the listener depending on the context and the previous discourse (see e.g. extract (16) Chapter 5). Moreover, the omission of the particle no in some questions can create grammatically incorrect questions as seen in example (xii) below. Question (xiii) asks the reason why the listener is going out and is perfectly correct as opposed to (xii) which is part of an embedded structure and if it were to be used as it is, would be wrong. (xii)

*dooshite why

iku? go

(xiii)

dooshite iku no? why go COM ‘Why are you going?’

As seen in the above four constructed examples (ix–xiii), the particle no should be considered a question particle that has a pragmatic function embedded into it and therefore as one that is potentially different to the particle ka. The fact that falling intonation after a question particle does not automatically create a question is even observed in the case of the archetypical question particle ka. Therefore, Noda’s (1995) argument against categorizing no as a question particle is untenable. Now, let us look at some examples from the data. In colloquial speech, because question particles are generally not used, any utterance can function as a question with the use of rising intonation at the end of the sentence. Rising intonation can occur together with one or more sentence final particles. The host in the next example (18) from a television interview asks the guest about his New Year ritual of sending cards to each of his immediate family members. The host compliments him in line 1 and follows this with a no-Q. The host seems to have some knowledge of the information but it is not certain. Thus, we can speculate that she mentions this knowledge as a polite stance and uses the no question merely to confirm. (18) (M7.-F-5) No question 1 T: sore wa demo that TOP but 2→

zutto through

3 G: ee yes 4

sore that

sutekina koto nice COM

o hajime O start

desu ne/ COP FP

kara tsuzuketerassharu no? from continue-HON FP

maa zutto tsuzuitemasu nde zutto well through continue-PRE because through

tsuzukenakya ((continues)) continue-must ‘T: G:

But that is very nice, isn’t it? Have you done it continuously from the beginning? Yes, well, I have been doing it all along, and, I therefore I must continue ((continues)).’

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Japanese Questions and Interrogativity

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In line 2, the host ends her sentence with the verb in plain form and the final particle no accompanied by rising intonation. No has other functions as a nominalizer or as a final particle used mainly by women, but can also be used as a question particle (Hinds, 1984) when it is pronounced with rising intonation. This type of question gives a more familiar and soft tone to the discourse. It should be noted that despite the fact that this interviewer used the honorific form, it was in the plain form but by ending in no managed to convey a feminine and elegant stance. Although there is, in most cases, no change of meaning, the addition of no adds pragmatic information that is required in communication between Japanese speakers. The addition of no, which in colloquial Japanese is shortened to (n), occurs when the action or state that is talked about is visible to both speaker and listener. It is in these cases that a question without the explanatory n would be pragmatically incorrect. However, this n is also used in some instances when shared information is nonexistent. In these cases, the speaker wants to appeal to the hearer, and in this way attain a more personal communicative exchange. Grammatically complete questions found in the present study are overwhelmingly accompanied by this explanatory n. The next example (19) shows one such question. The host asks her guest where he studied bibliography (a rather uncommon field of study). In line 2, we can observe the n added to the honorific verb in the past tense. By adding n the host conveys an additional sense of interest in the exchange and in doing so invites the hearer to participate in a similar fashion. (19) (M10) 1 H: sooiu that-type

benkyoo study

desu COP

doko where

de LOC

2→

n COM

3 G:

kore o keioo no shidoo this DO Keioo of guiding

nassatta do-HON-PAST

ka? Q bunkoo library

tte Q

iu say

tokoro place

((continues)) ‘H: G:

Where did you study that (can you tell us)? I (studied) it at a place called Shidoo Bunko at Keio University ((continues))’

The same question could have been formulated in the canonical format: (19a) sooiu That-type

benkyoo study

wa TOP

doko where

de LOC

nasaimashita do-HON-PAST

ka? Q

Even though both questions contain the same semantic content, there is a pragmatic difference between them. While question (19a) is simply an inquiry about the facts, (19) has an additional meaning. It appeals for the listener’s participation and demonstrates the questioner’s interest. Questions like (19a) are rarely found in informal speech or between intimate friends (Oshima, 2001).

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It should be noted that both the explanatory n and the SFP ne elicit the listener’s involvement in the interaction; in so doing they create a more intimate and cooperative environment. In this sense, we can say that these two linguistic devices facilitate the questioning process without the risk of being too straightforward; they, thus, avoid FTAs.

UU-Qs Two types of syntactically incomplete questions were classified under this category. One is known also as elliptical-Qs and characterized by its length and position in the turn-exchange. These are usually very short questions consisting sometimes of just a Wh-Q word or a phrase and they can be adjacent to a question. They function to seek clarification or to indicate surprise. The second type is what are referred to in this study as UU-Qs, also known as truncated questions (Hinds, 1984), and are used very commonly by hosts in television interviews (L. Tanaka, 2006). Even when the structure of the turn is incomplete, they project turn-yielding. These types of questions are ‘a stylized means of asking questions in which only the first noun phrase plus the topicalizing particle wa occurs’ (Hinds, 1984: 166). The fact that listeners correctly interpret them as questions may be due to the presence of a Wh-word or turn-allocation. UU-Qs differ in many ways from elliptical questions, including their longer format. The following examples illustrate grammatically incomplete questions. In (20) the guest in this television interview is a violinist who talks about recording with a string quintet in London. The host does not finish her question, but there are two clues that indicate what she wants to ask. The first cue is the lengthening of the last vowel doko: ‘where’, and the second is another vowel lengthening kara: ‘from’. Turn-taking does not occur after doko as there is too little information to predict the content; however, it occurs after kara even though the turn is syntactically incomplete. (20) (M6.- i-7) 1T:→ chinamini by-the-way 2 G:

sore that

wa TOP

doko:: where

no GEN

rekoodo record

gaisha company

ne Pikkuuikku to iu n FP Pickwick Qt say COM

kara::# from desu. COP

‘T: By the way, from which:: recording company: G: It is called Pickwick. ‘ Turn-taking after kara occurs without any problems as seen in the answer of the guest who elaborates on the recording company. The interrogative word doko ‘where’ and the particle no ‘of ’ (dokono ‘which’) may have helped to convey the intended message. However, in other instances there are no grammatical clues that indicate questioning. The guest in the next extract from another interview is the widow of the writer Yasushi Inoue. Turn-taking occurs without the host actually asking a question. We can assume that the guest understood that oseisho ‘fair copy’ is something related to what she did. The word zutto ‘all the time’ would have given enough information as to the intended question of the host. It could also be the case that the listener is aware of the interview

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turn-taking allocation in which the interviewee has to provide information after the interviewer’s questions. (21) (F1. L-4) 1T:→ shoshite,..maa and well

seishoo . . . fair-copy

2 G:

a. oh

shujin my-husband

3

itashimashita do-HUMB-PAST

no of

oseishoo fair-copy-POL

seishoo fair-copy

wa TO

zutto# throughout

wa TOP

nee. FP

‘T: And as for the fair copy, throughout G: I produced a fair copy of my husband’s [works].’ This type of exchange is very common in the data and is dealt with under the label of UU-Qs in this study. The speaker does not need to finish her utterance; she is not interrupted and there is no communication breakdown. Turn-taking is accomplished successfully, although there is no grammatical completion.

Elliptical-Qs Elliptical-Qs are those interrogatives which are grammatically incomplete; however, unlike the UU-Qs, they comprise sometimes of only a Wh-Q word or a noun phrase and are common also in other languages (Eggins and Slade, 1997). They can be repetitions of words or phrases usually accompanied by rising intonation3 and are very frequent in talk between friends but less so in institutional settings. In both cases, elliptical-Qs are very economical because of their length and useful, in particular, when radio hosts, for example, must obtain details from their callers in a limited amount of time. In talk between friends these questions are representative of informal language as they are not used with the question particle ka at the end. In (22), two male friends are gossiping about girls. M06 is talking about one girl he likes and he thinks is cute (line 1). M05 wants to know her name and he only uses a noun phrase with rising intonation namae wa. The noun is namae ‘name’ and wa is a topic particle. His first attempt overlaps completely with M06’s turn so he repeats it in line 4. Although the translation shows this question as containing a verb, the original Japanese does not contain one, and the short nature of this question can be appreciated through the gloss. These types of questions need only rising intonation to fulfil their role of interrogativity. We can see that M05 does not have any problem understanding the question, although he refuses to give the answer he is asked for. He says that disclosing her name would not be appropriate. (22) (M5–6) 1 M06: kawaii cute 2 M05:

[namae name

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wa?] TOP

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Japanese Questions 3 M06:

[demo ne..] but FP

4 M05:

namae name

5 M06:

iya. no

ittara say-COND

6 M05:

ya no

betsuni nothing

wa? TOP mazui unwise

ii good

yo FP

sore. that

jan@@@ COP-NEG

‘M06: (She is) cute M05: [What’s her name?] M06: [But, you see] M05: What’s her name? M06: No, that, it would be unwise to tell you.. M05: No, isn’t it fine @@@@’ As mentioned before, although these questions are used much more frequently in informal talk, they are also present in institutional discourse for their efficiency. In the following excerpt from a television interview, the guest who works for an organization that provides jobs for the disabled explains that she wants them (the disabled) to regain their pride as members of society; however, she uses the word hokori ‘pride’ which is also the homonym of the word ‘dust’. Although we can assume from the context that the risk of misunderstanding was minimal, we also understand that it was an unexpected word in this context. The host repeats the word hokori ‘pride’ with rising intonation, indicating that he did not understand either the word or the concept. The guest interprets the host’s turn as a question or request to clarify the word by providing a full explanation in the subsequent lines. (23) (MF2) 1 G: hokori pride

torimodoshi regain

undoo movement

tte Qt

@@

2

yoku itteru often say-PRE

3 H:

hokori? pride

4 G:

hokori pride

o torimodosu undoo (e.) tte itteru DO regain movement Qt say-PRE

5

n COM

desu ((continues)) COP

watashi I

n desu keredomo ne? COM COP but FP

‘G: I often say that it is a pride-regaining movement, but you see H: Pride? G: I call it the pride-regaining movement, (yes) ((continues)).’

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Elliptical-Qs are frequent in interactions between very close friends (see Chapter 5) and in those settings they function differently to the ones observed in institutional discourse. In radio and television, echo questions are used mainly for clarification as in the above example, but in informal talk these seem to work as signs of interest in the topic and the interaction (T. Tanaka, 1998). This section has presented all the question types found in the data, on the basis of five main features of interrogativity. While this is not an exhaustive list, the question types are representative of those found in television interviews, radio phone-in programs, talk between close friends and between unacquainted persons. In the subsequent chapters, questions that were most frequently used in each context will be explored in detail.

Conclusion This chapter has summarized the most important and relevant works in relation to interrogativity and questions in Japanese. Most of the studies are from the viewpoint of grammar and modality. One of the characteristics of these works is that the examples are either constructed or based on literary works. However, discourse-based research that uses authentic examples is not that abundant and most tends to focus on a particular question form. The second section presented a taxonomy of Japanese questions found in the study based on their syntactic, intonation, and turn-taking features, and this taxonomy is used as a framework to identify them throughout the discourse. Questions in this study were identified, based on Shooji (1992), as those structures that contained at least 1 of 5 features – Wh-Q word, rising intonation with Q-ka particle, rising intonation, utterances ending in the particles kke, tte, ne, and no and grammatically unfinished questions. The questions found in the data are: Wh-Qs, Y/N-Qs, alternative-Qs, Negative-Qs, koto/wake-Qs, ne-Qs, desho-Qs, tte-Qs, no-Qs, UUQ-s and elliptical-Qs. Some of the questions in the data exhibited one or more of these features and were classified on the basis of the formality of the interaction. While this might not be an exhaustive list, these questions represent what Japanese interlocutors use in various types of interactions.

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3

Establishing Topics and Eliciting Talk: Questions in Television Interviews

Introduction This chapter explores questions in television interviews, where questions are considered to be the ‘nucleus’ of the interaction and are used strategically by the interviewers (Bilmes, 1999; Button, 1992; Clayman and Heritage, 2002; Drew, 1992; Have ten, 1999; Heritage and Roth, 1995; Macaulay, 1996; D. Maynard, 1992, 1993; Yokota, 1994; Wilson, 1991; Zimmerman and Boden, 1991). It is not an overstatement to say that question design in interviews can influence their success or failure, and interviewers are known for their skill in asking questions that elicit talk including the use of conducive questions in adversarial interviewing (e.g. Bilmes, 1999; Clayman and Heritage, 2002).

The television interview and questions Most of the work on questions in television interviews is on British and American news programs (Bilmes, 1999; Clayman, 1988, 1992, 1993; Clayman and Heritage, 2002; Greatbatch, 1986, 1988, 1992; Heritage, 1985, 2002; Heritage and Greatbatch, 1991; Heritage and Roth, 1995). The main research focus has been on turn-type preallocation, the adherence to neutrality and the use of conducive questions. The turnpreallocation of news interviews determines a number of important characteristics (Greatbatch, 1988). First, as mentioned before, the roles of interviewer and interviewee are strictly maintained, and this differentiation of roles generates a particular turnallocation: a) interviewers’ turns are recognizable as questions, b) interviewees normally refrain from taking the floor unless asked to, c) interviewees are expected to answer questions and, d) interviewers manage the turn-allocation including the opening and the ending of the interview. These characteristics may vary slightly according to the type of interview and the number of participants (Greatbatch, 1988). News interviews are the most restrictive while celebrity interviews and talk shows exhibit turn-taking rules more similar to those of conversations. In particular, the format of the latter two programs is designed to include the audience as eavesdropper and, therefore, the

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interview resembles an intimate chat. As a result, the type of questions is quite different to news interviews (Heritage and Greatbatch, 1991). Two of the most influential works in this area of research are Heritage and Roth’s (1995) paper on questions in interviews and Clayman and Heritage’s (2002) book on news interviews. The work of Heritage and Roth (1995) is a pioneering study of questions in institutional discourse. Heritage and Roth designed a framework to determine how interviewers conduct questioning in interviews. They identified questions used in these exchanges based on their grammatical structure and developed a systematic quantification of those questions. Their findings were that while more turn-construction units (TCU) in British interviews ended in syntactic questions (62.9%), only about half of the American interviewers’ turns ended in questions (49.7%). Although they used grammar as their starting point, Heritage and Roth (1995) argue that this approach is far from satisfactory when questioning is achieved using pragmatic and turn-constructional features. In addition, they argue that grammatical interrogativity cannot be automatically connected to questioning as in the case of rhetorical questions. On the other hand, Clayman and Heritage’s (2002) book covers issues related to American and British news interviews. The detailed analysis of the interviewers’ various questioning strategies, designed with different purposes, is particularly noteworthy. These strategies take into account the most important elements of professional journalism such as neutrality and reliability. Thus, some questions are formatted in a way that presents them as the viewpoint of a third party, with the result that they display a degree of distance and maintain neutrality. Similarly, by citing a reputable third party, in particular, an expert in the matter, interviewers’ questions have more weight. At other times, interviewers’ questions can set agendas, embody presuppositions and be conducive. These features of interviewers’ questions allow them to manoeuvre according to interviewees’ responses. Question design is essential and it can influence the interview’s outcome as demonstrated in Macaulay’s (1996) study of indirect requests. Comparing two interviews with Margaret Thatcher and two different interviewers, the paper shows distinct outcomes defined by the design of questions. Macaulay highlights the successful strategies used by the interviewer who uses indirect questions in order to ensure that the interview will continue smoothly. Meanwhile, the other interviewer uses open requests ‘with little conducive force’ (Macaulay, 1996: 506) and does not elicit enough information to achieve an interesting outcome. Aside from question design, neutrality and conduciveness are intrinsically linked to questions in media settings, as stated earlier. To achieve neutrality, one of the codes of professional journalism, interviewers must carefully design their questions. However, there is a tension between maintaining neutrality and eliciting information from defensive or uncooperative interviewees. Studies have looked extensively at how interviewers maintain or infringe on that premise (Clayman, 1988, 1992, 1993; Clayman and Heritage, 2002; Heritage, 2002; Macaulay, 1996; Nylund, 2003). While displays of neutrality include the absence of news-receipts or acknowledgement tokens (Clayman and Heritage, 2002), it is the choice of question type that is the most important factor in

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achieving perceived neutrality. Clayman (1988, 1992) has used the concept of ‘footing’ in the interview. By invoking a third party, interviewers can achieve their goal (asking a delicate or aggressive question) but yet be able to maintain their neutrality. Nylund (2003) writes that the interviewers’ role in strategically constructing and designing questions (and also in the editing of the interviewees’ response) reflects not reality but a social construction. The other element in many of the questions in political interviews is the conduciveness of negative questions that has been observed by many researchers. Negative questions are used not only to elicit information, but also to challenge and are therefore excellent argumentative strategies (Heritage, 2002). They are designed to favour an answer that agrees with the criticism and, thus, they are a very powerful tool for aggressive interviewing or questioning, observed also in courtroom crossexaminations (see e.g. Gnisci and Bonaiuto, 2003; Heritage, 2002). Conduciveness can be achieved in similar ways in other languages as well, as demonstrated by Gnisci and Bonaiuto (2003) who compared Italian political television interviews and courtroom examinations. They found that questions in the interview setting tend to be mostly yes/no questions while courtroom examinations are characterized by the use of declaratives and narrow Wh-questions which are the most conducive and coercive (Gnisci and Bonaiuto, 2003). The language of other types of interviews has not attracted the same amount of interest. There are some studies of the types of questions used in talk shows. The semi-institutional nature of these programs ensures that they follow some of the restrictions while exhibiting other conversational features such as the use of newsreceipts or back channeling (Ilie, 1999). Another feature is that the question– answer pair is followed by a third move in the form of follow-ups. What Ilie (see Chapter 1) found in her data is that apart from the standard institutional questions, there was also a high number of non-standard questions that have different simultaneous functions (Ilie, 1999). Japanese ‘institutional’ language has been largely neglected except for a few studies (Furo, 2001; Honda, 2002; L. Tanaka, 2004, 2006; Yokota, 1994) and within these only Furo and Tanaka focus on questions. While their data differs in that Furo’s (2001) is based on political news interviews and L. Tanaka’s (2004, 2006) on cultural interviews, both studies show that speaker change occurs at points where there is no grammatical completeness. In particular, it appears that grammatically incomplete questions have less imposition and are, therefore, used as a politeness strategy (L. Tanaka, 2004, 2006). Yokota (1994) looked at the question design in political discourse and found that questioning is used to avoid open conflict and antagonism. Unlike the choice of conducive questions used in political interviews in English or Italian (Clayman and Heritage, 2002; Gnisci and Bonaiuto, 2003), Japanese moderators choose questions that have the lowest degree of topic and turn control, thus avoiding open confrontation (Yokota, 1994). Based on an analysis of broad and narrow questions, Yokota (1994) shows that questions are used to mitigate potential conflict in the interaction, with ambiguous questions the most frequently used in a strategic manner (Yokota, 1994). Thus, conducive questions such as the Yes/No pattern are rare, whereas Wh-questions

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Japanese Questions

that exert moderate control over topic and sequence are more common. Questions with least control, such as the ne particle, are the most frequently used. In summary, while there are many studies on British and American interviews and questions, the same cannot be said about Japanese. On the basis of existing studies, it is clear that questions are a key component in the turn-taking interaction and that when they use questions to elicit talk interviewers, have to excel in formulating the most appropriate type of questions.

The context In television interviews the status of the interlocutors is unequal and their roles and obligations are clearly distinct: only hosts can ask questions and guests generally refrain from asking them (Greatbatch, 1986, 1988; Heritage, 1985; T. Yamada, 1995). These are goal-oriented interactions designed to obtain or confirm information from interviewees for the audience. They can vary slightly in terms of formality and number of participants. Thus, political news interviews and talk-shows are situated at opposite ends of the formality continuum. While the rules of ‘institutional’ language apply to all interviews, there is variation in the degree of adherence. Thus, institutional rules are most visible in political news interviews while chat shows exhibit many conversational features. There is a general idea that interviews consist of a chain of questions and answers (Hutchby and Wooffitt, 1998). However, as many studies have shown, particularly in the Japanese context, turn-taking in interviews is not strictly a question–answer sequence (Nakajima, 1997; L. Tanaka, 2004; N. Tanaka, 2001; Yokota, 1994) and, in fact, questions seem to be used much less frequently than might be expected of this type of interaction (e. g. in one study only 15.4 per cent of all interviewers’ turn-ends end in full questions (L. Tanaka, 2004)). This aspect was also observed in the present data where questions account for an average of 23.4 per cent of all interviewers’ turns. This finding suggests that questions might be avoided in the Japanese interview setting because of their ‘strong’ illocutionary force and that other types of strategies such as declaratives or grammatically unfinished turns are preferred as they are less direct. Questions in television interviews have to be well planned and designed, and with this in mind interviewers prepare thoroughly, aware of the fact that no matter how trivial a piece of information might seem, extensive research on their interviewees, their work and accomplishments is recommended (Adams and Hicks, 2001). This essential preparation enables them to elicit particular information from the interviewees, on behalf of the audience, that is engaging, informative and interesting. Therefore, most of the questions are used to elicit information already known to the interviewers but that has to be narrated, or told by the interviewee.

Questions in the television interviews It could be said that all of the hosts’ turns qualify as questions because of turn preallocation and the nature of dyadic interactions. However, only utterances that could

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be strictly classified as questions were selected in this study, based on the features of interrogativity described in Chapter 2. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5)

Use of Wh-Q word Rising intonation + Q-particle ka Rising intonation Ending particles kke, tte, no, ne Grammatically unfinished

As seen in Figure 3.1 and Table 3.1, in the data comprising 14 cultural television interviews (Tetsuko no Heya, Sawayaka Intaabyuu, Ningen Yuuyuu, Suteeji Doa, ETV, Doyoo Intabyuu, Ningen Mappu) and one interview with a mental health expert (Kyoo no Kenkoo), 294 questions were found and classified. Among those 294 questions only 16 per cent classified as a standard question. In Table 3.1 and Figure 3.1, we can see that most questions fall in the Wh-Q, ne-Q, Y/N-Q and UU-Q types (24%, 21%, 19% and 10% respectively). Only 3 per cent of UU-Q are elliptical-Qs. These are followed by deshoo-Q (8.5%) and then by questions ending in koto or wake (2%), with another 3 per cent of questions ending with the ne particle. Negative questions were not that frequent (5%). Other types of questions found in the data are too few in number and will not be discussed, except for those that are of particular interest.

Table 3.1 Questions in TV interviews (%) Wh 24

Y/N 19

UU 10

No 1

~ne 21

Deshoo 8.5

Neg 5

kke 1

Tte 2

SFP .68

COM 2

COM+ne 3

Not Que 0.7

Req (requests) UU (grammatically unfinished) COM (wake/koto) FP (final particles) Not Que (not a question)

30 24

25

21 19

20 15

10

10

8.5 5

5 1

1

2

3

2

0.68

0.7

ot Q ue

+n e

N

C

O

M

P C

SF

tte

kk e

EG N

~n e de sh oo

o ~n

U U

N Y/

N

ot W

H

0

Figure 3.1 Questions in TV interviews

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Japanese Questions

The axiomatic definition regarding the purpose of questions is that they basically function to ask about unknown information. However, as we will see, most questions in interviews are used in order to fulfil other functions such as confirming, checking, validating, showing disagreement, eliciting and so on. In particular, having in mind that hosts already know a considerable amount about their guests, it should be unsurprising that most questions in interviews tend to be those that confirm and check information.

Eliciting talk The most vital task of hosts is to elicit talk, not just an answer from their guests. In order to achieve this goal, they have to expertly use a varied set of linguistic strategies where question design is essential to draw out the guests’ narratives. As we will see in this chapter, one of the most basic functions of questions in television interviews is to elicit and generate talk and to confirm information. Eliciting talk is accomplished through the introduction, expansion or change of topics. In the interview setting, it is the hosts who always introduce the first topic.

Establishing the topic: The use of Wh-Qs and ne -Qs Topics are established by the interviewers who either introduce the subject matter in a narrative form or ask the guest directly. It is evident in the data used for this study that, in most cases, the host uses a question to elicit talk. There are many ways in which topics are introduced, and in the following examples we see first a Wh-Q and a ne-Q of hearsay. Wh-Qs are, as seen in Table 3.1 and Figure 3.1, the most frequently used types of questions (24%). There seem to be three uses of the Wh-Q: one that establishes or introduces new topics, one that asks for detailed information, and a third that asks for the guest’s thoughts, feelings or impressions. In this section we are going to look at the first use. The interview starts with the host’s formal opening of the program (lines 1–5). From line 6, the host introduces the guest and gives a general description of her background. The guest is the director of a social welfare service that assists disabled people in getting training and work. Lines 6–7 show that the host knows about the type of services that this NGO offers, therefore, it is clear that the question in lines 13–15, is a strategy by the host to, first of all, establish the topic and second to invite the guest to talk about her NGO. By saying that the program will provide the audience with a platform for thinking about disabled people and their independence, some background information is provided, showing that the host knows about his guest’s activities and work and that the question is used to establish the topic. (1) (NUU.MF1) 1H: ningenyuyuu ningenyuuyuu 2

nisenninen 2002-year

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desu. eh. konshuu wa COP uh this-week TOP

watashi no I of

teigen proposal

shiriizu series

de in

to daishite in titled

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Establishing Topics and Eliciting Talk 3

ookurishiteorimasu. send-HUMB

e uhm

4

hito people

ni to

korekara from-now

5

koto things

ga S

motomerareteiru demand-PASS

6

o DO

itadaiteorimasu. (H) receive-HUMB

7

waTOP

a. shoogaisha ga hataraite uhm disabled S work

8

koto COMP

9

omotteorimasu. (H) think-HUMB

ni tsuite in about

kakukai various-fields no of

jidai times

o of

11

puroppu puroppu

12

san desu. T COP

13

yoroshiku [onegaishimasu] treat-me-well

14 IE:

[yoroshiku onegai itashimasu.] treat-me-well

15 H:

(H) puroppusuteeshoon Puroppu-station

16→

(hai.) yes

17

na n desu [ka?] COP COM COP Q

18 G:

[hai] yes

19

(ha) konpyuutaa yes computer

20

katsuyooshite. (hai) shoogai o use-CONJ yes disability DO

21

(e.) yes

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suteeshoon eh station eh

kyoo today

jiritsusuru independent

takenakana Takenaka

mami Nami

san doozo T please

to Qt

iu say

katsudoo activities

daitai usually

no of

shakaifukushihoojin social-welfare-service

suteeshoon rijichoo no station director of

ano: well

ohanashi talk

goshookaishimashoo. introduce-HORT

..eh, puroppu uhm puroppu

iu say

katsudooshiteiru active-PRE

ikoo to go Qt

10

doo what

ka Q

nikaime second-time

gesuto guest

Takenaka Takanaka

de in

donna what-kind

no NOM

kangaete think

55

no wa COM TOP o DO

ima (eeh.) now yes

ya intaanetto and internet

suru tokoro do place

hayarino in-vogue

desu ne COP FP

o DO motsu hitotachi have people

ga S

zaitaku de ((continues)) home at

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56

Japanese Questions ‘H:

G: H: G:

This is Ningen Yuuyuu. This week, we are showing a series of programs under the topic “My proposition for 2002”. We are inviting people from different fields to talk to us about what are going to be the demands on people in the future (H). Today, the second in the series, we will think about disabled people working and gaining independence. Let me introduce our guest. The director of Prop Station, the social welfare service Prop Station, Ms Nami Takenaka. Ms Takenaka, [nice to meet you.] [Nice to meet you.] The Prop Station that we are talking about (yes), what kind of activities are they [engaged in?] [Yes,] well (it is an organization) where people with disabilities (yes) can work from home, using things that are nowadays (uh-huh) in vogue (yes) like computers and (yes) the internet ((continues))’

The guest’s answer overlaps with the question (in lines 16 and 17) showing that the guest predicted the host’s turn end. The guest was most probably able to do this because of the Wh-word dooiu that indicated that the utterance was a question; a phenomenon that has been termed projectability (Hayashi, 2003). It is possible to foresee how a turn is going to develop and attune to possible points of turn completion resulting in perfect timing in turn-taking (Sacks et al., 1974; H. Tanaka, 1999, 2000, 2001). On the other hand, by asking an open-ended question, the host provides the opportunity to the guest to elaborate and explain about her organization at length and the audience can get a first-hand description. The use of douiu ‘what kind’ with the Wh-question, gives ample freedom to the guest to elaborate with a long answer. This guest’s answer is long and explains in detail that the organization’s activities not only include education but also providing job placements for people with disabilities. Another question type that is frequently used in interviews is the ne-Q, which was frequently used (21%) in the data. As stated in Chapter 2, ne-Qs are viewed as belonging to the tag-like category where the most important function is to confirm or ask for agreement rather than to obtain new information. This feature highlights the host’s prior knowledge about many aspects of the guest’s background. The low frequency of ne-Qs in talk between unacquainted persons in Chapter 6 is in keeping with this function of confirming or asking for agreement. The fact that they are also absent in informal talk, however, suggests that ne-Qs are used in more formal settings. Because ne-Qs can be used only when the information being sought is highly accessible or predictable (Kamio, 1994), they function differently to other questions whose main function is to inquire about unknown information. One of the characteristics of ne-Qs, as Kamio (1994) suggests, is that there must be some amount of shared information between the speaker and the listener. Nakada (1980), on the other hand, has compared them to the English tag-question and uses the term taglike phenomena because of their structural and functional differences compared to English. We can observe that the information is shared by both interlocutors in the following excerpt. The guest is a famous and popular Japanese writer. This exchange occurs at

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the beginning of the interview and it is the first topic. The host starts her question in line 1, and there are a number of places where the guest does not take her turn. There is a slight pause in line 3 which is a TRP as all the information about the question is given in lines 1–3. We know that the host wants to clarify that the writer started writing after she had come back to Japan from Manchuria. Any Japanese person or anyone familiar with Japanese history would infer that this event had occurred during or right after the Second World War when many Japanese civilians went to Manchuria but had to escape when Japan lost the war. Observe that the host uses the term hikiagerarete ‘come back to the home country’ and although it is in the conjunctive form, turn-taking would have been possible. The pause also indicates that the host expected the guest to take the floor. It is known that Japanese turn-taking frequently occurs at these points, namely after the -te form and other conditional and conjunctive forms (Mori, 1999; Onodera, 2004; L. Tanaka, 2004). The second TRP is right after the word ato ‘after’ when there is an overlap with the host’s speech. As no turn-taking occurs, the host finishes her turn with the expression dasoo desu ne used for hearsay. The host’s turn ends with the particle ne and rising intonation. Because of the rising intonation, the finality of the particle ne and the reaction of the guest (she gives an answer) this can be considered a ne-Q. This presupposes that the host knows the guest had been in Manchuria and she started writing after that experience, as we can see in the question’s content. (2) 1 H: ano= Miyaosan uhm Miyao T 2

kakihajimerareta write-start-PAST

3

Manshu Manchuria

4

(eh..) yes

ga S

shoosetu o novel DO no NOM

kara from

[(ato.)] after

haikekkaku tuberculosis

6

shinu die

no NOM

7

warui bad

ni in

matsu wait

jookyoo situation

(uhn) uhm

hikiagaerarete.. .korareta return come-PAST

na COP

5 G: ano= uhm

wa TOP

no in

n COM

da COP

nakade, inside

to Qt (eh.) yes

ato after

soo desu ne/ hear COP FP

kakarimashite, fall-ill-CONJ bakari only

shuusen de.. war-end and

(eh.) moo yes already

iu say

taihen..ano== very uhm

((continues))

‘H: Uhm, I’ve heard that (yeah) you started writing novels (yeah) [after] [(after)] coming back . . . from Manchuria, isn’t that so? G: Well, I had tuberculosis (uh-huh), was just waiting to die and in a very bad situation (yeah) and ((continues))’ In this particular question, the hearsay expression dasoodesu does not reveal the source of the information and does not attribute it to anyone either. In that sense, this type

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of question form is very useful as it adheres to the concept of neutrality. It is possible to complete the question by adding a connective expression and a question particle + rising intonation (e.g. dasoo desu ga dooshite desu ka ‘I’ve heard X, why (was that?)’ to the hearsay expression dasoodesu. However, the addition of the SFP ne is the most natural and effective strategy to elicit talk as we can see from the guest’s response. The guest gives a long and detailed account explaining about her escape in Manchuria from the Chinese troops with a newly born child. She says that the experience was so traumatic that she wanted to tell her daughter about that ordeal. More examples of ne-Qs are described in subsequent sections and show that they are very efficient tools in the interview context.

Generating more talk: Wh-Qs Once the interview has started, hosts use many strategies to draw out more information from the guests. Even though the host may have done his/her homework, there are many times when an exchange takes an unexpected turn, or when unexpected answers are provided. It is on those occasions that hosts display their expertise in the use of differing strategies to elicit more talk and to keep the audience engaged in the interview. Here, we are going to focus on the types of questions used to elicit and maintain more talk. The next extract is from an interview with the guest who is the founder of an NGO that removes landmines worldwide. In the first 6 lines, the host gives a kind of introductory comment to his question and asks her about the nature of the association. Although we might assume that the host knows about the NGO of which the guest is a director, a description of the organization would undoubtedly be more interesting if described by the very people who work there and the interview is precisely created for that purpose. The host’s question in lines 5–6 is an open-ended Wh-Q that elicits a very long description of the NGO by the guest (seen in the 27 lines quoted below). However, the answer is different from what the host had intended as the guest explains the NGO’s origins and does not really answer the question. The host does not pursue that line, but instead asks how many staff members are in the NGO (line 22) and indirectly leads the guest to give more detailed information about the organization. The answer for this question again is immediate and elaborate. The guest could have given a short answer with a simple number as the question is rather specific. However, she gives a detailed account providing details about the number of staff in the Tokyo office, and although not presented here, she talks about the branches overseas and the number of volunteers as well. Finally, the third question is asked in line 31, where the noun phrase is topicalized and the question is placed last. He asks how their funds are collected by using the question dono yooni atsumerareterun desuka ‘how are they collected’. The question is preceded by the topic ‘as for the funding’. In this instance, the guest also gives a detailed answer in relation to funding from different sources. (3) 1 H: osa Osa

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san T

wa top

kore this

made till

nijuu twenty

amari about

no of

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Establishing Topics and Eliciting Talk 2

kuni country

ni to

3

katsudoo activity

o tsuzuketekoraremashita. mazu. ano, DO continue -HON-PAST first uhm

4

osa Osa

5

aru be

6

(hai.) kore, donoyoona yes this what-kind

7

n deshoo COM COP-HORT

8 G: ima now 9

ashiohakonde go

59

san no T of NGO NGO

kara from

kokusai international

katsudoo no activity of

no of

nanmin refugee

kyuujuu 90

sooma Sooma

11

ga, (e.) nihon S uhm Japan

12

kara from

13

[shien] [(e.e.)] help yeah

14

sutaato start

tasukeru kai. help association

(hai.) yes

soshiki association

na COP

ka. Q

desu COP

10

kyoten de base COP

no of

nijuusan nen 23-years

na n COP COM

enjoo no aid of

mae, ago

kedomo but

yuki Yuki

shoowa Showa

(e. e. e.) yeah

kazuko Kazuko

san T

e.-ni inayeah in be-NEG

wa nanmin TOP refugee

no kata of people

shiyoo do-HORT

tte Qt

gojuuyonen 50-year

ano/ uhm

kotoshi this-year

ga maa S well ano uhm

obaasan old-woman

kita. came

Indoshina Indochina

o nantoka DO somehow iu koto de say COM of

shimashita. do-PAST

((10 lines omitted)) 22 H: sutaffu no staff of

kata people

wa TOP

23

n COM

24 G:

ano well

25

(e.) yeah

masu. be-PRE

sorekara then

26

ano/ uhm

nihonjin Japanese

ga S

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doregurai how-much

(hai.) iru yes be

desu ka? COP Q tookyoo Tokyo

no honbu of main-office

ni in

yaku about

kaigai no overseas of

ya- yahari al also

juumei 100-people

jimushoo ni office in

juumei 10-people

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Japanese Questions 27

gurai, about

sorekara and

genchi no local of

kata people

ga S

((4 lines omitted)) 31 H: anoUhm

katsudoo activity

32

wa TOP

(hai.) yes

33

desu ka/ COP Q

no shikin of money

donoyooni how

34 G: hai. ano- kaigai yes well overseas

no of

34

anoo well

gaimushoo Foreign-ministry

35

desu toka, COP like

36

desu ga, anoo sore COP but well that ((continues))

ano uhm

tte iu no Qt say COM

(hai.) yes

shien help desu COP

joseikin subsidy wa TOP

atsumeteru n collect COM

no of

baai wa, situation TOP

toka, soomushoo like Internal-affairs-ministry o DO

itadakeru receive-POT

ichibu one-part

n COM

degozaimashite, COP-POL-CONJ

‘H:

Ms Osa, you have so far visited more than twenty countries to carry out your international aid activities. First, what kind of association (yeah) is “Helping Refugees” (yeah), the NGO in which you are based? G: It started about twenty three years ago, when in the 50th year of the Showa period (yeah) uhm, Ms Soma Yuki Kazuko – a lady turning 90 this year, (yeah), said that she wanted to help the refugees from Indochina ((10 lines omitted)) H: How many staff (yes) members are there now? G: Well, in the main Tokyo office there are about 100 (yeah) Japanese and locals ((4 lines omitted)) H: Uhm, as for the subsidies for your activities, how do you (yes) collect them? G: Yes, well when it is overseas aid, well we can get grants from the Foreign Ministry or the Internal Affairs Ministry, but that is only one part and (uh-huh) ((continues))’ As we can see from the three questions above, the information requested by the host is probably already known to him, albeit in less detail. Therefore, he uses Wh-Qs to elicit more talk and information from the guest. From the extract above, it is clear that the guest is very cooperative and contributes to the interview with more information than is sought by the original questions. In particular, the Wh-Q in lines 22–23 is very specific, yet the guest volunteers more information. She could

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have simply contributed to the conversation by giving a number. However, she gives a long answer in response to the question providing much more information than what she is asked for. This aspect of answering confirms that listeners are aware of the interview context and their expected roles. In the last question, there are two potential TRPs when the guest gives a backchannel in lines 31 and 32. However, even at the second instance in line 32, the question was not clear until the host uttered the word atsumerareteru ‘how is it collected’. This is indicative of the fact that some Wh-Qs have to be almost finished to be understood. The long topicalized noun phrase did not give enough information for the guest to be able to guess how the question was going to finish. The host may well have been about to ask how the money was spent instead of collected.

Asking for feelings, impressions and the inaccessible: Wh-Qs Although there are many types of Wh-question words, it appears that the Wh-Qs predominantly found in the television interview data occur mostly with Wh-question words such as donna/dooiu ‘what kind/how’ and naze/dooshite ‘why’. In contrast to other Wh- words that ask for specific places or dates or people, these are used to ask about information that is otherwise inaccessible to the host. These questions are about feelings, thoughts and impressions or very specific information that can be answered solely by the guest. To illustrate, let us look at the following questions from an interview with a well-known jockey, Yutaka Take. He is an extremely popular horseman and renowned for his performance in international horse races. Before this interview, he had ridden a horse that had lost every race and attracted interest as the ‘underdog’. A special race was organized so that Take could ride this horse, leading to considerable expectation and also the placing of enormous amounts of money on bets (unfortunately, it lost again). Using the Wh-question word dooiu ‘what kind of ’, the host asks Take what his first impression was upon seeing the horse. Feelings, thoughts and impressions are rarely accessible for other people unless these have been specifically expressed in public or written about. There is a slight pause in line 2, but it is unclear whether the host had intended the guest to take his turn or whether he was about to elaborate; the question was asked without the topic marker. The ending of the question in the copula deshoo is designed to soften the question. The question particle ka makes this question different in nature to other deshoo-Qs. In line 3, the guest starts his answer with iya which literally means ‘no’; however, as is the case with many discourse markers, this is used to express some kind of trepidation, because it was an unexpected question or perhaps because of the difficulty in describing impressions. Although Take speaks for about 6 lines, he does not clarify anything. Saying that the impression that he had was ‘as expected’ gives very little information. Therefore, the host tries again, asking, in fact, two questions. The first one is in line 9 and it is a grammatically unfinished question which is followed by laughter, and the second question is a Wh-Q that asks for his impression when he saw the horse. It is unclear why this guest did not take the floor; however, we can speculate that he found the question unexpected. The host uses the word dooiu ‘what kind’ and refers to the guest’s comment mita kanji no inshoo doori. It is interesting that although the guest

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describes the horse but not his personal impression the host does not pursue this topic but moves to the race itself. (4) (Take) 1 H: haa:::. e: haruurara.. tto iu uma no, daiichi huuuu eh HaruUrara Qt say horse of first 2

inshoo . . . impression

doo how

datta n COP-PAST COM

3 G: soo desu well COP

ne.→ FP

maa well

aruteido ne. ano some-degree FP uhm

4

(eh) yeah

yappari @@ yuumeina uma also famous horse

5

(eh) yeah

boku I

6

no COM

de and

7

iuto ko. say-COND uhm

8

da..tta ka na COP-PAST Q FP

(@ @) dooiu how

11 G: iya . . . no

na n de COP COM and

mo . . . joohoo . . . ga aruteido atta too information S some-degree have-PAST ne→(eh). FP yeah

9 H: mitakanji no as-seen of 10

deshoo ka? COP-HORT Q

ano: well

mita see

kanji impression

maa. well

no inshoo . . . doori of impression-as

tte iu kanji desu ne. Qt say impression COP FP

inshoodoori impression-as koto COM

ma. docchika to uhm either Qt

to Qt

iu say

no wa? @ @ COM TOP

na n deshoo ka? COP COM COP-HORT Q

hosokute thin-and

kedo. but

tte iu Qt say

12

kanji impression

‘H: G:

Huuu, eh, the horse named Haruurara, what was your first impression? Well, uhm, because to some degree uhm (yeah) it is a famous horse @@ (yeah) I also had some information that’s why (yeah) well, uhm, the sight (of the horse) was rather how I had expected, you see When you say it looked as you expected? @@ (@@) What did it look like?] No, well, it was thin and small and @@ (yeah), yeah.’

H: G:

deshita COP-PAST

chiisakute @ @ (eh) . . . small-and yeah un yeah

Other examples of Wh-Qs are observed when the information is inaccessible for the host as is seen in the next extract. The guest is the lawyer Mitsuyo Ohira who became well-known because of her book outlining the obstacles she encountered before becoming successful. She was a victim of bullying at school, dropped out, and became a gang member later marrying a yakuza. Persuaded by her father’s friend to ‘reform’ she studied and prepared for the extremely difficult national bar examination

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becoming a well-known lawyer and advocate for victims of bullying. The fact that she had married a yakuza boss is widely known because of her book; however, it is difficult for others, even the readers, to know about her feelings when she married him. In (5), the host asks a Wh-Q in short form followed by the nominal no in lines 1–2, and as in the previous example the guest offers a very detailed and compelling answer as to what motivated her decision and how she felt as a result of doing what she did. Note that there is an overlap following the rising intonation after the Wh-word dooiu ‘what kind’ and the guest starts her turn with the word yahari which has many meanings and which in this case could be translated as ‘as expected’. She then explains the psychological reasons why she chose that path saying that it was a kind of ‘revenge’ an attraction towards someone strong. (5) (Ohira) 1 H: booryokudan no yakuza of 2

natteshimatta become-PAST

3

dooiu/ what-kind

kumichoo boss

no of

okusan wife

ni to

(hai.) yes

iu say

no COM

wa TOP

tte Qt

[kimochi feeling

datta COP-PAST

kore this

no/] COM

4 G: [yahari sore wa] imamade shiitageraretekita. ijimeraretekita. alter-all that TOP now-up dominate-PASS-PAST bully-PASS-PAST 5

dakara tsuyoi mono thus strong person

6

yokaroo good-or

7

ii. good

8

iwareteru say-PASS

9

o DO

10

ni/ akogareru. in look-up

ga warukaroo ga sonna S bad-or S that

soo iu shingi that type thruth aite de person COP

deshita. COP-PAST attemo/ be-COND

shitai. (e.) jibun no do yeah myself of

seirishitai/ (uh.) ironna put-in-order uh-huh many ‘H: G:

sore that koto thing

wa TOP

(haaa) really (e.) yeah

kimochi feelings omoi feelings

ga S

o of

doodemo whatever

tatoe warui/ even bad-

sono/ that

to Qt

shikaeshi revenge

nantoka sono:, somehow that

ga atta n desu S be-PAS COM COP

ne/ FP

That you became the wife of a yakuza boss (yes) this, how did [you feel?] [As you know, that] was because I was bullied and dominated so I looked up to strong people regardless of whether they were good or bad, that was not important. That was the truth (really) Even though the person was said to be a delinquent (yeah) I wanted to take revenge (yeah) I wanted to deal with my feelings (yeah) there were many feelings, you see.’

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The Wh-Q in example (5) is, as has been noted, in the short form, and followed by the explanatory no; although because there is an overlap, we cannot know whether the host intended to finish his question or shifted styles. Looking at the previous and following sections of the interview, the host uses mostly polite style throughout, so it is possible that he did not finish his question; however, ending in no does not make it ungrammatical. There is only one question at the beginning of the interview when he shifts to an informal form; however, he immediately reverts to the formal style. As seen in these two examples, Wh-Qs are very useful in cultural interviews where the goal of the interaction is to entertain and inform the audience. Even though the information given by the guest is not exactly what the host asks for, this fact does not cause a major problem, unlike what one would expect to be the case in a news interview with a politician or in a court hearing. Note, however, that most interviews on Japanese television are cultural and that news interviews like those analysed by Heritage and Roth (1995), for example, are not very common.

Mitigating the illocutionary force of the question The explanatory ‘n’ with Wh-Qs Questions used in ‘institutional’ Japanese media discourse, as opposed to English and American television, seem to be those that are the least conducive (L. Tanaka, 2006; Yokota, 1994). This phenomenon is also found in the present study. An overwhelming majority of the questions are Wh-Qs, but interestingly most are structured with the additional explanatory nodesu or ndesu. As stated in Chapter 2, the ending no+da, and its shortened form n+desu, is used in situations when the interlocutors feel some common ground in relation to a situation (Teramura, 1984). It adds an emotive nuance to the utterance and there is an emphasis on the common participation of the speaker and the listener. When attached to declaratives its meaning is similar to the English expression ‘I think’, showing the speaker’s viewpoint, and is termed ‘explanation modality’ (Masuoka and Takubo, 1992). A question which contains noda or the shortened form nda assumes that the speaker and hearer share the same information (Makino and Tsutsui, 1992). Added to plain forms they add some pragmatic meaning to any sentence or question. It has even been argued that in some cases the use of a question without the explanatory n would be pragmatically incorrect. The explanatory n is used even when shared information is absent as it is in the case of radio phone-in programs (Chapter 4). In such cases, the use of the n allows the speaker to appeal to the hearer, and in this way attain a more personal communicative exchange. Syntactically complete questions found in the present study are overwhelmingly accompanied by this explanatory n. Next, let us look at some examples from the data. In the next interview, the guest is a singer and an ex-member of Takarazuka, an all-female performing troupe. Before this turn, a photograph of the guest in full festival gear at the age of 7 had been shown. She was participating in a Japanese festival where people from a neighbourhood take part and portable shrines or mikoshi are carried around. The verb katsugu (to carry a shrine) is also used figuratively to mean participation in the festival rather than the

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actual carrying as in this example. In line 1, we can observe the n added to the honorific verb in the past tense. By adding n, the host conveys an additional sense of interest in the exchange and, in doing so, invites the hearer to participate in a similar fashion. (6) (FF10) 1 H: → nansai gurai kara how old about from 2 G:

moo sore wa already that TOP

3

kanda bayashi Kanda melody

4

iu say

5

ano uhm

no NOM

moo already

desu COP

wa TOP

katsugeru carry-PRE

katsuiderashita n desu carry-HON-PAST COM COP

ka? Q

ano:: uhm (eh.) yes

moo:: already

umarete born

ka? Q moo already

tenteke tenteke te ONTM Qt

kiite hear

sodattemasu grow-up-PRE

kara (eh.) so yes

yooni like

narimashita. become-PAST

sugu. (eeh.) immediately

((continues)) ‘H: From about what age did you start participating (can you tell us)? G: Already, u:hm, perhaps the Kanda melody? (yes) the tune from the time when I was born? (yes) I grew up hearing it so (yes) uhm, I was ready to participate immediately ((continues))’ The same question could have been formulated using the canonical format: (6a) nansai how-old

gurai about

kara from

katsuiderasshaimashita ka? carry-HON-PAST Q

Both questions have the same propositional content; however, there is a pragmatic difference between them. While question (6a) asks of the guest simple facts, in this case her age when she started participating in the matsuri (festival), question (6), by contrast, includes the stance of the speaker without changing the content of the question. Note that the guest could have provided the approximate age when she started participating in the matsuri; however, she provides a lengthy answer with many details. She mentions that she had grown up listening to the Kandabayashi ‘Kanda-melody’ that is particular to that matsuri, and this turn continues for some time. Her answer is, as in the previous examples, a cooperative and elaborate one and it is difficult to say whether this is because the question was effective, or because the guest is aware of the interview context. The answer is more likely to be the result of a combination of both factors. Other examples of explanatory n questions can be found in all of the excerpts presented thus far, which demonstrates how widely they are used. The guests’ answers to these questions are usually long and elaborate and this demonstrates that asking Wh-Qs using the explanatory n in interviews is extremely productive. This aspect is

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supported by the fact that the overwhelming majority of Wh-Qs in this data had this structure. The use of dooiu ‘what kind’ in the Wh-question in (3), for example, gives ample freedom to the listener to elaborate in the answer. We can see that by using n, in their Wh-Qs, interviewers can increase listener involvement and cooperation when providing their answers. Why do interviewers use questions with this additional ndesu form? Besides showing interest in the guest’s talk and therefore building on the rapport between host and guest in the interaction, there are other reasons that might explain why this form is used so frequently. It is known that a question is a Face Threatening Act (FTA) because it carries a command function besides that of asking for information (Athanasiadou, 1991). In order to avoid this FTA, interviewers might try to mitigate the questions’ illocutionary force by using different types of mitigators or mollifiers such as the use of ndesu, the deshoo ending or the ne ending. Although it has been reported that Wh-Qs or Y/N-Qs are used with less frequency in Japanese political television discourse where tag-like phenomena questions are the most common (Yokota, 1994), the fact that the overwhelming majority of Wh-Qs in the present data are mitigated indicates that interviewers avoid using questions that have a strong illocutionary force. However, as these interviews are designed with the audience in mind, the interviewers must combine different types of questions to make the program not only entertaining but also informative. By showing the speaker’s curiosity and interest in the exchange, n appeals for the listener’s participation, and in the case of interviews this seems to lead guests to provide longer and more detailed answers. It has been reported that questions without n are rarely found in informal speech or between intimate friends where speakers constantly show their participation (Oshima, 2001).

Avoidance of imposition: Grammatically unfinished questions (UU-Qs) As observed in Table 3.1, one frequently used question type is the UU-Q. As mentioned earlier, there are two types of UU-Qs: elliptical-Qs and those that are syntactically almost complete. The elliptical-Qs are usually short and might comprise a single word with rising intonation. The other type is almost complete except for the verbal ending, or the copula and/or the question particle ka. These seem to be used as a strategy to soften the force of the question (L. Tanaka, 2006). The fact that turn-taking in Japanese very often occurs at points when grammatical completion is not present has been reported by many researchers (e.g. Hinds, 1984; Kindaichi, 1994; Mori, 1999; L. Tanaka, 2004, 2006). It is, therefore, not strange to find that quite frequently turn-taking occurs at turns identified as questions even though they are not syntactically complete. These questions also known as truncated questions (Hinds, 1984) are identified by their intonation or the use of a question word.

Elliptical-Qs First, we are going to look at elliptical questions. In (7) the guest is the founder of the landmine clearing NPO, presented in (3), and the topic is about the types of landmines found in different conflict areas. Here, the guest has brought along a real landmine that

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was found in Cambodia. In lines 1–2, the host says that the one they are looking at and handling now is one that poses no danger of explosion. The guest adds that it was found in Cambodia. The host seems surprised as he asks his question which contains the word kore ‘this’ plus the subject particle ‘ga’ and is accompanied with rising intonation in line 5. The response of the guest is immediate and as in the previous examples there is no sign of any problems. (7) (YYMF2) 1 H: torinozoite remove-CONJ 2 3

bakuhatsu no explosion of

shinpai nai worry be-NEG

wake COM

na n desu ga. kore ga jitsubutsu COP COM COP S this S real-thing na n (hai.) desu ne/ haa.. COP COM yes COP FP I see

4 G: jissai real

kanbojia ni umatteita mono Cambodia in bury-PAST thing

5 H: kore this

desu. COP

ga? S

6 G: hai. yes ‘H: G: H: G:

(This) has been deactivated, so there is no fear that it will explode, but it is the real (yes) thing, ne. I see This is the actual (landmine) that lay buried in Cambodia. This? Yes.’

Another elliptical-Q can be seen in Chapter 2 (example (23)) where the interviewee also works for an NGO and uses an unusual word for the topic they are discussing. In that example too the use of an elliptical question can be very useful. There might be many reasons as to why these elliptical-Qs occur in interviews. Clayman and Heritage (2002) report that interviewees expect to find questions in the interviewers’ turns in order to take the floor, therefore whenever there is a sign of interrogativity, interviewees can predict that a question is going to be asked. In many situations, economy might be the answer. A short question that does function in a similar way to a syntactically formed one would be preferred if it works in exactly the same way. In particular, because the hosts must make sure that the audience understands what is being discussed. After all, interviews are exchanges where the host asks questions of interviewees on behalf of an audience and it is part of their interviewing techniques to make sure everything is clear and understood.

Turn-taking pre-allocation: The use of UU-Qs Due to the turn-taking rules in an interview, we can assume that these incomplete questions are not difficult to interpret. To illustrate, let’s see the following extract from

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the interview with the writer Ryuu Murakami where the host asks him how he felt about the sales of his latest book. Before line 1, they were talking about Japanese school education in the early and mid-nineties when the debate was on whether pupils should aim for academic excellence or have a more relaxed experience in schooling. The writer had written a book for children and adolescents about the different jobs available in the world which became a best-seller. The question (lines 1–2) can be interpreted as such because of the question word in line 3 doo ‘how’. It is followed by the verb uketomeru ‘to receive, to come to grips with’ and it is not followed by any ending but a pause. This pause is interpreted by the guest as a turn-taking cue and a slight overlap with the host’s turn ensues as the guest answers regarding his expectations about the publication of his book; the overlapping section is probably the host’s attempt to finish the question. (8) (Murakami) 1 H: soo iu that say

naka in

de kono in this

2

hachijuuman eight-hundred thousand

3

ure . . . teiru sell..PRE

4 G: [iya no

boku I

to. Qt

bu copies

ga S

(hai) yes

kore: wa doo this TOP how

wa] ano: TOP well

(eh) ichinen yeah one-year

n de COM and

6

uretekurenaito (@@) motogatorenaina: sell-receive-COND @@ invest-POT-NEG

7

omottemashita. think-PAST

G:

ha. eigh deshita COP-PAST

ka Q

uketome . . . [(XXX)] receive . . .

5

‘H:

(eh) yeah

hon book

juuman one hundred thousand

ijoo kakatta more take-PAST bu copies

(XX) xx

to Qt

In the middle of this debate, your book sold more than eight hundred thousand copies (yes), this, uh how did you receive (feel?) . . . xxxx [no, I ] uhm (yeah) because it took me more than a year to write it, I thought that I could not recoup (@@) if it did not sell more than one hundred thousand copies’.

Example (8) might not appear be the best one to present because we do not know what is being said in the overlapping section. However, the pause indicates that the host initially intended it to be a TRP. A great majority of turns in interviews are unfinished and there seems to be a politeness strategy at work. Because asking a question creates an imposition, if the question is not completed, that incompleteness works as a mollifier (L. Tanaka, 2006) and the force of the question is lessened. Let us look at another example. In the next extract, the interviewee is a writer who had many unsuccessful years before her works became accepted in the literary world. Here she has just said

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that because she did not have anyone to help her she took much longer to learn how to write fiction; something that she did not know then. The interviewer says that this is how she sees it now, and it is obvious that she wants to ask her guest about how she felt or thought back then. Her question (line 2) is a noun phrase accompanied by rising intonation that is enough for the interviewee to give an answer in line 3. Note that it would have been rather cumbersome for the interviewer to repeat the whole statement and turn it into a question. Using only a noun phrase and a particle with rising intonation the interviewer’s question is shortened and yet it functions perfectly well. Therefore, these unfinished questions are very useful in interactions where time is an issue as it is in television interviews and other institutional interactions. (9) (FF2) 1 H: ha: uh2

sono that

3 G: eh yes 4

ima now tooji then tooji then

jibun oneself

to Qt

to in

natte wa become TOP

(hai.hai.hai) demo yes but

wa? TOP wa TOP iu say

ne. FP

wakarimasen understand-NEG

mono COM

kara ne therefore FP

ga miemasen node ne. S see-NEG because FP

‘H: I see. Now (you can see it) (yes.yes.yes) but at that time? G: Yes. At that time, ne. Because I did not know, you see. Because you cannot see yourself, can you?’ The fact that turn-taking occurs at points where rising intonation indicates interrogativity is also commonly found in talk between friends (see Chapter 5), and it is not a characteristic particular to interviews. It is a very efficient way to ask a question without having to formulate a whole grammatically complete structure in most cases. It appears that rising intonation is sufficient to indicate interrogativity. However, this does not always occur as we can see in example (10). In (10) we have an instance of the interviewer using a Wh- word doo iu ‘what kind’ with rising intonation (line 3). The interviewer gives a preface (Clayman and Heritage, 2002); we learn that the diary of Prince Takamatsu1 has been discovered and that he is surprised about its existence. Despite the intonation, turn-taking does not take place because at this stage it is very difficult to predict what course the utterance will take as there is not enough information. It is only after the key word deai ‘encounter’ (line 4) is provided that it is possible to foretell the content of the question. Thus, we can see that turn-taking occurs at the point right after the particle ni because of the probable projectability of the question that could have ended in any form with the verb naru ‘to become’. (10) MM3. 1 H: ano TakamatsunoMiya uhm Prince-Takamatsu

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Taka nikki to Taka diary Qt

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iu no say of

ga: S

a: uhm

atta to be-PAST Qt

3

o, DO

4

san wa dooiu? deai T TOP what-kind encounter

5

kore to kakawaru koto ni this with relate COM in

6 G:

iya no

jibun wa bikkuri oneself TOP surprise

watakushi wa I TOP

ne. FP

desu COP

iu say

kedomo. sono, Agawa but that Agawa

kanari quite

(eh.) yes

koto COM

o nasarete DO be-HON

((continues))

‘H: Uhm. I am quite surprised that a diary of Prince Takamatsu was found, but you, Mr Agawa, You have surely had many encounters regarding this G: No, I ne (yes). ((continues))’ The example above is very similar to example (3) where there are a number of TRPs that are not taken by the listener. In (10), there is a potential TRP right after the rising intonation after the Wh-word. However, there is not enough information for the guest to be able to understand the meaning of the question. It is only after the word kakawaru ‘to relate’ that the question becomes clear and the host does not need to finish his question as the guest immediately takes over and starts answering the question. Note that the interviewer’s turn finishes with a particle instead of the question particle ka and the rising intonation that a standard question would have. A similar example can be seen in the next extract (11), although it does not contain phonological interrogative countours. The writer Murakami Ryuu, author of a bestseller book for youth, talks about the problems in Japanese contemporary society for youngsters. In line 2, the interviewer says nani o kanjite ‘what did you think’ and there is a pause. One can expect that the Wh-word nani ‘what’, the verb kanjiru ‘feel/ think’ and the pause indicate that the interviewer expected his guest to take the floor. However, as this does not occur, he continues with the question sono yoo ni ‘in that way’ and it is only then that the question is understood by the guest even though it is not grammatically complete. Note that the fact that the question is unfinished does not hinder the interview process and the guest contributes to the interaction successfully. (11) Murakami 1 H: ikkanshite. in-general 2

ne.. FP

me eye

3

ne.. FP

nawh-

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demo wakamono but youth o DO nani what

muketeikareru divert-POT o DO

ni . . . to

are DM

wake COM

kanjite . . . feel

sono that

desu yo COP FP

desu yo COP FP yoo ni way into

[koo.] DM

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Establishing Topics and Eliciting Talk 4

G: [ano ne.] DM FP

5

sono: that

6

shoojoo girl

7

sono that ‘H: G:

(eh) . . . byooki yes ill ga S

71

tatoeba for-example

ni tatoeru to into compare into

deru . . . de come and

byoo . . . ki o ill-ness DO

sono that

(eh) yes

shoojoo ga girl S

arawashi. show

koo. DM

(un) yeah

shitarishimasu do-like-PRE

yo FP

ne. FP

In general, though, towards youngsters, uhm, you see ne, you directed your attention, ne. wha what did you feel.. to uhm to You know, for example, uhm (yes) if you compare it to an illness (yes) uhm. When a girl comes along, that girl (yeah) that ill-ness, she shows like symptoms ne (yeah)’

UU-Qs can be easily understood when they contain all the necessary information and have rising intonation as seen in the next extract. Notice that in (10) and in (11) the crucial information is still missing even after the Wh-word is uttered. There needs to be some more information as the listener cannot be sure of the intended question. In (12), the guest is the wife of the late writer Yasushi Inoue. Here, she is talking about his work ethic and how he continued working even when he was hospitalized. In lines 1–2, she explains that he had placed a small Japanese desk in the corner of the room and used to work there. The interviewer then asks her question in line 3 that ends in the conjunctive form of the honorific verb ‘to do’, nasatte. This is accompanied by rising intonation after which the guest answers immediately and without any turn-taking problems in line 4. The question uttered by the interviewer in example (12) can be considered very polite and feminine (see e.g. L. Tanaka, 2004) and despite its syntactic incompleteness, the interaction does not show any problems. On the contrary, it appears as though the guest and the host are constructing a sentence together. By adding the word chanto, one could read the complete sentence as sutando koo oitarinasatte, chanto where the adverb is post-positioned. (12) (F1) 1 G: hai. yuka e suwatte.. (hoo) yes floor on sit-CONJ really 2

gurai about

3

shitemashita n do-PAST COM

4 T:

sutando koo: stand DM

5 G:

chanto hai. sore wa proper yes that TOP

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ichijoobun one-tatami-for

no tokoro tsukutte de sokode of place make and there

shigoto work

desu. COP

oitarinasatte#? place-HON-CONJ ano koo denki uhm DM light

ga S

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gozaimashita ((continues)) be-HON-PAST ‘G: Yes. He sat on the floor (really) He had a place of about one tatamimat and he worked there. T: Placing a lamp? G: He had it set up. Yes. There, uhm, there was a light ((continues))’

There were many other forms of UU-Qs and elliptical-Qs such as those with just a noun phrase or an adjective with rising intonation. However, an overwhelming majority of these incomplete questions were similar in construction to the example above. In many cases UU-Qs might be used as politeness strategies. As explained earlier, questions are very powerful tools of communication and as such their illocutionary force is very strong (Athanasiadou, 1991). One way that the softening of that force might be achieved is through the use of these truncated questions. By leaving a question unfinished, there is less imposition (relatively) on the listener, and in this way the perceived or real unequal relationship between host and guest is diminished. However, as we have seen in example (10), there has to be enough information so that a UU-Q can be interpreted correctly. So, it seems that it is the interviewers’ experience and skill that are crucial in elaborating good UU-Qs.

Eliciting more talk Ne-Qs In previous sections we saw the use of ne-Qs to establish topics. Naturally, ne-Qs have other functions as well and in the interview context they are used to elicit more talk. The role of the interviewer in interviews is not only that of ‘questioner’, but also to elicit talk from the interviewee. As stated before, one of the aspects of modern journalism is the important and basic task of preparing for the interview. Interviewers conduct thorough research on their interviewees, not only about their work, contribution to society and their background but also interesting anecdotes. Recall Kamio’s (1994) suggestion that in order for participants to use ne-Qs, there should be some amount of shared information. The fact that the interviewers conduct research about interviewees fulfils that requisite. When ne-Qs are used, the response of interviewees is usually immediate and without any interactional problems. In the following example, the interviewee is a very famous rakugo2 actor who was about 80 years old at the time of this interview. He had performed for more than 30 years and the interviewer asks him why he has continued for such a long time. The use of ne-Q shows interest in and understanding of the interviewee’s experience, and the tag-question function of the ne-Q is very effective in generating more talk. (13) (MM.3) 1 H: → yappari after-all

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toozen desu naturally COP

kedo, osukina n but like COM

desu yo COP FP

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Establishing Topics and Eliciting Talk 2

ne? FP

3 G:

soo yes

4

shoobai dakara ne. business because FP ‘H: G:

desu COP

kore minna that all

ne FP

suki like

73

de natta COP become

Of course, naturally, it is something that you really like doing, isn’t, it? Yes, it is. You see, all rakugo performers, do this job perfomers because they have like it.’

The interviewee responds immediately and affirmatively as seen in line 2. He starts his answer with the expression soo desu ‘you are right’ and continues to talk. The ne-Qs seem to have less of an imposition as a standard question and this might be one of the reasons why they are used so often. The occurrence of ne does not automatically lead to turn-taking, and not every structure with an additional ne can be considered a tag-question. Consider the following example where turn-taking does not occur after the particle ne in lines 1, 3 and 4 after sugoi desu, soo desu and tte iu no ga ne. This exchange is between the host and her guest who is an animal photographer. Here they are talking about his encounter with a flying squirrel. The first use of ne follows the copula and it is pronounced with rising intonation and then it is used again in line 3. The third instance of ne is accompanied by rising intonation; however, even though the listener sends a backchannel, it is not interpreted as a ne-Q because of the semantic content (it is not clear what is attractive). (14) (FM.3) 1 H: →

sugoi great

desu COP

2

deshoo COP

3 G:

soo yes

4

nai be-NEG

5

(e) yes

ne. FP

demo but

yappari after-all

sugoku greatly

hikareta attracted

n COM

ne? FP desu COP

aru be

ne. FP

(un) yes

miryoku tte attraction Qt yoona seems

hoka other

no of

iu say

no COM

kigasuru think

doobutsu animals

ni to

ga ne/ S FP

n desu ne. COM COP FP

‘H: It’s amazing ne. You are clearly really attracted to this animal, ne? G: Yes, I am. (un) I feel, ne (yes) that it has something that other animals do not have, ne.’

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In line 1, ne follows the adjective sugoi and the copula desu, indicating the host’s admiration, however, the particle is definitely not working as a tag-question. It is only after the second structure that the interviewee recognizes ne as a question. Similarly, in the interviewee’s turn there are three ne but they do not function as tag-questions. This example shows that not all ne instances function as tag-questions and that grammatical structure as well as semantic content are critical. The next extract is an interesting example of the addition of ne to a ka question. This interview features a lawyer who works with youngsters with family problems. Notice that the host is rather unsure of what type of question to ask (note the use of fillers). (15) (MF.3) 1 H: → sukkari totally

shinjikitteshimatte believe-completely

2

ko wa child TOP

3

hikaretaattracted

4 G:

hai yes

5

wa TOP

6 H:

ii good

naze? sono why that

(soodesu) yes

otokonohito (hai) man yes

n COM

desu COP

ka ne? Q FP

ko child

mo also

sugoku ne? really FP

sono that

ii good

ko child

ano: uhm

na TOP

n COM

sono: well ni to

(un) ie de yes house in desu ne? COP FP

ko. child

‘H: He/she completely believed (yes). Uhm, well, that child, why? Why was that child attracted to that man, ne? G: Yes, that child ne (un) is a good kid at home, ne? H: Good kid.’ Prior to this line, the guest was talking about a girl who was lured into delinquency by a man she met through the internet. The host here asks not only the guest, but himself as well. The addition of ne at the end of the question (lines 1–3) gives the feeling that the question is not directed at the guest, but rather it is a self-directed question, which can be an interview strategy. Nevertheless, a ne-Q does give a more inclusive feeling than a ka question. Other examples of the use of ne can be seen in the guest’s turn (lines 4 and 5) and as in the previous example, even though there is rising intonation in lines 4 and 5 after ne, it just gets the host’s backchannel and does not work as a question because of the semantic content and the lack of shared information and also partly because it is the guest’s turn. The engaging appeal of the ne-Q is seen in the interview with the actress from the Takarazuka all-female troupe. This dancing and singing school is famous for its

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traditional and strict system, under which entrance is extremely competitive. Their star performers are the object of admiration and aspiration; they have female fan clubs. The interviewer asks her guest to confirm the information that the names of the students are listed according to their grades regardless of how famous or popular they become. This aspect is probably something that the interviewer discovered prior to the interview or that she had known about having worked in the media for a long time. Note the guest’s backchannel in line 1 that demonstrates her involvement in the interview. Her answer after the host’s ne-Q is immediate, as seen in line 3, and she starts explaining that the list is based on their results, not only during their studies but also even after they graduate. The host’s choice to use a ne-Q is strategically very efficient as it shows that she possesses an insider’s knowledge of the Takarazuka school. This in turn creates an in-group feeling. (16) (F10) 1 H: donnani sutaa no-matter star

ni into de by

nattemo become

2→

desu) oseiseki COP marks

3 G:

soo desu. yes COP

4

gonensei gurai ((continues)) five-year about

ano: uhm

deru come kengo kengo

(soo yes

na COP

n COM

no ne? COMP FP gurai about

no. of

kenkyuuka year

‘H: It does not matter how famous you become (yes, that is right), you are listed according to your marks, right? G: Yes, that’s so. From about kengo, year five students ((continues)).’ Most of the occurrences of the SFP ne are accompanied by rising intonation showing the speaker’s appeal for the listener’s agreement and cooperation (Cook, 1990). In fact, all the examples so far are characterized by the final contour. However, the next example shows that rising intonation is not obligatory with a ne question. The following excerpt is from the interview with the professional photographer of animals presented in (14). Here they are talking about the flying-squirrel, which is a nocturnal mammal and glides from tree to tree. In line 1, the guest says that, as explained before, the animal flies. The ne with flat intonation and a very short pause is interpreted as a TRP by the host, as is seen in the short overlap (line 2). The host’s turn is an indirect request for a detailed explanation because of the unusual nature of the animal. Note that there is one verb in Japanese for both glide and fly, which is tobu. The first ne (line 3) does not follow a complete piece of information, so we can infer that the host uses ne in this case solely as a request for acknowledgement. The function of ne in this instance can be translated as ‘are you with me?’ or ‘are you listening?’ and is acknowledged by the guest’s backchannel. The second ne (line 4) follows propositional content that anticipates the agreement of the guest, even though there is no rising

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intonation. We can infer that, due to the finalized syntactic structure of the turn, the guest interprets it as a turn-yielding cue and starts his turn. (17) (FM.2) 1 G: de ko: and well 2

sakbefo-

yooni, tobimasu like fly-PRE

3H:

[sono] tobu that fly

4

(hai.) sugoi yes really

ano: uhm yo FP

tte Qt tobu fly

5 G: tobu n desu. fly COM COP

ne.. FP

iu say

saikoo wa: maximum TOP

7

momonga no flying-squirrel of

8

no wa, NOM TOP

9

mitemashite. (eh.) see-PAST-CONJ uh-huh

iimashita say-PAST

desu ne/ COP FP ne. FP

juusannenkande mita 13-years-during see-PAST hyakugojuumeetoru. 150-meters

kihontekini hikoo nooryoku tte basically flying capacity Qt

atashi wa/ ano, I TOP well

sentooki nami fighter-plane like

ga S

desu yo COP FP

atashi ga: I S

no ga NOM S

ni in

[anouhm

no NOM

n COM

6

10

saishoo beginning

naganen many-years

efujuugo no F-15 of

da to COP Qt

jetto jet

omottemasu think-PRE

((continues))

‘G: And, well, befo-, well as I said before, it glides, right? [Uhm] H: [That] they fly, (yes), they really fly at high speeds, don’t they? G: Yes, they fly. In all my 13 years observing them I can say that the maximum they can achieve is 150 meters and I can tell you that after observing them these many years (yes) I think that they have the capacity of fighter jets ((continues))’ As seen in the examples presented the use of ne-Qs shows that they are very versatile and useful interviewing tools. It appears that ne-Qs not only appeal to the listener by indexing common ground (Cook, 1990) but they also seem to implicitly exert control over the interaction as is also the case in political discourse (Yokota, 1994). In the interviews in this data, they actively seek the guests’ agreement and appeal for their cooperation.

Deshoo-Qs Another set of tag-like questions are those finishing with deshoo. As discussed in Chapter 1, they are considered light questions, and are used when speakers want to

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eliminate the element of doubt rather than to obtain new information (McClain, 1990; Moriyama, 1992; Nitta, 1999). In the context of the television interviews, it appears that all these features are present when deshoo questions are used. They are different to Wh-Qs that end in deshoo not only because of their structure, but also their pragmatic content. In (18), the interviewee is the rakugo actor presented in example (13). In lines 1–2, the interviewer asks for confirmation with the use of deshoo. The fact that the interviewer assumes that the interviewee has many disciples is based on knowledge that is common within Japanese culture and society. In Japanese traditional arts, it is customary for the ‘master’ to take students into his/her tutelage. These students not only learn the techniques and secrets of the art, but they stay in this teacher–student relationship regardless of their success or independence as artists. In this exchange, the answer is given immediately after the question and it shows agreement. Given, however, that the guest does not give more information in relation to the exact number of disciples deshoo-Qs may not be that effective in the interview context. (18) (MM.3) 1 H: → kosan Kosan

san Title

xx xx

2

sootoo, quite

3 G:

imasu be-PRE

‘H:

Mr Kosan,xx uhm (yeah), I would think that you must have many disciples, is that right? Yes, I have many.’

G:

takusan may

ano (un) odeshisan tte uhm yeah disciples Qt irassharu be-HON

n COM

deshoo? COP-HORT

ne. FP

The example in (18) shows that not all deshoo-Qs are successful. The example above is basically a question asking for confirmation; however, other guests might have interpreted it as a request to elaborate more in detail. Why the host did not ask another type of question can perhaps be explained in terms of the ‘illocutionary’ force and the modality of the question type. Deshoo works more as a tag-question and, therefore, is not as forceful as a Wh-Q. Other times, the deshoo-Q can have a different function that might be more successful in eliciting talk as seen in the following example. The guest here talks about a questionnaire she had conducted in order to find out what people with disabilities wanted in respect to work and jobs. She reports that the results were very surprising, using the word bikkurishimashita in line 2. A few lines later the host’s turn repeats the word followed by deshoo (line 11). This deshoo-Q is clearly not designed to ask for information but rather to show empathy and interest in the topic. (19) (YuuyuuMF.1) 1 G: konpyuutaa computer

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o DO

benkyoo shitai study want

to Qt

iu, say

henji ga answer S

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kaettekita n desu return-PAST COM COP

yo. FP

(hooo) bikkuri really surprise

3

desu COP

ne FP

kikai] machine

yo FP

4 H: [iyokuteki motivated

ne. FP

desu ne?] COP FP

5 G: soo that

desu. COP

6

(e.) yes

ga S

7

(@@) ima now

8

ano well

kikai machine

9

soo that

iu say

10

ga S

11

ga S

ne FP

[watashi I

atashi jishin I myself

mo soo too that ga S

kazoku family (e.) yes

no of

ne/ FP

da COP

na COP

nigate poor

kono this

n COM

konpyuutaa computer

tte COP desu COP

iu say

kedo, but

nimokakawarazu despite

kai group doogu tool

o DO de by

ka or

(ho) really

uketeru receive

katatachi persons

jibuntachi themselves

benkyoo shitai. study-want

shita [deshoo.] be-PAST COP

13 G: [sugoi] bikkuri really surprise 14

wa TOP

zenzen @dame at-all bad

shigotoshitai. work-want

12 H: bikkuri surprise

shimashita be-PAST

shimashita be-PAST

ne. demo sugoi koto FP but big thing

desu.. .((continues)) COP ‘G: They answered that they wanted to learn to use computers. (Really) I was surprised, you see. [With machines] H: [They are motivated] G: Yes, that is right. I myself, you know, I am not good @@ with computers (yes), @@ even now, but despite being poor at handling machines (really) the families of the people who want to work, want to study H: You must have been surprised, [right?] G: [Very] surprised, you see. But it is a great thing ((continues))’.

Had the interviewer used the expression bikkuri shimashita ka ‘were you surprised?’ the question would have been out of place as the guest had indicated already in line 2 that she was surprised. It can, therefore, be argued that the deshoo-Q in this type of circumstance has a different function to those that have been put forward thus far by

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others. It seems that deshoo also acts as a continuer and as a rapport building strategy and is more successful in producing additional talk. In conclusion, we have seen how tag-like questions are used in television interviews and it can be argued that deshoo-Qs and ne-Qs function as mollifiers that diminish the force of the question because they exert less imposition on the listener. Interviewers are able to elicit the information they are seeking without sounding aggressive or forceful; therefore, these question forms are excellent tools for conducting an interview.

Unsuccessful questioning Negative-Qs Despite the fact that many studies of ‘institutional’ interactions report on the effective use of negative-Qs (Gnisci and Pontecorvo, 2004; Koshik, 2005) the results in this study show that in the selected data, this type of question was used sparingly. Before delving into the reasons why they were conspicuously absent, first, let us revise the descriptions of negative-Qs. Negative-Qs are known to be conducive and, as with Y/N-Qs, they can challenge the listener (Clayman and Heritage, 2002; Heritage, 2002; Koshik, 2005). When interviewers ask negative-Qs they are answered with an affirmative assertion because they are interpreted as a challenge (Heritage, 2002; Koshik, 2005). In many of the negative-Qs, criticism can be embedded and a particular answer from the listener is expected. This is also the case in Japanese (Adachi, 1999; Nitta, 1999); however, some negative-Qs are different in type such as invitations or questions ending in janaika. Let us look at both types of negative-Qs that were found in the data. In (20) the interviewee is a famous writer who had a long unsuccessful period after receiving a literary prize. In line 1, the host asks her if she had a novel published right after the prize was awarded to her as is customarily the case. We can see that the interviewer knew about that first publication in the deshoo-Q in lines 1–2, which is immediately followed by an alternative negative form. However, the writer answers saying that that did not happen. At that point, the host uses a negative-Q, showing her surprise. This also serves to highlight that the guest’s answer is wrong thus causing loss of face. We gain a sense of the guest’s obvious discomfort as a result of the repeated use of the filler ano in lines 5–7 and from the fact that she addresses the host by family name, which is rarely done in the context of the Japanese television interview. (20) (FF2) 1H:→

[jushoo daiissaku prize first-work

2→

n COM

3 G:→

ah. oh

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tte Qt

deshoo? COP-HORT sore that

wa TOP

iu say

nai be-NEG

no NOM n COM

ga S

aru be

desu COP

ka? Q

arimasen. be-NEG

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Japanese Questions 4 H: →

nai n be-NEG COM

5 G:

ah. ano- hitotsu oh. well one

6

sore wa that TOP

ano.. uhm

7

iu koto say NOM

iu say

8

kedomo. (eh.) but yes

9

sore wa that TOP

10

Yamane Yamane

san, T

desu COP

ka? Q

dake only

(ah) oh

tooji then no COM

no of wa TOP

hitotsu gurai one only

ano: well

kakaseteitadaite write-PASS-CAUS

shousetsu novel

tte Qt

[xxxxx] [(eh.)] yes kaitatte . . . write-even

(eh.) yes

(@@@) kaitatte @@@@@ write-even

‘H: You had a first published work after your received the prize, deshoo? Didn’t you? G: No, there wasn’t (anything like) that H: Wasn’t there? G: Oh, well, only one (oh) well, I wrote one novel, that uhm, at that time it was [xxx] [(yeah)]but, (yes) even if you were to write one novel.. (yes) Miss Yamane (@@@ even if you wrote @@’ Another example of interactional ‘trouble’ occurs in the following excerpt from the same interview. There are a number of places for potential TRPs (indicated by the ↑ arrow) which are all ignored by the guest. The host starts her turn with the word demo sorenishitemo ‘even admitting that, nevertheless, even though’, which is followed by a filler maa and the clause juurokunenkan ‘for 16 years’. The guest sends her backchannel but does not take the floor, despite the host’s pause in line 2. Another missed TRP can be seen after the pronoun darenimo ‘to anyone’, which projects that a question might follow. In similar cases where a question word is uttered, guests invariably take their turn even if the host’s turn is not syntactically finished. The fact that the question word darenimo requires the verb in the negative form provides enough information about the intended question but the guest opts not to answer it. After the pause, the host changes it into an affirmative question misete wa irasshitan desu ka ‘were you showing it (to someone)’. Again, this is a conducive question where the host expects the guest to name a person who had read her manuscripts; however, we see the opposite result. The guest says that she did not show her work to anyone (for criticism). (21) FF.2 1 H:→

demo. but

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sorenishitemo however

(hai.) yes

ma:↑ juurokunen well 16-years

kan during

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Establishing Topics and Eliciting Talk 2→

(hai.) . . . ↑shinjinshoo morau yes Shinjin-Prize receive

3→

darenimo..↑ to-no-one

4

ka? Q

5 G:

iya no

6 H:

misenaide. Show-NEG

7

desu COP

misete wa show TOP

daremo no-one

miseru show (hai.) . . . yes

made until

81

kotsukotsu kotsukotsu, ONMT ONMT

irashita be-HON-PAST

hito person naze why

n desu COM COP

imasen. be-NEG sonnani so-much

kaketa n write-PAST COM

ka?(@@) Q

‘H: But, however (yes), well, during the 16 years (yes) leading up to when you received the Shinjin Prize, (you worked continuously) without showing it to anyone? G: No, there wasn’t anyone I could show it to (my writing). H: Without showing to anyone (yes). . . . Why/How is it(?) is it that you could write so much? (@@)’ We see that the guest’s answer (line 5) is a short turn that sounds rather abrupt. The guest does not use mollifiers which usually accompany dispreferred answers. In line 6, the host echoes her guest’s word, misenaide ‘without showing’, which functions as a confirmation of the previous statement. This is acknowledged by the guest, who gives a backchannel or aizuchi that also appears in turn-initial position. However, it is followed by a pause, which indicates that neither participant is willing to take the floor. It is only after the host’s canonical question in lines 6–7 that the guest takes the floor. As observed through these examples, the typical negative-Qs are not very successful in this type of interview unless they have a prefatory statement. Another type of negative-Q, janaika, is different to the conducive types but they occurred very rarely in interview.

Y/N-Qs A successful interview can be assessed by the amount of talk that the interviewer elicits and there is nothing more uncomfortable than watching an exchange where the guest does not cooperate. Many factors can cause this to occur including poor question such as in the use of negative-Qs and some Y/N-Qs. As stated earlier, one of the interviewers’ tasks is to conduct a thorough preparation that involves researching about the interviewees’ achievements, bibliographical details and interesting anecdotes. Therefore, many of the questions in television interviews are used to confirm what the interviewer knows already, but the audience does not. It is in these cases that Wh-Qs or Y/N-Qs are used.

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Although not as coercive as negative-Qs, Y/N-Qs are also known to be conducive (Bull, 1994; Gnisci and Bonaiuto, 2003) because they limit the response, and can be used as an advantage or to create a dispute (Yokota, 1994). The constraining nature of the Y/N-Qs is observed when they are used without any pragmatic elements; the exchange between interviewer and interviewee becomes problematic from the point of view of journalistic interviewing, and as a technique they have to be used strategically. In interviews when politicians are quizzed about controversial issues, for instance, these types of questions prove to be extremely useful (Clayman and Heritage, 2002; Heritage, 2002; Heritage and Roth, 1995). However, in cultural interviews the situation is quite different as the purpose of the exchange is to learn about the interviewee’s work or life and not to discuss controversial topics of politics or policy. The constraining nature of Y/N-Qs can be observed in the following extract, the guest is the photographer from example (14). The host asks whether he sees any difference in photographing children and animals. The host uses the Y/N-Q form although it is not accompanied by the question particle ka, and it is only the rising intonation that transforms it into a question as seen in lines 1–2. The guest’s answer is immediate but short. The guest answers with the same word and does not attempt to continue so the host is forced to repeat the same question in line 4. However, the guest gives the same response this time with the final particle yo which adds emphasis and forcefulness to the utterance. It is only after the next turn (line 6) when the host starts her turn with the question word dooiu ‘what kind’ that finally the guest decides to answer. It is, however, not a straight answer. He breaks one of the rules of interviews by addressing her and saying that she must be an exception to the rule in relation to how humans behave. The interviewee’s comment can be taken as a compliment or a rather sarcastic remark to which the host reacts immediately with a negation followed by laughter. (22) (FM.2) 1 H:. doobutsu animal

tachi o PL DO

2

tte Qt

3 G:

arimasu be-PRE

4 H:

arimasu? be-PRE

5 G:

arimasu be-PRE

6 H:

do::iu.. what-kind

7 G:

datte ningen well people

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toru toki take-PRE when

no of

sa difference

arimasu? be ne. FP

yo. FP

tte Qt

iu say

no NOM

wa ne/ TOP FP

(eh.) yes

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Establishing Topics and Eliciting Talk 8

Nakahara Nakahara

9 H:

iya no

onnashi deshoo kitto same COP definitely

‘H: G: H: G: H: G:

Is there a difference when taking photos of animals? There is. Is there? There is, I’m telling you. What kind..? Well, all human beings, you know? (yeah) You might be different though. No, I would be the same, surely @@@’

H:

san T

ga S

chigau different

deshoo COP

83

kedomo. but

@@@

The next example is very similar in nature to (22). This is a continuation of the interview above, and here they are talking about the flying-squirrel. The guest had narrated his first encounter with this animal to which the interviewer asks a Y/N-Q wakarimashita ka ‘Did you know/ recognize’ (that it was the flying-squirrel). The interviewer receives a simple affirmative answer but nothing else. It is only after the host’s ah which works very similarly to the English oh, a news recipient, that the guest provides more information. Although these turn-taking problems might be common in everyday talk, they stand out in a televised interview. Here, the fact that the guest does not contribute further to the talk shows that the interviewee did not use very strategic questioning; the guest does volunteer to talk later however. (23) 1 H: wakarimashita understand-PAST

ka? Q

2 G: eh. yes 3 H: ah. oh 4 G: sorede then 5

(eh.) yes

e: uhm

me eye

ga atta S be-PAST

suujuubyoo ((continues)) several-seconds ‘H: G: H: G:

Did you know (recognize it)? Yes. Oh. Then (yes) uhm a few seconds after we had eye contact ((continues)).’

Even with experienced interviewers Y/N-Qs seem to elicit limited information. The following extract is from the interview series Tetsuko no Heya, a program that has

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been on the air for more than 25 years. It is broadcast daily and has featured the same interviewer for all these years. The interviewee in (24) is the widow of a famous Japanese writer (from example (12)). Earlier in the interview, we learn that he was a very strong black belt judoka, a fact unknown to the interviewer and to the audience. The interviewer shows her admiration and asks the guest whether there had been occasions at home when he showed his physical strength. Note that despite a number of sentences, the interviewee refrains from taking the floor, and thus shows her acknowledgement that in the context of an interview, one can initiate a turn only after the question has been produced. We can see in the interviewee’s answer that although the question does not end in the canonical question particle ka, strictly speaking, it is a declarative with rising intonation. (24) (F.1) 1 T: SONNa that

datta n b-PAST COM

2

mata DM

nihon ichi Japan one

3

iu say

4

nanika anything

5

chikara force

6

arimashita? be-PAST

7 G:

iie no

no of

mo too

no of

desu COP

ouchi no house of

betsuni nothing

ka? Q

sakka ni writer to

sugoi great

ga tsuyoi S strong

desu COP

nee? FP

nakade inside naa FP

sooiu that-type

toka like

koto COM

(hai.) yes

sooiu kata ga that person S

onarininaru to become-HON Qt (@) ja then

kono this

hito wa person TOP

omoinaru think-HON

koto COM

kanjimasendeshita (@) feel-NEG-PAST

hai. yes

‘H: Was he that strong? (yes) Well, it is incredible that he also became the number one writer in Japan, ne? (@@) Then, were there any occasions at home when you thought that your husband was someone really strong? G: No. I did not think so (@). hai.’ Note that although the guest’s answer is longer that in the preceding example, nevertheless the content of her answer does not reveal more than would have been the case with a negative answer. She finishes her turn with the word hai ‘yes’ indicating that she has finished talking and is ready to relinquish the floor.

Prefaced questions: Y/N-Qs Naturally, not every Y/N-Q is unsuccessful in the interview context. The fact that almost a fifth of all questions fall into this category indicates that they are effective

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interviewing strategies. There are many counterexamples but they do appear to have a more complex structure. In television interviews, it is very common for interviewers’ turns or questions to be accompanied by what Clayman and Heritage (2002) have termed ‘prefatory’ statements. These statements give the background information about the topic enabling the guest to give a longer response to the questions, even though they are Y/N-Qs as in the next example (25) with the writer Murakami Ryuu. Here the interviewer and the interviewee are talking about one of his extremely popular books that sold extremely well. Written for youngsters who are thinking of choosing a career, it explains an enormous variety of jobs which are categorized according to interests such as the sciences or literature, and so on. In lines 1–6, the writer’s turn goes on for six full lines before he finishes his turn with a Y/N-Q. This prefatory section gives the background to the question and informs the audience who might not have read the book. The interviewer’s question soo iu koto desu ka can be translated as ‘is that so’. The guest who, of course, could have chosen to give a short answer gives, as we can see, a very long and detailed response. (25) (Murakami) 1 H: kono . . . hon this book

no of

2

ne? FP

yononaka world

3

futatsu two

4

n da to. COM COP Qt

5

shiteru do-PRE

ningen people

6

e: . . . ↑ uhm

sono those

7

kaitearu. ↑ write

8

n desu ka? COM COP Q

no of

tokoro place

no wa COM TOP

ookiku greatly

tte Qt

taipu type

so. that

saishoo no beginning of

no of

ningen people

shika only

nanika sukina something like to and

@@

futatsu two soo that

dake only iu say

9 G: soo desu dakara. yoku: . . . yes COP therefore often

wakete divide

(hai) inai yes be-NEG

koto thing

o DO

soo janai that be-NEG

ningen people

da tte COP Qt

iu fuuni say like

koto thing

(eh) yes

ningen. otona people adults to yes

na COP

tte no Qt of

wa: . . . TOP

11

toka like

atamagaii intelligent

hito to people and

BAKAna hito stupid people

12

toka (@ @) soo yatte like that do

waketagaru divide-want

n COM

koo DM

okanemochi rich and

to.↑ and

10

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tatoeba for-example

ni in

(eh) binboonin yes poor

desu COP

yo FP

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ne/ Fp

(eh) demo boku wa yes but I TOP

14

ano: uhm

15

shiawasesooni happiina jinsei o looking-happy happy life DO

16

da COP

okane money

na FP

ga S

zenzen at-all

soo that

janakute . . . COP-NEG

NAKUtemo (un). be-NEG uhm

hontooni really

okutte isoo live be-looks

tte ((continues)) Qt

‘H: In the first part of this book, you see? (You write) that in this world there are basically two types of people (yes). You argue that there are people who are doing something they like doing @@, and others who are not. Uhm, that’s (uhm) really so? G: Yes. That’s why people, adults, like to make distinctions – for example, like rich and poor people, or intelligent and stupid people (@@). They like to make those distinctions, you see? (yes). But I am not like that. I think that there are people who have no money but look really happy ((continues)).’ From these two examples, it appears that for Y/N-Qs to be successful as eliciting strategies they need to be prefaced, and this is an important aspect of modern-day interviewing.

Audience-inclusive questioning: koto-Qs and wake-Qs Koto and wake are nominalizers that sometimes accompany questions. They have been described as functioning to indicate the speakers’ conviction of the veracity of the information (S. Suzuki, 2000) or ‘frame’ the information (S. Maynard, 1997). They are strategically used because of their pragmatic meaning. (For a more detailed discussion of nominalizers see Chapter 4.) Some of these questions were accompanied by the ne particle which softens the question. One of the roles of the interviewer is to facilitate the audience’s understanding of the topic through the use of formulations that summarize the interviewee’s story or narration. In interviews and other ‘institutional’ settings this is achieved with the use of questions ending in the nominalizers wake or koto + copula and the particle ne. Extract (26) shows such an example where the host gives a short summary of the topics that were developed by the guest. Prior to this turn, the guest was talking about some delinquent youngsters who are just trying to find where they belong. The use of koto nominalizes the whole sentence and the use of ne invites the guest to agree or to continue talking. (26) (MF3) 1 H: ibashoo o kure tte place-to-be give-IMP Qt

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(hai) tte yes Qt

iu say

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ibashoo place-to-be

3

koto COM

4

iu koto desu ne? say COM COP FP

87

ga hoshii (soodesu) to iu S want yes Qt say

no uragaeshi (soodesu) datta tte of other-side yes be-PAST Qt

5 G: hai soo desu. sorede irezumi yes COP FP and tatoo

((continues))

‘H: You are saying that it was the flip side (yes) of them wanting (yes) a place (yes) where they can be, aren’t you? G: Yes, it is so. And the tattoo ((continues))’ Although these types of questions are not used as much as in radio phone-in programs, they function to encapsulate the information on behalf of the audience. It is known that interviewers use what are known as ‘formulations’ (Heritage, 1985) to provide a summary and it seems that wake and koto questions function in a similar way. They are used because of the third participant in the interaction; that is, the audience.

Conclusion We have seen in this chapter that most of the questions used are those that establish the topic and also confirm something known to both the interviewer and the interviewee. This is because the host conducts research about the guest to be interviewed and therefore the host already knows much about him/her. This aspect seems to determine the types and functions of questions used in television interviews, the most frequent being Wh-Qs and ne-Qs. While Wh-Qs have a degree of turn control, they are openended questions which give the interviewees the opportunity to talk about the topic at length and, thus, prove to be the best types of questions in this particular setting. What is more interesting is that a great majority of Wh-Qs are those that ask for the impressions, feelings of thoughts of the guests. In other words, they ask for information that is not available to others except the guest herself/himself. The high frequency of the ne-Qs, on the other hand, demonstrates that the speaker has the information about the listener and function as tag-questions. As mentioned before, the rules governing the television interview allow only the host to ask the questions, with the guest being able to ask only if in need of clarification. Interestingly, questions that are known to be restrictive like the Y/N-Qs and negative-Qs are mostly prefaced. In particular the Y/N-Qs are used quite often and they are clearly important tools in the interview. However, when used on their own, they do not elicit enough information and prove to be inefficient in the interview context, which is why most of them have prefatory elements. One of the interesting characteristics of Wh-Qs and Y/N-Qs found in the interviews is that most of these questions are produced with the explanatory n that is used when

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some common knowledge is shared by the speaker and listener. At the same time, the explanatory n functions as a mollifier and thus diminishes the force of the question while also indexing common ground between the speakers. UU-Qs are used often in interviews. Turn-taking at these points has been noticed previously (Hinds, 1984; Kindaichi, 1994; Mori, 1999; L. Tanaka, 2004, 2006) and in the case of interviews, these ‘truncated questions’ seem to be as efficient as any other interrogative structures. Their frequency can be explained in terms of the turntaking pre-allocation nature of interviews and as politeness strategies. There are two types: elliptical-Qs and those that are syntactically almost complete. They are not only efficient but fulfil the politeness function of being less imposing. Explanatory Wh-Qs, UU-Qs and ne-Qs, and those questions with the explanatory n seem to share the common feature of having an affective stance (which diminishes their illocutionary force); while the former two look for information, the latter seeks agreement. It might be due to this duality (they have an affective stance and they look for information or seek information) that they are very effective strategies for eliciting talk. Questions containing the nominalizers wake and koto are used by interviewers in ‘formulations’ (Heritage, 1985), and they are designed to summarize and convey the gist of the narrative or story for the benefit of the audience. All these findings point to the fact that the nature of these programs is quite different to news interviews where a more confrontational stance is expected. The programs in this data are cultural and, therefore, hosts do not need to quiz their guests, thus a more cooperative environment is prevalent. While some of the observations in this chapter coincide with those of Yokota (1994) on political interviews (on the overwhelming use of ne-Qs), this is not intended to suggest that these characteristics apply to all interactions in the media; however, it is an interesting aspect of the use of questions in the Japanese television interview discourse. In these types of interactions, interviewers are, in most cases, professional journalists or television hosts. Meanwhile, interviewees or guests are invited to the program because of their high standing in society as writers, actors, artists, or because of other accomplishments. It is therefore normative that the interviewer (host) knows about the interviewee (guest) and his/her work. The role of the host then is to ask questions in a way that the information can be shared and displayed with the audience in mind. At the same time, because of guests’ relatively high status the interviewers must maintain a cooperative and collaborative stance as these interviews emphasize the achievements of the guests, a feature not observed in news interviews. Therefore, the use of questions must be in line with the norms of politeness, and this is seen in the higher frequency of questions in the ndesu form as well as ne-Qs. Questions are central in television interviews and most interestingly most of them are mollified in order to diminish their illocutionary force. We can see, most importantly, that the interview setting, or the context, predetermines the actions of the participants whereby only interviewers have the right to ask questions and interviewees must provide an answer. At the same time, the interviewers’ questions contribute to the creation of the interview interaction.

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4

Information Collection and Footing: Questions in Radio Phone-in Programs

Introduction This chapter focuses on the types of questions used in Japanese radio phone-in programs where callers get advice from experts and counsellors. In terms of their ‘institutional’ nature, they are similar to the television interviews studied in Chapter 3 because of the interlocutors’ defined roles. The questioning is mostly accomplished by hosts or counsellors and although advisees can ask questions these are limited to the ‘trouble’ about which they are calling. Questions asked by hosts and counsellors are used to obtain information to diagnose the problem in a limited amount of time, but they are also used to facilitate counselling moves or ‘footing’. Therefore, the design of these questions, including the choice of which questions are asked and how they are formulated becomes critical. Moreover, advice seekers are known to be unable or unwilling to fully explain their problems because some might only be symptoms of something more complex (which advisees themselves may not be aware of) (De Capua and Dunham, 1993; Locher, 2006; Muntigl and Zabala, 2008). For this reason, hosts and counsellors use a variety of strategies to probe and elicit as much information as is needed for a correct diagnosis of the problem (De Capua and Dunham, 1993; Locher, 2006; Muntigl and Zabala, 2008; O’Keefe, 2005).

Counselling and questions Research on questions used in medical or therapeutic interactions has focused on the relationship between participants (Morris and Chenail, 1995; Tracy and Robles, 2009) or on the ways in which direct questions are avoided and replaced by other information-eliciting strategies in order to show discretion (Bergmann, 1992). This technique can be viewed as a very affiliative and caring strategy, but on the other hand, it can be seen as an ‘inbuilt hidden or veiled morality’ (Bergmann, 1992: 156). Vincent, La Forest and Bergeron (2007), for instance, looked at the types of questions that make respondents tell lies on issues that are associated with violations of social norms (such as taking drugs or having multiple sexual partners). They argue that respondents lie because they are afraid of a rebuke. The question type that therapists use and that seems

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Japanese Questions

to have the greatest potential to lead respondents to lie is the ‘have you done X’ type of question. Questions are also used in therapeutic interactions; however, the power difference between therapist and client is less defined (Chenail and Fortugno, 1995), and therapists might use questions to create an attitude of ‘not knowing’ (Anderson and Goolishian, 1992: 28) in order to give patients control of their situation. This seems to contradict the findings in this study as the questions in our data do not give the advisees the same chance that Anderson and Goolishian (1992) refer to. Naturally, the interactions might not be comparable as our data is gathered from programs intended for broadcast and whose goal includes an element of entertainment. Hutchby (1995) and Thornborrow (2001) have written on questions used in radio phone-in programs. Hutchby (1995) looked at how hosts participate to add more to the advice for the benefit of the audience via proxy questions, in order not to offend the expert. In his paper, the emphasis is on the way experts and hosts handle the interaction when there is a tension between the private (the caller) and the public (the audience). In Hutchby’s paper, in contrast to this study, it is the callers who ask the questions of the expert who answer with advice designed not only to provide counsel to the advisee but also to the general public. It has also been observed that hosts ask questions to ‘intervene’ in one way or another by using ‘non-naive’ or leading questions (Hutchby, 1995: 232). This is done when the expert wants to make an explicit reference to the advisee and through the host’s non-naive questions the expert’s advice is ‘generalized’ and therefore aimed at the audience. This aspect is also observed in our data where the host or the counsellor contributes to the interaction on behalf of the audience. On the other hand, Thornborrow’s (2001) study features callers who phone in to ask questions of politicians about policies related to issues such as youth, employment and training schemes. When callers phone, they normally produce a ‘framing’ utterance (Thornborrow, 2001: 126) before asking their question because of the change in interactional positioning: being brought on line and having to ask a question. Sometimes they use a filler or a buffer such as ‘yes, uh’ or ‘erm’. It seems that callers who do not use these ‘transitional’ devices tend to use more formally designed questions that resemble those of professional journalists. Hosts also ask follow-up questions that are normally direct and without any framing structures. Only one caller in that study attempted to ask a second question in contrast to the host who is able to ask questions at any point during the interview. Unfortunately, studies of Japanese counselling are very limited and the few there are do not focus on questions but analyse these exchanges using a variety of approaches that differ in focus from the present study. K. Suzuki (2002, 2003) using a discourse analytic approach looks at the way counselling progresses, and Hoshino (2006) explores the positive politeness strategies used by hosts in radio and television programs. The only studies that mentions the use of questions in radio phone-in programs (coincidentally the same program series used in this study) is Hoshino’s (2006) paper on the role of the host or ‘emcee’ and L. Tanaka’s (in press) paper on advice. Hoshino writes about the different stages of the program as it unfolds and those stages where question–answer sequences are prominent. She explains that these sequences of question–answer are interspersed with backchannels and that questions are used to diminish the burden on the caller by having these initial formulaic questions (Hoshino, 2006). However,

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the study does not analyse the types of questions used by the host in any depth, but emphasizes the different strategies used by the host to conduct the program. L.Tanaka (in press) writes that counsellor ask the advisees’ opinions in the process of giving advice and these questions are extremely useful in persuading the callers. As we can see, despite their common characteristics in terms of ‘institutional’ interactions, radio programs are quite different to counselling and medical encounters. Although the same shared ‘institutional’ features such as the status asymmetry and the goal-oriented nature are present, radio programs are public interactions whereas therapeutic or medical encounters are private. The radio programs have not only the goal of providing counselling to the caller (and indirectly to the overhearing audience), but also of providing a degree of entertainment. Most programs on the radio and TV are governed by audience ratings suggesting that a certain degree of sensationalism may be present, and might, therefore, have some affect on how the talk is controlled and produced.

The context The data used in this chapter is taken from 11 counselling radio phone-in programs, Jinsei soodan, that have some idiosyncratic characteristics. First, there are four participants: the host, the counsellor, the caller and the audience. All have a role in the interaction with varying degrees of participation. The audience has no active input; however, their presence (although not physical) is a very important factor in how the program is conducted (Bell, 1984; De Capua and Dunham, 1993; Hutchby, 1995). Second, callers are uninvited in the sense that they initiate the call to ask for advice. Callers are ordinary citizens as opposed to guests in television interviews who enjoy some degree of prominence. The host opens and closes the program and decides when the counsellor starts to participate actively in the exchange. The counsellor, on the other hand, is the expert whose knowledge gives him/her authority. The counsellor delivers advice not only to callers but also with the listening audience in mind (Hutchby, 1995). Despite the fact that callers in the data had diverse problems ranging from legal issues to family or relationship problems, the process for reaching a diagnosis is similar in most cases. Hosts and counsellors, in a practice shared with all other types of encounters where people go for professional help, use mainly questions to obtain essential information.

Questions in the radio programs There were 326 questions in the data on radio programs, and their distribution was very different to those found in television interviews (and talk between friends and unacquainted persons). These questions reflect that the program’s goal is to deliver proper advice. Questions are used not only to obtain all the information necessary for the expert to have a total grasp of the problem (Hoshino, 2006) but also to conduct the session (L.Tanaka, in press). Unlike television interviews where interviewers know

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Table 4. 1 Questions in radio phone-in programs (%) WH 15

Y/N 11

UU 12

~ne 24

Deshoo 7

tte 0.3

NEG 1

~no 11

COM 6

COM+ne 7

Not Q SFP For 1.8 0.9 2.7

UU (grammatically unfinished+elliptical Qs) COM (wake/koto) FP (final particles) Not Q (not a question), For (formulaic)

24

25 20 15

15

11

12

11

10 7

7

6

5

2.7 1

0.3

1.8

0.9

Q ot N

M O C

Fo r

e

O

+n

M

P C

SF

tte

EG N

oo

e

sh de

~n

o ~n

U U

N Y/

W

H

0

Figure 4.1 Questions in radio phone-in programs

about their interviewees, hosts in the radio programs have no information about their callers. Moreover, as stated earlier, hosts and counsellors need to do much probing in order to acquire enough information to understand the interviewee’s problem because very often callers are not aware of details that might be crucial to their case. Of all the 326 questions, only 11 per cent showed the standard grammatical structure. A breakdown of the data shows that the most frequently used are the confirmation seeking ne-Qs (24%). Wh-Qs, Y/N-Qs, UU-Qs, COM-Qs (wake-Qs and koto-Qs) and no-Qs are used with almost the same frequency (15%, 11%, 12% and 6%). There were 7 per cent of COM-Qs with the ne particle. Even compared to the other data in this study, the questions in radio phone-in programs are used differently. In particular, COM-Qs seem to be more frequent in radio probably due to the specific context of counselling. In the following sections I will discuss how these questions are used in the programs. The questions found in the analysis have been arranged according to their functions and how frequently they are used.

Essentials and routine: Wh-Qs, elliptical-Qs and Y/N-Qs One of the characteristics in this data is that the host starts the program with formulaic questions. These are used to obtain details about the caller’s age, marital status, family

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and professional background and are mostly Wh-Qs, elliptical-Qs and Y/N-Qs. This initial section of the program is characterized by a sequence of questions and answers that were the same throughout all the programs and included not only the caller’s details but those of his/her immediate family. Only after this section is completed does the host invite the callers to talk about their problem. The data is different to some other radio programs where callers are allocated a slot according to topic (Thornborrow, 2001) as the problems range from inheritance-related disputes to children’s behaviour to psychological issues. The first example shows the program’s start. It begins with the usual exchange of telephone greetings that resemble an ordinary telephone conversation (lines 1–4). The host takes the call and after the formal exchanges he asks the age of the caller, in the form of a request oshiete kudasai. The first question is a Y/N-Q in line 7 about the caller’s marital status kekkonsaretemasu ‘You are married’ in the honorific form that ends with rising intonation. Notice that interrogativity is realized only with the final intonation and not accompanied with the ka particle; however, despite its incomplete nature the caller does not have problems understanding the question. Information can be also obtained using a request like the one seen in line 5 where the host uses the verb kudasai that follows the verb oshiete which translates as ‘please tell me’. This is followed by a second question about his wife’s age (line 9) which is a Wh-Q that has the copula deshoo and ends without rising intonation. This construction has the function of softening the question and gives it an almost consultative stance. The third question, that asks for the children’s age, is an elliptical-Q that has one NP comprising okosan ‘your child/children’ plus the topic marker wa. Despite the lack of information in this question, the fact that it immediately follows the previous question ensures that the caller would have no problems in understanding what the elliptical-Q asks. Had this question followed another turn, hypothetically after the caller tells his age, the question would have been understood differently. The most probable interpretation would have been ‘do you have children or not’. It is only in line 14 that the host asks the caller why he has phoned. At this early stage in the program, the host tries to obtain necessary information and these three types of questions seem to be very efficient, in particular the elliptical-Qs as they can be short, yet convey the desired meaning. The caller’s turns (lines 6, 10 and 12) start with a ‘buffer’ or transitional devices which indicate a process through which a person changes footing or prepares him/herself to move from one position to another (Hutchby, 1995; Thornborrow, 2001). (1) (01–09-05) 1 H: (H) moshimoshi.? hello 2 Ca1:

moshimoshi: hello

3 H:

hai. terehon yes telephone

4 Ca:

yoroshikuonegai itashi [masu]. treat-me-well-HON

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jinsei life

soodan consultation

desu. COP

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Japanese Questions 5 H:

[hai.] saishooni yes first

6 Ca:

e: uhm

7 H:

yonjuuhassai. 48-year-old.

8 Ca:

hai. yes

9 H:

e:, uhm

okusan wife

10 Ca:

e:to, uhm

yonjuusansai desu. 43-year-old COP

11 H:

an. okosan yeah children

12 Ca:

e: uhm

13

otoko man

14 H:

hai. yes

15

soodan consultation ‘H: Ca: H: Ca: H: Ca: H: Ca: H: Ca: H: Ca: H:

nenrei, age

yonjuuhachisai 48-year-old

desu. COP

kekkonsaretemasu? marry-HON-PRE

nansai deshoo how-old COP-HORT

ka. Q

wa? TOP

juuhassai 18-year-old no of

oshietekudasai. tell-me-PRE

otoko, man

futari two-people

wakarimashita. understand-PAST desu COP

(hai) yes

juurokussai 16-year-old

desu. COP nde, donna so what-kind

ka? Q

Hello? Hello Yes. This is telephone counselling services. Please help [me.] I’d like some advice. [yes.] First, could you tell me your age? Uhm. 48. 48. Are you married? Yes. Uhm, how old is your wife? Uhm, forty three. Yep, any children? Uhm, Two boys, sixteen and (yes) eighteen. Ok. So, what kind of problem are you calling about?’

What is interesting in this short excerpt is that first, the questions are asked by only one party, and that the answers are rather short and there is no further development. In other words, the turns are short and the caller does not initiate a topic and the answers are limited to giving only the information asked for. Perhaps because of this rather dry and predictable turn-taking pattern the host uses different types of questions.

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The first one has only rising intonation, the second ends in deshooka, the third is an elliptical-Q and the last is a Wh-Q. These questions have a different format and if we include the request represent five different ways of asking for information. Why does the host avoid using questions with the same syntactic construction such as a Wh-Q or a Y/N-Q? Although it is known that repetitions are not as highly regarded as in some Western languages (Johnstone, 1987) interlocutors use exact repetitions very often in conversations and they do it for strategic purposes (Tannen, 1989). Although questions are not repetitions and we do not know much about the use of similar syntactic structures there might be similar reasons to avoid (consciously) exact repetitions. Perhaps, though, one of the most plausible explanations is that the host wants to avoid the impression of conducting an interrogation. The exchange in the early stage is sometimes cut short either because the host asks a different question or the caller starts explaining the problem. In the next example, the beginning follows the same routine sequence of a telephone exchange (lines 1–2), announcement of the program (line 3) and the host’s first question in request form. After her answer, the host asks a no-Q with a statement oto:san oka:san to isshoni kurashiteiru ‘(you) are living with your father and mother’ that is transformed into a question by the addition of no and rising intonation. As there is no need of constituents’ movement to make questions in Japanese, this method of transforming a statement into a question is very easy. What is interesting here is that as soon as the host learns the caller’s age he shifts to the informal style in line 6 where he asks him whether he still lives with his parents (for more details see the section on politeness and speech styles in this chapter). The style shift and the use of no project the host’s attitude to the caller. Short or plain style may indicate status difference or a closer relationship, but it is difficult to know the real motive of the host. The other point in his use of a no-Q in this context reflects a quasi-paternalistic stance (Cook, 1990). One of the reasons the host asks this question in line 6 might be because of inferences he has made after learning the caller’s age. At just 20 years old, one can assume that the caller is still single and either studying or working. This assumption can be made because of the trends in contemporary Japanese society where women are marrying later or not at all. Therefore, we can assume that the host’s choice of question was based on inferences he had made. (2) 1 H:

moshimoshi? hello

2 Ca:

moshimoshi. hello

3 H:

hai. terehon yes telephone

4

nenrei oshietekudasai. age tell-me-PRE hatachi . . . desu. twenty-years-old COP

5 Ca:

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jinsei soodan desu. life consultation COP

saishooni first

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Japanese Questions 6 H:

ima, now

7 Ca:

hai, yes

oto:san father soo that

oka:san mother

to with

isshooni together

kurashiteiru live-PRE

no? COM

desu. COP

‘H: Hello? Ca: Hello H: Yes. This is telephone counselling services. First, could you tell me your age? Ca: I am twenty years old. H: You are living with your father and mother? Ca: Yes, that’s right H: Ok. So, what kind of problem do you have?’ The immediate questions after the host announces the start of the program are described in Hoshino’s (2006) paper. This greeting exchange section is formulaic and although some programs vary in that the caller jumps straight to the point, the host invariably returns to the topic of the callers’ age and marital status (if the callers are not too young). It is interesting that the caller’s age in similar American or British programs does not get mentioned. In Japan the host needs to know the advisee’s age in order to gauge what style of language is appropriate. Similarly, the marital status (together with the number of children) is an important piece of information that invariably gets asked in these programs. However, as we can see in example (2), hosts can make general assumptions or inferences from a few details of the caller and the choice of question is probably gauged at this early stage of the program.

Deviating from the norm The normative exchange of greetings and question–answer sequence in the first part of the programs is sometimes altered when the host asks the caller about his/her problem straight away or if the caller starts talking about his/her problem. In line 3 of the following example, note that the first question is asked right after the initial greeting is exchanged. The host asks doo itta gosoodan deshoo ka ‘what are you calling about’ to which the caller starts explaining her problem. It is only after a number of lines (14 lines) that the host asks about the caller’s age in line 27 with an elliptical-Q although the topic is about the caller’s son’s girlfriend. It appears that the host realized he had not asked her age. He uses the second person pronoun anata and the question word ikutsu ‘how old’ with the honorific prefix –o and the particles are omitted; however, the question is understood without any problems. The marital status of the caller is asked immediately afterwards in line 29 with a question that exhibits a statement with final rising intonation. The host asks the caller whether she is married with the question in informal style goshuujin irassharu ‘do you have a husband’ which is not the standard question; however, it fulfils the same function. (3) 07–09-05 1 H: moshimoshi. hello

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terehon telephone

jinsei life

soodan counselling

desu. COP

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hai. yes

moshimoshi. hello

3 H:

hai. yes

(hai) yes

4

deshoo. COP-HORT

4 Ca:

ano. well

nijuugosai 25-years

5

na COP

n COM

6

to with

isshooni together

7

ne FP

suimasen. thank-you

kyoo today

no of desu COP

wa TOP

ne/ FP

97

onegaishimasu. please-look-after-me

dooitta what-type

(n:) n

kedo, (hai) but yes

kurashiteru live

n COM

gosoodan consultation

hitori one

musuko son

ano:, uhm

kanojo girl-friend

desu yo COP FP

(hai) yes

((14 lines omitted)) 21 H:

yonen four-years

kan during

22

ojoosan girl

no of

23

oikutsu how-old

gurai? about

24 Ca:

nijuuyonsai 24-years-old

desu. COP

25 H:

nijuuyonsai. 24-years-old

hitotsu one

hoo, that

dooseishiterassharu live-together-HON (e:) yes

aite partner

toshishita younger

26 Ca:

no of

[na COP [hai. yes

27 H:

anata oikutsu? you how-old

28 Ca:

rokujuu sixty

29 H:

rokujussai. (hai) sixty-years-old yes

30 Ca:

ano:, uhm

sono, that

o, um

kata person

wa TOP

no ne?] COM FP hai.] yes

desu. COP

sansai three-years-old

goshujin husband no of

toki, time

irassharu? have-HON-PLAIN rikonshimashita. divorce-PAST

‘H: Hello. This is telephone counselling services. Ca: Yes. Hello. Thank you. I hope that you will be able to help me? H: Yes. What are you calling about today?

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Japanese Questions Ca: Well, it is about my (n) 25-year-old only son, you see. Well, he is living together with his girl friend, you know ((14 lines omitted)) H: The girl, his partner (yes) with whom your son has lived for four years, how old is she? Ca: Twenty four years old. H: Twenty four. So she is one year younger, [isn’t she?] [(yes yes)].. how old are you? Ca: Sixty. H: Sixty years old. (yes) Have you got a husband? Ca: We divorced when (he) was three years old.’

There may be various reasons for why the host does not interrupt the caller when she starts talking about her problem. It is clear that the host can obtain most of the necessary information through the caller’s narrative such as her age and marital status. In fact, the caller initiates her turn in line 6 saying that the problem is about her only son who is 25 years old, therefore the host can initially guess the caller’s age without using an explicit question. It is only in line 26 that the host asks the caller’s age, after a slight pause, as though it is an afterthought. The next question about the marital status of the caller is also interesting as it does not follow the usual standard question which would be kekkon shiterasshaimasuka? ‘Are you married?’ The host asks the question by saying goshujin irassharu ‘Do you have a husband?’ which can be taken in two ways: as asking whether her husband is still alive (given the caller’s age) or, alternatively, asking whether she is still married. It might be a strategic question posed to avoid unnecessary explanations. In Japan divorce rates are not as high as in the West, and there is still some social stigma attached to them (Ono, 2005). As we can see from the guest’s answer, she says that she is a divorcee.

Elliptical-Qs Many of these formulaic questions in the initial section of the program are elliptical-Qs where the only interrogative feature is the rising intonation or the Wh-word. Note that in (1), the host asks about the caller’s children with the phrase okosan wa (line 11), and the caller provides the age of both of her children. In example (3), presented above, there are two such questions. In line 27, the host asks the caller’s age. He uses the second person pronoun anata to make the question clear as in Japanese the subject is usually omitted and one has to recover it from the narrative. In line 29, the question is realized with rising intonation alone, omitting the copula and the Q-particle. His relatively higher status allows him to format his question in the plain form. One of the possible explanations for the relatively high frequency of elliptical-Qs might be the factor of ‘economy’. The program runs for 20 minutes and within that allocated time not only do greetings have to be exchanged, but callers also have to explain their problems and the counsellor has to give advice. Within this limited time, hosts need to choose the most efficient ways of obtaining as much information as possible. Sometimes the counsellor needs to ask further questions before the delivery

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of advice. As already mentioned, many of the callers’ problems are quite complex, therefore the most essential details have to be obtained promptly (Hoshino, 2006). This can sometimes be observed in the host’s practice of asking two questions in one turn. The following extract is from a program in which the caller wants to divorce his wife, and he starts talking about the problem 19 lines into the transcript, after the greetings have been exchanged. The first question (lines 1–2) is marked by a postposition, anata wa which is rather uncommon in Japanese discourse, unless it is used towards a younger or junior person. However, as will be observed in most of the examples, this pronoun is used throughout reflecting the status difference between the participants; callers address the hosts as sensei ‘teacher’ which is a title that denotes respect. The host asks the caller’s age using the honorific form ikutsu de irassharu plus no but, because there are three people in the narrative, he adds the topic/subject after the question. Another question (line 4) is an elliptical-Q that takes the form of the noun and the particle okusama ‘your wife’ and the topic marker wa with final rising intonation. This format is quite common in Japanese discourse regardless of formality, as observed in Chapter 3. Rising intonation and the Wh-word are the interrogative features in lines 6 and 7 of the question that contains the conjunctive word soshite ‘and’, the noun kekkon ‘marriage’ and the Wh-word nannen ‘how-many-years’. It is clear that the question does not need to be grammatically complete, and it is the rising intonation that indicates interrogativity because of the Wh-word. It is also possible to interpret this unfinished utterance as a question because of the previous question and because callers are aware that they will be asked about their details. In line 13 the Y/N-Q otoko no okosan desu ka ‘Are they boys?’ invites a short answer. Notice, that in this section too the caller does not produce more talk than what he is asked for, even when the question takes another form. In line 15, the host asks the age of the caller’s children and this question features grammatical incompleteness. It takes an interesting format because the Wh-word nansai ‘how old’ is repeated with the conjunctive word to. As the caller had previously mentioned the word futari ‘two children’, the message could have been easily recognized without having to repeat the same word; however, the host repeats the Wh-word because he needs to ensure that he has all the details. The caller provides the age of his children saying that the eldest is 10 and the younger is 8. (4) (JS2) 1 H:

un. yeah

ano: uhm

otoshi age

2

no. COM

3 Ca:

sanjuuyon thirty-four

4 H:

sanjuuyon[sai.] thirty-four-years-old

5 Ca:

wa: TOP

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anata you

wa TOP

ikutsu deirassharu how-old COP-HON

wa. TOP

desu. COP

sanjuuni thirty-two

[eh] yes desu COP

okusama wa? wife-HON TOP [ne:] FP

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Japanese Questions 6 H:

[un] sanjuunisai yes thirty-two-years-old

7

soshite and

8 Ca:

kekkon marriage

9 H:

juunenme tenth-year

deshita COP-PAST

10

nannin how-many

irassharu no? be-HON COM

11 Ca:

e:to uhm

12 H:

[a] oh

13

otoko boy

14 Ca:

hai yes

15 H:

un . . . uhm

ofutari. two-people

16 Ca:

ue older

ga: S

17 H:

jussai ten-years-old

17 Ca:

hai. de= yes and ‘H: Ca: H; Ca: H: Ca: H: Ca: H: Ca: H: Ca: H: Ca:

kekkon marriage

no of

juunenme tenth-year

na COP

soo na that COP

(hhh)

(hai). yes

nannen? how-many-years

choodo just

futari two

deirasshite COP-HON

deshita. COP-PAST

ka. Q

[oko] [eh]san wa . . . child TOP

n COM

desu [kedomo] COP but

n desu COM COP

ka. (hhh) Q

okosan child

desu COP

nansai how-old

desu ne: COP FP de . . . and

shita younger

ka? Q

(un) uhn

to and

nansai? how-old

jussai. ten-years-old

hai. yes ga: S

(un) yeah

e: uhm

hachi eight

desu. COP

Yeah. Uhm, How old are you? Yourself? I am thirty four. Thirty [four], [(yes)] Your wife? My wife is thirty [ne:] [Yes] She is thirty and (hh) (yes) and how many years have you been married? We are in exactly our tenth year. Your tenth year? [children] [(yes)] uhm, how many do you have? Uhm, we have two [but] [Oh], really? (hh) Are they boys? Yes. Uhm, two. How old are they both? The older is ne (yeah) ten years old. Ten years old . . . yes. Yes, and the younger (yeah) uhm is eight years old.’

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What is interesting in the extract above is the mixing of styles in the questions of the host. It is difficult to judge which style he had intended to use in some of the questions (lines 4, 7 and 15), but in lines 1 and 10 they are in the informal style while in line 13 they are in the formal style. There are no obvious reasons why the host suddenly shifts back and forth; however, this might be explained by the notion of ‘footing’, which is discussed later in this chapter, and also by the explanation for reasons why speech style shifts occur found in the next section. It is important to include the aspect of speech style in this study because it defines the syntactic endings of the questions. For example, the use of elliptical-Qs is not only economical in the strict sense of the word, it is also very convenient as the speaker does not commit to a particular speech style.

Politeness shifts: Formal and informal speech styles As discussed briefly in Chapter 1, the Japanese language has two speech styles known as the polite or desu/masu and the plain or da styles that are manifested in verbal, nominal and adjectival endings. At this point, I will only deal with the basic concepts in speech style shifts, leaving a discussion of other issues – for example, the fact that these shifts may even occur when social factors remain unchanged – until later. Speech styles have distinct uses based on the interpersonal relationship between speakers, and may or may not be reciprocated. The polite form indexes social distance and formality and is used towards people of higher status (and age) or between strangers. The plain form, on the other hand, is used towards younger people, or those of lower status and among friends and family members. Moreover, there is a complex honorific system used when addressing or when talking about people who are of higher status than the listener. Honorifics are expressed in verbal forms and can have polite or plain endings depending on who the listener is and the kind of interaction. The three statements below contain exactly the same propositional content; however, the pragmatic information is very different. The bold sections show polite and plain encodings and here they are arranged according to the degree of formality. i) ii otenki de gozaimasu ne. dochira e odekake degozaimasu ka. ii) ii otenki desu ne. dochira e odekake desu ka. iii) ii tenki da ne. doko e iku no? ‘It is a nice day, isn’t it? Where are you going?’ While these examples have been constructed, they can be heard being used as greetings (i) on the street when addressing a neighbour, a distant acquaintance or a higher status person; (ii) an acquaintance or a friend or; (iii) a very close friend or a child. In the most formal expression (i), the copula appears in the gozaimasu ending (an honorific form) and the honorific verb ‘to go out for a purpose’. A less formal example is ii) where the copula and verb endings are in the masu (a neutral polite) form. The informal or short form (iii) is accompanied by sentence final particles (SFP). The syntactic forms contain the necessary pragmatic information about the type of relationship between the interlocutors and the situation. Thus, it is possible to predict that in i) the listener is older or of higher status than the speaker or that the relationship is extremely formal

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while in ii) the relationship is formal but the interlocutors could be of the same status and age. In iii) the interlocutors are close friends or family members, or the listener is much younger and lower in status. However, as stated before, because speech style shifts do occur in natural interactions, this phenomenon is much more complex. Not only are status differences, interpersonal relationships and settings factors that influence the choice of speech styles, but there are also other pragmatic reasons and often these shifts are strategic (Megumi, 2002; L. Tanaka, 2008; Yoshida and Sakurai, 2005). Unlike television programs and conversations with friends where the speech style is constant, with a few exceptions,2 questions in radio phone-in programs are sometimes given in the polite forms and also in the informal style, but they can revert to the formal style. This phenomenon seems to be closely related to the fact that this particular radio program is also a counselling service where the rapport that the host and counsellor have with the caller is of utmost importance. As stated previously, it is known that very often callers are not clear themselves about their own problems. These can be very complicated and need to be explained in a clear and logical way to enable the audience (and the caller), and in some degree the host/counsellor, to get a grasp of the problem. At the same time, the advisees might feel nervous as they know that their interaction can be aired nationally. Therefore, hosts and counsellors try to make their advisees feel relaxed and confident so that they can talk freely. The pattern observed in these programs is one in which hosts start the program using polite forms, but shift to plain forms once some kind of rapport has been established, or when the age difference is significant (see example (2) where the caller is 20 years old and the host is in his late 50s or early 60s). Therefore, the speech style shift could be triggered by the significant age differences and the host’s intention to make callers more comfortable as plain forms also index closer social distance. In excerpt (5), the caller wants advice regarding his wife. The next extract follows the greetings and an initial explanation of the problem. Note that the host’s first question in line 1 (oikutsu desu ka ‘how old is she?) is a Wh-Q in the polite form; however, in the next question, which is a Y/N-Q in line 3, he shifts to the plain form hataraiteru ‘you are working?’ It is interesting to see that the host’s turn in line 3 starts with the ‘oh’ news-receipt that indicates that he is rather surprised. He shows his surprise further with the adverbial form mada ‘yet’. Perhaps this was because he expected an older person, and realizing that he himself is older he shifts to the plain form. (5) (28/09/05) 1 H: kore, uhm

okusan you

ima now

2 Ca:

sanjuurokusai 36-years-old

desu. COP

3 H:

a. oh

ja, then

4 Ca:

ima:, now

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mada. yet

paato part-time

oikutsu how-old

desu COP

okusan mo you too ni in

deteru go-PRE

ka? Q

hataraiteru? work-PRE-PLAIN n COM

desu COP

kedo, but

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Uhm, how old are you now? I am thirty six. Oh. Only (thirty six). So, you’re working too? Now, I have a part-time job.’

In most programs, style shift does not occur early on in the program. It is only as it progresses and some kind of rapport is established, that the host shifts to the informal form. The following example is a continuation of the exchange presented in example (1), and we can see that at this point the host has elicited enough information to give his opinion about the caller’s problem. In line 1, the host is still talking in the formal style (ookiku narimasu ‘becomes bigger’), however, in lines 5−6, he shifts to the Y/N-Q in informal style (odorokanakatta ‘weren’t (you) surprised’) that projects a very relaxed stance. The informal style is maintained for the remainder of the exchange with the caller as can be observed in the next question, a wake-Q in line 10, sore wa darekara kiita wake ‘Who did you hear that from?’. (6) (01.09.05) 1H: [motto] dandan, nennen, mondai wa, ookiku narimasu yo ne: more slowly yearly problem TOP big become FP FP 2 Ca: hai. yes 3 H: sorede then

chotto kiite little ask

n COM

desu kedomo: COP but

4 Ca : hai. yes 5 H: saishooni first 6

tte Qt

toki when

odorokanakatta? shock-NEG-PAST

7 Ca: e, uhm 8

tte Qt

9

n COM

ano:, well iu: say

10 H: sore that 11

kuruma nusunda car steal-PAST

kuruma car

sono that koto N

ga, S

ano:, well

o DO

untenshiteirurashii drive-looks

wakatta know-PAST

desu yo. COP FP wa TOP

dare who

kara kiita from hear-PAST

untenshiteru drive-CONT

12 Ca: o, o, otooto um um brother

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maeni, kuruma before car

tte Qt

kara from

iu say

wake? COM

XXXX

no wa. COM TOP

desu. COP

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Japanese Questions 13 H: otooto brother

ga itta S say-PAST

wake. COM

14 Ca: soo desu. yes COP ‘H: Ca: H: Ca: H:

The problem will grow with time, you know? Yes. That’s why I’m just am asking you Yes When you first heard that your son had stolen a car, weren’t you shocked? Ca: Uhm, well, first it became clear that uhm he was driving a car, you see. H: How did you learn about that – that he was driving cars? Ca: From his younger brother. H: So, his younger brother told you. Ca: Yes, that’s right.’ Questions in informal style project a very different stance to those in the polite forms that cannot be reproduced in the translations. In (6), the host’s lines in 5, 6, 10, 11 and 13 transmit a more relaxed stance; however, it can be also interpreted as a condescending attitude. Style shifts can be interpreted differently, and that is the most complex aspect of speech styles. They can be seen as a way of making the interaction more relaxed and of conveying criticism without it being a bold FTA. Observe that only the host or counsellor shifts styles and that it is not reciprocated. Therefore, it can also be taken as a patronizing stance on the part of the higher status speaker. The host reverts to the formal style only when introducing the counsellor because he is talking and addressing a different person from the caller, which is a sign that shifts are accomplished strategically. Nevertheless, because advice giving, even in solicited advice-seeking situations, can be a face threatening act (FTA) (Heritage and Sefi, 1992; Jefferson and Lee, 1992) hosts and counsellors must be tactful and make efforts to make callers feel relaxed and at home. Given that questions in the plain form index a closer social distance, it seems that they are used strategically by hosts and counsellors to make callers feel less threatened, as we have seen in the previous examples. Due to the implied FTA risk, elliptical-Qs are very useful, as mentioned earlier, as they do not index a particular speech style although the stance of the speaker is that of some degree of politeness depending on the semantic choice and intonation.

Footing in radio progams The concept of ‘footing’ (Goffman, 1981) has been widely used in studies of talk-ininteraction (Clayman, 1992; Heritage and Greatbatch, 1991) and it is of particular relevance in the present chapter. The fact that the host and counsellor are not only performing their respective roles in a radio program but are engaged in a counselling

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session allows them to use a variety of linguistic strategies to show their alignment (Goffman, 1981). The host, for example, is responsible for conducting the program in terms of time keeping and introducing the counsellor. At the same time, he has to elicit information from the caller that may involve changing his speech style to one used when talking to a friend or a younger person. On the other hand, the counsellor is the expert, but he/she sometimes becomes the ‘parent’ or ‘the teacher’ when admonishing the caller. In order to attain a different ‘footing’, they can draw on a range of linguistic strategies such as the strategic choice of questions in different speech styles. While the questions can still be identified in terms of their grammatical shape (Wh-Qs, Y/N-Qs), they reflect a particular stance that the host and the counsellor wish to project. While it might be possible to use any question, there are, in practice, certain types of questions that are closely related with footing.

Confirming, interpreting, comforting and admonishing: ne-Qs and COM-Qs As seen in the distribution table for questions in radio phone-in programs (Figure 4. 1), ne-Qs are the most frequent. This type of question, as discussed in Chapters 2 and 3, is traditionally not categorized as a question because it does not take the canonical form where the question particle ka is added in final position (Masuoka et al., 1997). Remember also that the particle ne is multi-functional and can occur in various positions in the discourse. Its functions differ depending on its position in the turn (Cook, 1990; H. Tanaka, 2000). When it is used in the initial position, it works as an attention-seeking tool (Cook, 1990). In turn-final positions, it appeals for an ‘affective’ response (Cook, 1990), invites the listeners’ participation in an ‘incorporative’ manner (Lee, 2007: 363), signals turn-yielding (H. Tanaka, 2000), is used to get confirmation on some shared knowledge (Nitta, 1999), invites turn-taking and a supportive action (H. Tanaka, 2000), and it has been equated with the English tag-question (Nakada, 1980). Recapitulating the observations on the use of the particle ne, the general consensus seems to point to two distinct characteristics. One, is that ne is a cooperative tool because it is listener-oriented. The second point is that a shared knowledge between the interlocutors is paramount. Because ne-Qs in the radio programs are used mainly to confirm information, they are mostly used after a degree of information has been obtained. In the radio programs, they function to interpret the callers’ feelings or situation and are also used by counsellors to admonish callers. This shows that even though ne-Qs have been classified mainly as acting to seek confirmation, they can also be employed for other social actions. Another use of ne-Qs is to verify that information is correct. This has a dual purpose: to summarize the facts on behalf of the audience and to confirm that the information is accurate. This aspect, as mentioned earlier, is related to the fact that callers’ problems are generally complicated and that they usually fail to disclose all the facts (De Capua and Dunham, 1993; Locher, 2006; L. Tanaka, in press) or they talk about things that are not relevant. Callers very seldom ask for specific advice (De Capua and Dunham, 1993; Locher, 2006; L. Tanaka, in press); therefore, hosts sometimes have to do some guess work.

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Moreover, counsellors sometimes take a ‘mothering’ role and admonish callers, an aspect of the interaction that might be closely related to the ‘entertainment’ element of the media. For these purposes COM-Qs are used because the nominals wake and koto that accompany these questions have different pragmatic uses that seem to be very effective in this context.

Confirming information The following examples illustrate how the host uses ne-Qs in order to confirm the information provided by the caller. In (7), the caller phoned in because her mother was a victim of domestic violence and killed her father in self-defense. In line 1, the host says that he does not fully understand her story because of some discrepancies. He says that the caller explained that no one knew that the mother was being abused by their father (lines 1–4). The host finishes his turn with the particle ne asking for a confirmation of what the caller had said before. The caller tries to take the floor in line 5, but is soon interrupted by the host who says that from what she said immediately before, it turns out that the other family members were aware of the problem. This case is a clear example of the complexity of callers’ problems and of the difficulty of obtaining the whole picture surrounding a problem (De Capua and Dunham, 1993; Locher, 2006; L. Tanaka, in press). Moreover, the caller does not ask for specific advice. After the host’s ne in line 8 that invites confirmation, the caller butts-in and adds more information. Had the host asked a standard ka question it would have had a very strong and almost aggressive stance, and risked sounding even accusatory, as he was questioning the caller on the veracity of the information she is providing. By using a ne-Q and a COM+ne-Q in both instances, the host involves the caller and confirms that the information is correct. Hosts have to bear in mind that the program can be aired and therefore, the information has to be clear for the overhearing audience as well as for the counsellor. (7) (26.08.04) 1 H: sono uhm

doomo quite

2

(hai) yes

3

ga, S

4

(hai.) yes

5

iimashita say-PAST

6 Ca:

hai. yes

7 H:

-tokoroga ima however now

hanashi story

ga S

i..icchishinai n dakedo: c..coincide-NEG COM but

anata you

ga S

sakihodo: earlier

haha mother

ni in

booryokuofurutteta violence -apply-PAST

minna all yo FP

ga S

(hai) yes

shiranakatta know-PAST-NEG

chichi father

chichi ni father in

no COM

wa, TOP

tte Qt

ne? FP

ANO:uhm

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hanashi store

o DO

kikuto: listen-COND

minna all

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shittete know

9 Ca: -e=, yes

yatteiru do ano, well

to Qt

iu koto say COM

sono karui uhm light

10

tataku slap

toka like

tte Qt

11

shittemashitakedo, know-but

desu yo ne?COP FP FP

booryoku, violence

iu booryoku say violence

107

kao face

o DO

wa TOP

‘H: Uhm, your story doesn’t make se.. sense (yes) what you said before (yes) that your father father was violent against your mother (yes) you said that no one knew about it, didn’t you? Ca: Yes, WELLH: -However, listening to what you are saying now, you say that all knew about it, aren’t you?Ca: - Yeah, well, uhm (we) knew that he slapped her and was a little violent but ((continues)).’ There are other cases when the host has to make deductions from the information given to him. In the next example, the caller is worried about her son. It is not very clear what the real problem is, however, as the caller is not specific. She seems to be concerned about him carrying a pair of scissors in his pocket and about his relationships with other women despite saying that he is a very good son. In this excerpt, the host asks the caller whether he comes to visit her okaasan no kao o mini kuru no ‘does he come to see you’ (lines 2–3). Although he does not go to see her, the caller answers the question in the affirmative and immediately adds that she is the one who goes to visit him (line 4). The host’s question in line 5 asobini ikeru no ne ‘you can go to visit him’ confirms that the relationship between the mother and her son is close enough for her to visit him. The fact that the caller had already mentioned that the mother–son relationship is fine constrains the type of question that the host can use, and only the ne-Q is acceptable in this case. (8) (07.09.05) 1H: [sorede, sono] then uhm 2

to, with

seikatsu life

3

kao face

minikite see-come

4 Ca:

e:, yes

watashi I

5 H:

a. oh

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[(hai)] musuko yes son wa TOP

shiteru do:PRE

n COM

asobiniikeru play-go-POT

ga S

san T kedo, but

wa, TOP

ma:, kanojo well she

tokidoki okaasan sometime mother

no of

no? FP ikimasu. go-PRE

no COM

ne? FP

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ikimasu. go-PRE

itte, go-CONJ

ano, uhm

ano: well

isshooni gohan together meal

tabetari, eat-CONJ

‘H: [And, uhm] [(yes)] your son lives with his girlfriend, but does he come to see you from time to time? Ca: Yes, I go. H: Oh. You can go to his place, right? Ca: I go. I go and uhm well, we have meals together, and’ Because the particle ne can be placed at the end of almost any question, it is interesting to note patterns in its usage. There are cases in which some particle combination is not possible; however, in the majority of cases it is used as a consultative particle.

Interpreting the problem As mentioned previously, many callers are unable or unprepared to explain their problems in a logical and sequential manner (De Capua and Dunham, 1993; Locher, 2006). Other callers have not yet been able to understand the cause of their anxiety or the real reason for their predicament. In those situations, either the host or the counsellor ‘interprets’ the problem, or helps callers understand the cause of their unhappiness. The caller in the next example had phoned to obtain legal advice. Her daughter was going to marry but discovered that her fiancé was having an affair with another woman so the wedding had to be cancelled. After much probing, it is clear that the situation is quite different from the one initially presented by the caller. It is revealed that the caller wants to sue the woman but does not know the procedure and how much she can claim. The daughter is happy that she had found out about her fiancé’s infidelity before the wedding and is rather relieved. It is the mother, though, who wants to start litigation. The host, in the excerpt below (lines 1–2), points out that the reason why she wants to take legal action is not for her daughter’s sake, as she had initially said, but for her own sake. He uses the second person pronoun anata, which he stresses, and also the word koto that is associated with explanations. The host uses a COM+ne-Q thus fulfilling two functions: he explains the reason for her anger and, second, he confirms with her that the observation is correct. Note that the caller’s answer is immediate and short, characteristic of a preferred second pair (Pomerantz, 1984; Schegloff, 2007) and it is even pronounced more emphatically showing her agreement and volunteering to give more details. (9) (08.09.05) 1 H: un yes

dakara therefore

2

osamaranai settle-NEG

3 Ca:

HAI. yes

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to Qt

musume daughter iu say

no of koto COM

tame sake

tte, Qt

ANATA ga YOU S

desu COP

yo FP

ne? FP

sorede ano sono:((continues)) and uhm DM

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‘H: Yeah. That’s why, it is not for the sake of your daughter (that you are doing this) but it is because you cannot accept it, isn’t it? Ca: YES. and uhm well ((continues))’ On other occasions, it is the counsellor that helps callers to identify their problems. In (10), (a continuation of the excerpt presented in (7)), the caller’s elderly mother had killed her father after suffering many years of domestic violence. Despite this ordeal, the caller sounds very cheerful and energetic. However, the counsellor puts in doubt her feign cheerfulness and convinces her that she does not need to feign her feelings. In this section, the counsellor takes the role of therapist and uses ne-Qs to make her realize that she is feeling guilty for not having helped her mother before she took such a drastic measure (lines 1–3 and 5–6). In line 1, the counsellor addresses the caller as okaasan ‘mother’ (the second okaasan refers to the caller’s mother). He tells her in a persuasive manner that her own solitude overlaps with that experienced by her mother. Then in lines 5–6 he tells her that her husband is cold towards her. It is interesting that these structures follow the same pattern. By using ne-Qs, the counsellor is able to make the caller understand her feelings and realize that she is trying to mask her feelings of guilt. In these two examples, the function of the ne-Q is that of a tag-question and asks for agreement, which is what the caller does in lines 4 and 7. (10) (26.08.04) 1 Co: okaasan3 mother 2

to and

3

yo FP

4 Ca:

hai yes

5 Co:

soshite, and

6

tsumetaku cold

7 Ca:

hai. Yes

ne, FP

(hai) yes

nanka wa DM TOP

anata you

jibun yourself

no of ni in

okaasan mother kasanatte overlap

no of

kodoku solitude

wakaru understand

ne? FP

anata you

no of

mieru see-POT

otto wa husband TOP yo FP

anata ni you to

taishite towards

ne? FP

‘Co: Listen to me. (yes) You see that your solitude overlaps with the solitude your mother suffered, don’t you? Ca: Yes. Co: And, you feel that your husband is cold towards you, don’t you? Ca: Yes.’ Notice that the caller responds immediately to the counsellor with an affirmative answer after ne indicating an attentive and cooperative stance. Using ne-Qs in these instances gives the impression that the counsellor is not imposing her/his interpretation, but that

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both are construing the problem. The particle ne has this pragmatic stance of applying gentle pressure on the listener to agree with the speaker and this is likely to be one of the reasons why it is used so frequently.

Comforting The pragmatic force of inclusiveness is also manifested when the hosts and the counsellors try to empathize with the callers. By acknowledging the callers’ suffering and angst, the exchange can achieve another level of counselling. See the exchange in (11) where the caller talks about her anxiety. The ne-Q is used on two occasions (lines 4 and 11). The caller’s problem is not made clear even after the counsellor’s efforts. It appears that her friend’s wedding triggered a depression and she is not sure why she feels so unhappy. The host tells her that perhaps it is because she feels left alone; however, we learn that she has a partner. This excerpt occurs after the counsellor interprets her problem and gives her advice. As there is no resolution, the host is explicitly asked to participate and this is how he contributes to the program. He uses ne-Qs and deshoo-Qs, in order to show his empathy with and understanding of her feelings. The host says that the caller did not feel that she was loved and that she did not have feelings of confidence; however, although the caller gives an affirmative answer she does not agree completely. However, in line 9, we can see that the host uses a deshoo-Q in which he shows his empathy and indirectly praises the caller. After this point, the caller agrees with the host and in line 10 she starts crying. It is interesting to note that she thanks the host, and although it seems that this is a strange thing to do, it might reflect the caller’s gratitude at being understood. The host keeps comforting her and shows his understanding in line 11 to which the callers respond immediately. (11) (04.10.04) 1 H: dakara therefore

ne? FP

2

no of

jibun oneself

3

to Qt

iu say

4

nakatta have-NEG-PAST

5 Ca

: yes

6 H:

dakara therefore

7 Ca:

hai. yes

8 H:

ima now

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(hai.) chiisai koro yes small time

ga, hito S person jishin confidence

kara from toka, like

n COM

kara from

arinomama as-it-is

sukareru, aisareru like-PASS love-PASS anshinkan security

da COP

yo FP

ga S

ne? FP

soo kamoshiremasen. perhaps moo DM

made, till

iroiro various

zu::tto all-along

ganbarisugita excel-overly

n COM

da COP

ne: FP

ganbatte ikitekita excel-CONJ live-come

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111

n deshoo? COM COP

10 Ca: hai. yes

arigatoo gozaimasu. thank-you-very-much

((teary,

crying))

11 H: demo, ima, tsuraku nacchatta n da yo ne but now painful become-PAST COM COP FP FP 12 Ca: hai. yes ‘H: Therefore, ne (yes) you have lacked, from childhood, that security, that confidence that people get when they are liked, when they are loved. Ca: Yes, perhaps. H: That is why you tried to do too many things, too much ne. Ca: Yes. H: Right up until the present, all along you have pushed yourself in life haven’t you? Ca: Yes, thank you very much. ((teary, crying)) H: But now, it has become really very painful ne? Ca: Yes.’ There might be arguments against classifying structures with a final ne as questions because they do not ask for new information or they do not elicit new information from the listener. However, questions also have other functions besides asking for unknown information such as asking for agreement or checking the validity of information. We have seen numerous examples of ne-Qs being used to obtain the listeners’ agreement or acknowledgement or being used for entirely other purposes as is the case with any other speech act. The preponderance of ne-Qs in these programs indicates that they are a very important communicative tool; a role that may result from the pragmatic connotation of the particle ne which is inclusive and consultative.

Admonishing At times, the counsellor takes the role of a mother/father and admonishes the caller. The following excerpt is a continuation of the one presented in examples (3) and (8). At the beginning of the program, the mother very proudly says that her son is a very handsome young man and very caring. However, as the caller starts narrating the reason for her worries, it turns out that the son has had a few financial problems and is a womanizer. This leads the counsellor to reproach her, using a ne-Q in a very straightforward manner, telling her that ultimately her efforts to raise a child were not that successful. He uses the words wariaini ‘despite’ (line 1) and sonnani ‘that much’ (line 2) both of which emphasize cause and effect, in this case the effort and the bringing up. The final ne is used to emphasize the counsellor’s point, and unsurprisingly the caller does not enthusiastically agree. However, had the counsellor used a different

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structure, it would have been too blunt and it is most probable that the use of the ne-Q was to soften the content of the question. (12) (07.09.05) 1 Co: dakara so 2

kono this

3

ne? FP

4 Ca: soo yes

yappari after-all ko child

desu COP

anata you

wa TOP

ga S

kurooshita suffer-PAST

sonnani not-much

yoku well

wariaini, despite

sodattenai raise-NEG

yo FP

ne FP

‘Co: That’s why, although you sacrificed yourself, this child of yours did not turn out to be a good person, right? Ca: Well, yes.’ Counsellors’ changes of ‘footing’ seem to be closely related to the type of problem experienced by the advisee. Counsellors have to talk as therapists when the caller has psychological or family problems, as lawyers for legal problems, as educators or sometimes as parents. When they opt for the latter, their talk sometimes resembles that of parents admonishing their children (Clancy, 1987; Cook, 1990, 1992) and they can be quite scathing as in the excerpt above. The counsellor’s comment is a harsh criticism of the advisee who is a proud mother. Saying that your child rearing was not successful is a very harsh comment to make to any parent. However, these programs are broadcast also for entertainment and it is possible that the counsellor’s comment includes a degree of sensationalizing the problem. The ne-Q is also used when the topic is problematic such as in the following example. This caller phones because she has been unfaithful to her husband by having an affair with the husband of a former classmate. Here, the counsellor not only gives his own interpretation of why she started an illicit affair, but also in a way seems to be reprimanding the caller. In the initial lines, the host puts up an imaginary scenario fuufu kankei umaku ittenakatta to shimashoo ‘let’s suppose that the marital relationship wasn’t working’. In line 4, the counsellor says that the caller might not want to admit it and adds that there are things she does not tell her husband. He uses a different expression which seems to soften the content of the statement. Instead of using the words ‘to hide’ or ‘to tell lies’ he uses the word miseru ‘to show’ which conveys the same meaning without any negative connotation. Then, he asks if she does not want to admit it, in line 4, as well following this up with the question in lines 6–7. (13) (04.10.04) 1 Co: de, and 2

fuufukankei spouse-relationship

shimashoo, do-DES

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umaku well

ittenakatta to go-NEG-PAST Qt

ja. then

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hai. yes

4 Co: iitakunai say-want-NEG 5 Ca:

113

kamoshirenai. maybe

ne? FP

hai. yes

6 Co: goshujin husband

sama T

7

bun side

arimasu be-PRE

8 Ca:

soo yes

desu ne:, COP FP

ni to yo FP

miseteru show

bun side

to, misetenai and show-NEG

ne? FP

hai. yes

‘Co: Ca: Co: Ca: Co:

Let’s say that the marital relationship was not working, then. Yes. Maybe you don’t want to admit it, right? Yes. There are things that you reveal to your husband and others that you don’t, isn’t that right? Ca: Well, yes. Yes.’ Note that the caller responds differently to the first and the second occurrence of the ne-Q. While the first ne-Q is answered with an immediate hai, the caller’s answer to the second question is soo desu ne, in line 8, and shows some kind of reluctance, in particular because of the lengthening of the particle ne. This expression is used by listeners when they want to show that they are participating, but do not necessarily agree with the speaker. This response might be related to the semantic content of the counsellor’s question (lines 6–7). Had the counsellor used a Y/N-Q instead, it would have forced the caller to give an answer. However, by using a ne-Q the caller does not have to answer about herself and can give a vague answer and in this way she can save ‘face’. The counsellor also needs to present the solution to the problem in a logical and convincing manner, and from among the various linguistic strategies that are available it is the ne-Q that is used most often for this purpose (more than, e.g., deshoo-Qs). While the ne-Qs in the data can be replaced with deshoo-Qs without changing the propositional content, it should be noted that only the final particle ne can be used after the copula deshoo while ne allows combination of other SFPs that mark the stance of the speaker (S. Maynard, 1989; Tsuchihashi, 1983; Wu, 2004). The caller in (14) is concerned about one of her daughters and how she was treated by her in-laws who, despite being the daughter’s grandparents, have been critical and uncaring towards her. The mother is torn between protecting her daughter and maintaining a good relationship with her in-laws who live with them. The counsellor in this extract tries to pave the way for the advice that he wishes to deliver. In order to achieve this, he uses ne-Qs that require her to agree with him. In lines 1−2, he says

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that home is a place where one can show one’s true colours. In lines 4–5, he adds that at home one can show the other members of the family what one is truly like. Then, he adds that the presence of a strict mother-in-law would have the effect of splitting the family (lines 7–8 and 10–11). The use of the additional sentence final particle yo makes the question more forceful, while the ne ending buffers the force of the question and gives the feeling that the caller is also being consulted in this process. The caller answers with hai after each of the ne-Qs in a prompt manner indicating cooperation. (14) (20.12.04) 1 Co: katei home 2

tokoro place

3 Ca:

hai. yes

tte Qt

mono thing

6 Ca:

hai. yes

7 Co: soko there 8

o DO

9 Ca:

hai. yes

ne? FP

12 Ca:

hai. yes

yo FP

ni into o DO

ni in

wa, TOP

hadaka ni naked into

natte, become

koo this-type

kita, wear-PAST

otagai each-other

iu, say

okaasan mother

moo well

naru become

ne? FP

dasu toko take-out place

10 Co: kazoku wa family TOP 11

no COM

desu COP

4 Co: hadaka naked 5

iu say

desu COP

ga, otagai no S each-other of yo FP

yoosuruni . . . in-other-words ga S

barabarani split

ne? FP

seisoo uniform

irasshitara, exist-HON-COND

narimasu yo become FP

‘Co: Ca: Co: Ca: Co:

Home is where one can be oneself, ne? Yes. It is a place where one can show one’s true colours, ne? Yes. It’s a place where everyone is themselves, where everyone shows each other who they are, don’t you think? Ca: Yes.

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Co: If there is a mother-in-law who is, how shall I say, a very strict person in this place. Ca: Yes. Co: The whole family is split, ne? Ca: Yes.’ As we can see these ne-Qs also help the audience understand the logic used by the counsellor. Similarly, in this way, the caller is ‘involved’ in this process of understanding the problem thus paving the way for any advice to be accepted more easily. To summarize, we have seen that ne-Qs are used to fulfil more than one function in radio phone-in programs. They are used to confirm information, to comfort and to admonish. Two common characteristics of ne-Qs reported in past studies are their listener-oriented, consultative nature and their presupposition of a common and shared knowledge. However, the present data suggests that while ne-Qs undoubtedly show a consultative stance, they can also mask a paternal and authoritative attitude on the part of the counsellors. The examples also show that ne-Qs do not ask for new information and their degree of interrogativity is rather low in comparison to other questions such as Wh-Qs. However, they have a strong pragmatic force that demands agreement and they are therefore inclusive.

Rapport and authority: The use of no-Qs As discussed in Chapters 2 and 3, the use of the explanatory n is quite common in colloquial Japanese and has attracted considerable interest (Ide and Sakurai, 1998; Makino and Tsutsui, 1992; Masuoka and Takubo, 1992; S. Maynard, 1997; Noda, 1995; Teramura, 1984). This explanatory n is the shortened form of the particle no which also appears with the copula da/desu. No does not have a referential meaning, however, it does contribute to the context of the discourse. The use of no in the predicate has been described in terms of politeness and associated with female speech (McGloin, 1986), explanatory discourse (Kuno, 1973b) and shared knowledge (Cook, 1990). Cook’s study is noteworthy because she is one of the few authors to use questions in her data. She explains that the usage of no has two functions: to maintain harmony and to get the addressee ‘to do what the speaker wants him/her to do’ (Cook, 1990: 436). Her argument is based on the concepts of accessible knowledge (Chafe, 1976) and territory of information (Kamio, 1994). She writes that ‘using no with an interrogative indicates that the speaker is assuming that the information that s/he is asking for is the type to which the group (in this case the group of the speaker and the addressee alone) would have access’ (Cook, 1990: 427). However, in examples from this study there are cases in which the knowledge is only accessible to the listener. In (15) the host is asking the caller a question about his age. Because this information is only known to the caller, there is no shared knowledge and therefore the use of no functions to create rapport. The host is using the honorific form irassharu, thus displaying respect to the caller, however, because it is in the short form and is accompanied by no there is also a feeling of closeness.

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There is a nominal phrase that is in postposition, and it is used as an afterthought or to clarify the question. (15) (JS2) 1 H: un. yes 2

ano: well

no. COM

otoshi wa age TOP

anata you

3 Ca: sanjuuyon 34

ikutsu de irassharu how-old COP be-HON

wa.→ TOP

desu. COP

‘H: Yes. How old are you? Could you tell me? Ca: Thirty-four.’ No-Qs are also used to reprimand or to admonish the callers. Most of the examples cited by Cook (1990) are exchanges between mothers and child/ren. These interactions contain many examples of no-Qs. Cook explains that plain verbal forms index the authority of the speaker alone, whereas verbal forms with the no-Qs index the authority of a group of which the speaker is a member (Cook, 1990). The questions used to illustrate these observations were taken mostly from cases where a mother or father is teaching or disciplining their child. A similar use of no-Qs was observed in the data in the current study. In example (16), the caller’s son, still a minor, had problems with the police and was caught driving without a license. After some legal advice is given in relation to the car, the counsellor advises the caller to have more dialogue with his son and admonishes him, using no-Qs, for being so detached. The first no-Q is seen in lines 1–2 when the counsellor asks the caller why he does not talk to his son more openly. The caller sends a backchannel and the counsellor continues to talk throughout until we see another no-Q in line 3. He asks ‘why don’t you repeat it’ (talking to your son) and a second no-Q immediately after. He asks him why he gives up so easily. There is a slight pause after the two questions indicated by the ↓ arrow and there is no attempt by the caller to take the floor nor does he send any backchannels. Obviously, these questions are not used to ask for information but rather, as Cook (1990) observed, to reprimand the caller. It is only in line 6 that the caller sends a backchannel hai . . . a:; however, it does not show agreement as it does not finish with falling intonation as would be expected and is followed by the lengthened vowel a, which shows some kind of disagreement (Yamane, 2002). The counsellor continues to project his stance explicitly asking yutteru imi wakarimasu ‘Do you understand (the meaning of) what I am saying?’ to which the caller answers affirmatively in line 7. (16) (09.01.05) 1→Co: masshoumen front 2

hanashishina:i speak-NEG

kara from no COM

mukiatte, face-CONJ

motto more

(hai) yes

(lines omitted )

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sore that

o DO

naze why

3→

soo that-way

4

akiramechau give-up

5

n COP

6

(hai . . . a:::.) yes oh

7 Ca:

e=, yeah

kurikaesanai repeat-NEG

kantanni, easily no? ↓

desu yo, COM SFP

no?↓ COM

117 . . . ↓nande why

tenioenai tte incorrigible Qt . . . ↓sore SFP ima no now of

yutteru say

ga that S hanashi story

imi meaning

wakannai understand-NEG kiitete. hear-CONJ

wakarimasu? understand

wakarimasu. understand

‘Co: Why don’t you face each other and talk? (yes) .. .. lines omitted lines omitted Why don’t you do it over and over? ↓ . . . ↓ Why do you give up so easily? ↓ . . . ↓ That is something I don’t understand when I listen to you (yes . . . . uhm . . . ) Do you understand what I am saying? Ca: Yes, I understand.’ Adopting Cook’s argument about the use of no, it can be said that both the counsellor and the host use the no-Q to criticize or admonish the advisee while at the same time maintaining rapport with the caller. It could also be said that the authority of the host and counsellor as members of the ‘institution’ is indexed in the particle no. As is the case with most pragmatic markers, there is always more than one meaning or usage which changes according to the situation, intention, speakers and their relationship to each other. For example, the question in example (15) is not used to criticize or admonish, but to indicate a degree of politeness.

Counselling moves: wake-Qs and koto-Qs In Chapter 2 we saw that the nominalizers koto and wake have a pragmatic meaning that reflects the speaker’s attitude towards the event. In the present data, questions with wake and koto are varied and they are used to summarize, to strongly request an explanation, to interpret the cause of a problem and as a strategy to criticize and admonish the callers. These are all social actions associated with the counselling process in the radio phone-in programs.

Interpreting and summarizing: koto -Qs As stated previously, many callers’ problems are very complicated (De Capua and Dunham, 1993; Locher, 2006; L. Tanaka, in press) and the host’s role in the program is

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not only to elicit information from them, but also to help them organize their thoughts, and to present the problems in a way that is logical and comprehensible for the audience and the counsellor. In (17), the caller presented in (7) and (10) does not specifically ask for a particular type of advice; however, she explains that her mother had killed her father. The nature of the help that she is seeking is not clear from her narrative. Thus, in the excerpt below the host helps her to ‘interpret’ her motive for phoning in to the program. He uses the nominalizer koto to ‘wrap’ her question. Note that he uses the first person pronoun watashi in referring to the caller, a usage in Japanese that has been noted by linguists (Hirose, 2000; Shibatani, 1990; Whitman, 1998). Note that the caller responds even though the host has not completed his turn. (17) (26.08.04) 1 H: kono this

kurushisa suffering

2

ima now

watashi I

3 Ca:

soo yes

desu ne. COP FP

4 H:

to Qt

4 Ca:

hai. Yes

iu say

koto COM

kara from wa TOP

nogareru escape doo what

desu COP

tameni, (hai.) for yes

shitara do-COND

ii ka good Q

to Qt

ne? FP

‘H: You are wondering what to do now, in order (yes) to escape from this suffering Ca: Yes, that’s right. H: That’s what you want to know, right? Ca: Yes.’ The use of koto-Qs helps to summarize the gist of the narrative and is similar to what we have seen in television interviews. This feature is perhaps one of the characteristics common to many ‘institutional’ settings where the hosts have the responsibility of conducting an exchange with either an interviewee or a caller, but also of providing a clear and orderly presentation of ideas and information for the benefit of an audience. The difference with the use of ne-Qs in interpreting the problem is that koto-Qs do not have the inclusive stance and as stated in Chapter 2, koto has the inherent meaning of ‘importance’ (Bizen,1990) as well as other functions such as being used to explain cause/reason, to summarize and to express conjecture.

Strong requests for explanation: wake-Qs and koto-Qs At other times koto-Qs and wake-Qs are used to demand explanations. In these cases they appear either in the canonical form, or in the plain form but without any final particles. The caller in (18) (originally presented in (9)) phoned in about her daughter’s

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wedding cancellation because of the future bridegroom’s infidelities. The mother is not clear as to what kind of advice she wants, however, she mentions that she is very upset with the ex- fiancé’s lover and she wants to start litigation. What is interesting here is the use of the woman’s expression, derutokoroni dete which is the idiom for litigation that she used in her previous turn. Because of the vague expression used by the caller, the host has to ask an explicit question in lines 1–3. Here, the koto-Q demands an explanation as does the word gutaitekini ‘specifically’ and the caller explains that she wants to take the woman to court. Note that in contrast to other questions where the explanatory n or a particle is used to soften the illocutionary force, this question is in the standard form that sounds rather harsh and demands an explanation. (18) (08.09.05) 1 H: deru go-out

toko place

ni dete, to go-out

2

iu no say COM

3

koto COM

4 Ca:

ano: soshoo o uhm litigationDO

5

neFP

6 H:

-soshoo litigation

7 Ca:

desu COP

wa, TOP

hanashi talk

o suru tte DO do Qt

gutaitekini wa dooiu in-detail TOP what-type

ka? Q

o DO

okosu to start Qts

okosu start

to Qt

iu ay

iu say

koto COM

[koto] COM

desu COP

hai. yes

[(hai.)] yes ‘H: What precisely do you mean by saying that you are prepared to go wherever necessary? Ca: Uhm, I mean to start litigation, you see-? H:- you [mean] to start litigation. Yes. Ca: [yes]’

Wake-Qs are also used to request an explanation. The question has a stronger illocutionary force because there is a connection between the previous discourse and the use of wake. Here, the caller (from example (13)) talks about her daughter’s conflict with her grandparents who live in the same household. She had already spoken about the relationship between the children and the paternal grandparents; however, the husband is never mentioned. There is a connection between the host question in line 3 and the content of the previous discourse, and the use of wake reinforces that connection between cause and effect in this instance. It is interesting that he also uses the word kanjin ‘main’ expressing his stance towards the importance of the role of the father. Therefore the question contains some criticism of the father. It is, not

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surprisingly, a question that cannot be answered easily and it functions more as a rhetorical question or as an exclamation. (19) (20.12.04) 1 Ca: de and

jijo mo sorekara chotto, ojiichan young-daughter also then little grand-dad

2

ni, ippo to 1-step

hiku yooni natta n retrieve like become COM

3 H:

kanjin main

goshujin husband

4 Ca:

kinoo sonna, ocha yesterday that tea

no of

wa, TOP

DESU COP

doo natteru how be-CON

GA:, but

wake:? COM

no ken ga arimashite: of ticket S be-CON

‘Ca: And my younger daughter, since that incident, is a bit more careful with her grandad, but H: And what is your husband doing, the main character? Ca: Yesterday, there was a ticket for a tea (ceremony) and.’ The impossibility of answering this type of questions is reflected in the answer of the caller who completely ignores the host’s question and talks about an unrelated incident. We cannot be certain as to why the caller ignored this question. Was it because she interpreted the host’s question as a rhetorical question, an exclamation; because she wanted to change the topic as a result of not being able to see the host’s point; or is this simply how talk is accomplished? In talk between friends, very frequently questions are ignored or are answered with a completely different piece of information.

Questions that do not expect an answer: wake-Qs In these programs there are times when questions are asked by hosts and counsellors that are not designed to elicit information but rather are used as a strategy to conduct the interaction. In the following example, the host says that the legal advice will be provided later in relation to his son. He then says that the situation is really grave and asks the father, in line 5, to explain how he raised his son. The wake-Q shows the very critical stance of the host, not only through his use of wake but because of the absence of mollifiers. This is a question that cannot be answered and there is no expectation on the part of the host that he will obtain an answer. Rather, it is a rhetorical question that does not expect an answer and it is also a criticism. The caller, however, interprets it as a question and tries to answer, but his difficulty in finding appropriate words is seen in the use of a filler ma and the lengthening of the vowels in lines 6 and 7. In this case, it is clear that the wake-Q is used strategically by the host to criticize the caller and it has a certain degree of sensationalism because of the degree of impoliteness. (20) (01.09.05) 1 H: naruhodo ne. (e:) I-see FP yes

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hai yes

wakarimashita. understand-PAST

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sono uhm

hooritsutekini legally

3

atode later

senmon no specialist of

4

ukagaimasu ask-HUM

5

hidoi terrible

6

shita wake? do-PAST COM

7 Ca:

[ma: hai. ] e: ma: uhm yes yeah well

8

wa TOP

9

jitsujoo real-situation

ga, but

jootai situation

ne, FP

(e:) yes

bengoshi lawyer

na COP no of

(hai) mazu yes first desu COP

kamawanakatta care-NEG-PAST

ne:. . . . FP

121

koto wa thing TOP sensei ni T to

desu COP

ne, (hai) FP yes

[de, and

dooiu] what-type

shoujiki itte, (e:) anmari sincerely say yes not-much tte Qt

iu say

no COM

kosodate rearing

watashi I

ga, S

desu .COP

‘H: I see, (yes) OK. I understand. The legal part, you see (yes) we will ask a lawyer who specializes (in that problem), (yes), but, first, (yes) it is a terrible situation, isn’t; it? . . . [and] [well, uhm] what kind of child rearing did you practise? Ca: Yeah . . . uhm..sincerely speaking, (yes) the fact is that I did not care much about him.’ Another example of a similar use of wake-Qs that cannot be answered is presented below. The program is the same as in (20), however, this time the exchange is with the counsellor who admonishes the caller. Observe that after the wake-Q in line 5 there is a slight pause and from the content and context it is obvious that the purpose of this question, nande hito no te kariru wake ‘why do you ask for other people’s help’ is to criticize the caller and not to get an answer. The caller, in lines 1–4, is answering a previous question put to him by the counsellor asking him if they had done something about the son’s problems. The caller says that they had threatened him with calling the police and here he says that they even went to a police station. It is not clear what the caller wanted to say about the policeman as he is interrupted by the counsellor who uses a wake-Q in line 5. This question is clearly used to criticize the caller (line 5) and does not expect an answer. The next question adds to the criticism and it is a rather blunt and straightforward remark in the form of the question doo iu koto sore ‘what is that’ plus anata ‘you’. The use of the second person pronoun is particularly strong as is usually avoided because it is used towards people of lower status than the speaker (Barke and Uehara, 2005). The

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counsellor talks for a number of lines trying to persuade him to get more involved in solving his problems. (21) (01.09.05) 1 Ca: de and

chikaku near

no of

desu COP

yo FP

2

n COM

3

itta go-PAST

4

uchino our

5

desu COP

6 Co: -nande why 7

koto COM

8

(e:) yes

9

anata you

10

koto thing

baai, case kodomo child

yo FP

kooban police-station ne. FP

(ha:) de kooban oh and police-station

omawari police ga, S

san T

iya no

no of

ni to

unten drive

te kariru hand borrow

sore? ANATA TO that you and

ga S

itta go-PAST ni to

taishite towards nante shitenai like do-NEG

tte Qt

hito person

ne: FP

ni to

(e:) yeah

mento face

tomokaku anyway

janai be-NEG

desu COP

(hai) yes

wake? . . . doo iu COM what say

musuko son

mukatte, (e:) facing yeah konkon ONMT

to Q

san T

ga , and

hanashite, talk-PRE

tokitsuzukeru convince-continue

ka. ((continues)) Q

‘Ca: And, you see, we went to the police station nearby (oh) and when we went to the police station, our son when talking to the policeman says that he does not driveCo: -Why do you always have to get someone else’s help? What is that? YOU (yes) and your son (yes) right? (yes) Face to face, (yes) you have to, anyway, talk to him. Isn’t it a case of you having to keep on persuading him? ((continues)).’ Note that as in the previous questions, the caller does not and cannot provide any kind of answer. In the examples above, the wake-Q is used effectively to deliver stern criticism, and it is clear that it is a very effective strategy. It is unknown though, whether this particular usage is restricted to broadcast exchanges where there is an element of ‘entertainment’ and sensationalism or whether it also occurs in other types of ‘institutional’ counselling exchanges. However, we can see that wake-Qs can be used for different purposes and that they help the counsellor and the host to carry out various counselling moves such as admonishing, criticizing, demanding an explanation and so on. It is interesting that questions are used for these different purposes where other types of speech acts could have been used. The first wake-Q in line 6 is probably

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the most effective way of conveying the counsellor’s message and advice that the father should try to talk to his son without intermediaries. By using a question, the persuasive force of the indirect advice is stronger because the interrogative element demands an answer from the caller. As we have seen, COM-Qs as well as ne-Qs are very useful tools in the counselling interaction of these radio phone-in programs as they have many functions and actively engage the caller in the process.

Conclusion This chapter has shown that even though radio phone-in programs are also ‘institutional’ interactions, the types and frequencies of questions are quite different from other interactions. Hosts and counsellors use questions strategically to obtain as much information as possible, to offer advice and sometimes to admonish and lecture their callers while creating a good rapport with them. The majority of questions in radio phone-in programs fall in the ne-Qs and Wh-Qs categories, a feature that they share with the television programs. The use of open-ended questions, for example, is a strategy to elicit information that is common to both types of institutional exchanges; however, in radio programs questions ask for information that is completely new to the hosts and counsellors. Eliciting information, whether known or unknown, is one of the most important goals in both television and radio. However, the radio programs used for this study are produced to offer counselling to callers and indirectly to the audience. As repeatedly mentioned, accurate information is hard to obtain not only because of the complexity of the problems but also because of the callers’ inability to reveal crucial details. Therefore, hosts and counsellors have to use different strategies to elicit information. In the initial stages of the program, basic information in relation to the age, marital status and family composition of the callers is asked. Usually, Wh-Qs, elliptical-Qs and Y/N-Qs are used because of the limited amount of time in which the host has to gather as much information as possible to facilitate the advice-giving process. Later in the programs, ne-Qs are observed being used by both hosts and counsellors. These questions are very useful because of their wide range of uses. Ne-Qs are used to confirm, conform or admonish the callers while maintaining a good rapport with them. However, there is another side to the use of ne-Qs in radio phone-in programs not observed in television interviews. Ne-Qs can be used as masked criticism in the same way that no-Qs, koto-Qs or wake-Qs are used. This phenomenon can be explained in terms of the purpose of the interaction and the status differences between the caller and the host/counsellor. As the program is designed to offer counselling, hosts and counsellors use wake-Qs and koto-Qs to give advice to callers, but also to criticize, admonish and persuade them. The use of questions to accomplish these social actions is possible also because of the status differences. The relatively higher status of the host and the counsellor is evident in another strategy that is used throughout the programs. This is manifested in speech style shifts from polite to informal that have two functions: to create a shorter social distance and therefore create a rapport and to show

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authority. This is especially evident in the fact that style shifts are only observed in the discourse of the host and counsellor while the callers refrain from shifting styles. This chapter shows the versatility of questions in ‘institutional’ discourse and that ne-Qs, in particular, are favoured by hosts and counsellors as a very practical communicative tool. It is important also to point out that most questions can be used to project a variety of stances on the part of the speaker depending on the preceding discourse and the content of the talk, as seen in the uses of the ne-Qs and the no-Qs.

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5

Nourishing the Friendship: Questions in Friends’ Talk

Introduction This chapter looks at questions in dyadic conversations between friends. In contrast to institutional interactions, casual talk is characterized by the use of informal style. This aspect influences the syntactic structure of questions as it is expected that ka particles will not be used very often. Moreover, because friend talk is not bound by rules that apply to interviews or counselling sessions it is expected that questions will have different functions. Thus, aside from looking at the type of short questions used by friends, this chapter explores how they are formed and their purpose. Are questions used mainly to ask for information? Or are they used to introduce topics? The university students in the dyadic interactions are very close friends, and this characteristic is the most significant difference between the data in this chapter and that in the rest of the book. This friendship entails a shared knowledge and a common experience that influences all aspects of communication making it sometimes very difficult for researchers to understand why certain choices are made. Another aspect of these interactions is that their goal is very different to interviews or counselling sessions. Friends get together without a set goal except to foster their friendship through sharing their latest activities and gossip and to enjoy each other’s company through talk. One of the aspects particular to friend talk in Japanese is that the speech is in informal style, and while as in any other interactions there are style shifts, these are very limited and strategically accomplished. In informal style questions the ka question particle is omitted and interrogativity is mainly accomplished through intonation and Wh-question words. Naturally, all these factors contribute to creating very different characteristics to those of ‘institutional’ discourse. Casual conversations are well-known for their degree of interlocutors’ ‘involvement’ in the interaction, and research has looked into conversational involvement and its importance in the maintenance of talk or ‘interactional achievement’ (Chafe, 1985; Gumperz, 1982; Schegloff, 1988). This ‘involvement’ can be observed in cooperative and collaborative linguistic strategies such

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as repetitions (Coates, 1996; Fujimura-Wilson, 2007; Tannen, 1984), co-construction (Coates, 1996), use of backchannels (Coates, 1996; S. Maynard, 1989) and so on.

Some characteristics of Japanese casual speech and questions As mentioned in Chapter 1, many studies in the 1970s and 1980s on Japanese communication highlighted some ‘peculiarities’ of the language such as the frequent use of backchannels known as aizuchi and the co-construction of sentences sometimes referred to as isshin denshin or telepathic communication. These were explained in terms of the characteristics of Japanese society such as the importance of harmony, consensus, situation or ba and the hierarchical nature of human relationships (Lebra, 1976; Mizutani, 1985; Mizutani and Mizutani, 1987). These aspects were further strengthened by some researchers who compared Japanese and English talk, and concluded that harmony, for example, might account for the higher frequency of backchannels and fewer interruptions found in Japanese (Furo, 2001; S. Maynard, 1989; Strauss and Kawanishi, 1996; White, 1989; H. Yamada, 1992). The aspect of harmony, ishindenshin ‘telepathic communication’ and the collaborative nature of Japanese communication are, as explained in Chapter 1, now being described as a result of the way in which Japanese grammar is structured (H. Tanaka, 1999); the ‘incremental’ turn-construction nature of the language is seen as facilitating, for example, the co-construction of sentences (Hayashi, 2003). Japanese seem to interpret conjunctive particles and any pragmatic completion point as potential TRPs (Ford and Thompson, 1996: 150) so that turn-taking can occur at points where syntactic completion is not achieved (Mori, 1999; Ono and Yoshida, 1996; H. Tanaka, 1999, 2001) and not because people ‘guess’ what the speaker intended to say. Other aspects of Japanese have attracted much attention and ongoing research is contributing to the understanding of discourse markers (Onodera, 2004), sentence final particles (H. Tanaka, 2000), backchannels (Horiguchi, 1997; L. Tanaka, 2004); turn projectability (Hayashi, 2003; H. Tanaka, 2001) and so on. However, colloquial Japanese questions have not received similar attention, with the notable exception of Takagi (1999) and Hayashi (2010). Hayashi’s study is based on spontaneous conversations where questions seeking information or agreement were identified. As this comprehensive study is explained in detail in Chapter 2, only Takagi’s work will be discussed here. Her study is one of the few works available in English about the use of questions in casual Japanese that shows how they are used to perform different social actions and their importance in the turn-taking aspect of communication. Using argumentative talk, Takagi (1999) describes in detail how questions are used in an argument. She also shows that questions are not always designed to ask for information, but have various other functions. It is clear, for example, that some questions are used to accuse, for instance, and the listener responded with a non-answer. Non-answers exhibit features of preferred answers (they were given without delay or prefacing). Her study demonstrates that the morpho-syntactic shape of a question cannot be automatically associated with questioning. Takagi adds that ‘interrogative forms can be seen as grammaticization of a fundamental interaction unit of [recipient-

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oriented action] – [response] (1999: 413).’ Undeniably, Takagi’s study is of particular importance for the understanding of the various functions of questions; however, there are still many aspects of questions in casual talk that have not yet been explored such as the use of questions in amicable interactions.

Questions in the conversations This section presents the numerical results of the analysis and a detailed description of the most common types of questions found in 12 interactions selected at random. The informal data in this study is part of the BTS 2007 corpora1 which is made up of transcriptions of recorded interactions between close friends who are university students. Topics were not allocated; however, participants (except for two interactions) were given an envelope, and were asked to open it whenever they felt ready. The envelope contained the question: ‘What is your impression of your friend?’ which they had to answer during the interaction. There were 609 questions (262 in all-female interactions and 349 in all-male interactions) in 285 minutes of recorded dyadic conversations. Most topics were about university life, mutual friends and activities and gossip. Due to privacy laws in Japan, all personal and place names have been changed to a specific term (person, school, place and so on) and a number which are the only means of identification for reference purposes within the texts. The types of questions found in dyadic conversations are, naturally, very different to those in ‘institutional’ interactions. Elliptical-Qs are the most frequently used (27%) followed, in descending order of frequency by no-Qs (18%); Wh-Qs in the short style (12%); and deshoo-Qs and janai-Qs (9%, 8%).2 Other types of questions include Y/N-Qs (6%), ne-Qs (5%), kke-Qs (3.8%), negative-Qs (3.5%) and interjections (3.5%). Interestingly, there are very few COM-Qs (wake and koto) (1.8%) and another 1.8 per cent are not authentic questions despite their rising intonation (Not Q). This last group are not used to ask for information but are rather a recently observed phenomenon referred to as half-questions (Shin, 2006). Although not significant in frequency when compared with other questions, they are used considerably more often than in television and radio discourse, and they appear to be a characteristic of young people’s talk. These half-questions might be part of youth language as can be observed in the speech of young unacquainted people in Chapter 6. In the subsequent sections I will show in detail how these questions are used by young people in informal talk. What is interesting about these interactions is that questions are not always answered; they are sometimes answered with questions, or not answered at all. Yet talk continues without communicative problems in the interaction. Table 5.1 Questions in friends’ talk (%) WH 12

Y/N 6

ellip 27

Echo 0.9

~ne 5

janai 8

deshoo 9

kke 4

tte NEG ~no COM Intrj Not Q 0.8 3.5 18 1.8 3.5 1.8

ellip-elliptical, Intrj-interjection

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30 27 25 20

18

15

12 9

10 6

8

5

5

3.5

4

0.9

1.8

0.82

3.45

1.8

Q ot

rj N

M

te In

O

i C

na ja

tte

kk e

EG N

o Ec ho

e

sh o

o

de

~n

~n

lip el

N Y/

W

H

0

Figure 5.1 Questions in friends’ talk

These characteristics of talk between friends – not only the types of questions that are quite different to those used in institutional discourse, but how they are answered (or not answered at all) – make this type of discourse quite distinctive.

Elliptical-Qs Involvement and interest In casual conversation, friends use elliptical-Qs more often than in other types of data suggesting that the degree of formality influences their use. In Chapter 3, we described UU-Qs and elliptical-Qs. UU-Qs are those that end in conjunctions or adverbial forms. In the present data, there are very few UU-Qs, but 27 per cent are elliptical-Qs. This distribution is the opposite of that found in television discourse. Many of these elliptical-Qs are used to contribute to the on-going talk rather than to obtain information and this might be a characteristic of very informal conversation (Eggins and Slade, 1997). Elliptical-Qs in this data comprised nouns, predicates or noun phrases with final rising intonation. Among these, noun phrases are the most commonly used. Noun phrases in Japanese consist of nouns followed by a grammatical particle and are used to project possible predicate use (H. Tanaka, 1999). Interestingly, questions ending in ne are very few in this data even though it has been argued that Japanese speakers use final particles extensively as they indicate the speaker’s stance, and in general they are used to create rapport among speakers (S. Maynard, 1989). The absence of sentence final particles, on the other hand, has been explained as a strategy to foreground the information in the sentence (Cook, 1990); however, in the present data, participants seem to use other strategies to achieve both of these actions. Now, let us look at a number of examples. Two women (F9 and F10) in the following exchange are talking about why F10 fell asleep in class. The latter explains that she had

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been working on the assignment until five o’clock in the morning. What is interesting here is that even though F10 says that she was up until five in the morning in line 1, F09’s first elliptical-Q in line 2 asks the exact time, nanpun ‘how many minutes (past)’. F09 interrupts in line 4 realizing perhaps that her question was irrelevant and produces another elliptical-Q consisting of a noun asa ‘morning’ and the grammatical particle no marking possession. It asks whether she meant five o’clock in the morning. The fact that F09 repeats this question twice indicates her surprise; these types of questions are used more as exclamations rather than information-eliciting speech acts. F10 answers affirmatively but does not give the information asked by her friend and continues to explain the reason why she fell asleep in class. This phenomenon is interesting as the conversation seems to continue without problems even though F09’s question is about the exact time and F10 does not provide an answer. In some cases it seems that questions between friends are not used to ask for information but rather as strategies to show interest and involvement in the interaction. (1) (JF35) 1 F10: kyoo today

mo also

2 F09: nan how-many

asa morning

goji,, five-o’clock

pun? minutes

3 F10: goji: five-o’clock 4 F09: goji five-o’clock 5 F10: soo, yes ‘F10: F09: F10: F09: F10:

nan how-many

yattetta do-be-PAST

pun, minutes

kara because

asa morning

moo DM

sugoi very

no:? asa no:? of morning of kyoo nemukute today sleepy-CONJ

Today too, (until) five in the morning How many minutes past? FiveFive, and how many minutes past . . . in the morning? in the morning? Yes, because I was writing (the assignment) I am so sleepy today’

The fact that F09 repeats her question twice seems to function as a type of ‘selfcorrection’. This is observed in the change that she makes to her question in line 4 to ask whether her friend stayed awake all night, presumably because she realizes that her previous question was unimportant or irrelevant. The repetition could also function to emphasize her surprise. F10 tries to answer F09’s question in line 3, and she is interrupted, but in line 5 she does not answer the question and continues to explain why she was so sleepy. It seems that even though questions are asked, the listener can ignore them yet the talk continues without major problems. Some of the features of unplanned or casual language are that turns are short (S. Maynard, 1989; Ochs, 1979), deletion of referents is common and that semantic

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relations are not always clearly marked (S. Maynard, 1989; Ochs, 1979; Stubbs, 1983). These short questions and the talk in general reflect some of these features. Moreover, short questions that ask for information are extremely ‘economic’ in the sense that the speaker can get the information needed with minimal effort, as we have seen. Or, as in the example above, the question might function to elicit more talk (S. Maynard, 1989). The turn-taking between friends is impressionally at a faster pace and the length of the turns is shorter than in other types of interactions. These characteristics are seen also in the length of the questions as in the next example where there is only a noun+rising intonation that functions as a question. The topic of the following conversation is the experience F03 had while teaching in schools in a South East Asian country. F03 says that the air conditioners’ remote controls were missing in many classrooms because they had been stolen. F04 asks what they are used for in line 1, using the words tsukau and no to which F03 responds that they are sold and laughs. The next turn is a question from F04 consisting of only the noun gakusee ‘student/s’ and the subject marker particle ga meaning, ‘Are the students stealing the remote controls?’ One possible predicate is nusumuno? ‘(Tell me, is it the students who steal them?)’. Note that F03 was not sure of the answer; we understand this because her turn starts with a, which is the equivalent of the English oh indicating a change-of-state (Heritage, 1984b) followed by the incomplete word gaku and a slight pause. She continues with the word tabun ‘perhaps’ and ends her turn with the question particle and SFP na. (2) (J32) 1 F04: enan what what 2 F03: uru sell 3 F04

tsukau use

no? ((surprised)) COM

no@@ COM

gakusee student

4 F03: a, oh

ni for

ga? S

gaku.. tabun gakusee stu perhaps student

ka Q

na: FP

‘F04: What! What do they use them for? F03: They sell them @@@ F04: The students? F03: Oh, the stud, perhaps it’s the students, maybe’ It is not the case that these types of elliptical-Qs are not present in ‘institutional’ interactions, as we saw in the radio phone-in programs or television interviews, but it is the frequency with which they occur in conversations that is one of the most conspicuous features of conversations. While nouns and noun phrases comprise less than 5.2 per cent and 0.35 per cent of all unfinished questions in radio and television discourse respectively, in the data for the present chapter this figure rises to 27 per cent. This frequent use of syntactically unfinished questions is one of the features that gives the impression that informal talk is more fragmented and disordered than other interactions (Stubbs, 1983).

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Shared knowledge Shared knowledge and common experience are two aspects particular to talk between friends that influence all features of speech. This can be observed in the way elliptical-Qs are used. They prove to be extremely useful and contribute as mentioned previously, to the perception that casual talk is fragmented. This pattern of questions is regarded as highly interactive (Eggins and Slade, 1997). It is known that the longer the phrases or turns, the more polite the style (Brown and Levinson, 1987). Therefore, the length of questions is also related to the degree of politeness, and the short turns in the data reflect the features of unplanned and casual speech (S. Maynard, 1989). The following example is a typical exchange among close friends. F17 and F18 are talking about F17’s grandmother who suffers from dementia. She explains how her condition became worse and in line 1 she adds that the situation is serious, and this is followed by F17’s use of a sequence of the lengthened vowel a, which indicates her feelings of frustration, despair and annoyance (line 1). She finally says soo nanda yo ne which means ‘that is how things are’. It is apparent that the topic makes it difficult for her friend to contribute, and in order to alleviate the situation F18 changes the topic and uses the question saikin doo ‘recently how (are things)’ asking how things are going for her in (line 2). The canonical order of constituents in Japanese is one in which time-related words are placed at the beginning of a statement or question. Timerelated words such as saikin ‘recently’ can be topicalized or, as in the exchange below, the topic particle might be omitted. As the talk proceeds, it becomes clear that the intended question referred to the state of F17’s thesis. Note that F17 does not answer the question but asks another question herself which is the repetition of the word saikin and is accompanied by rising intonation (line 3). The interesting aspect of this question, and this refers again to shared knowledge, is that this exchange occurs in the middle of the conversation. The question ‘How have things been recently?’ is produced unexpectedly and only later can the researcher understand that they are talking about F17’s thesis; however, it is an understood topic for both speakers. Even though they do not specifically mention the word ‘thesis’, both know what information the question is seeking, and this displays their shared knowledge. It is only in line 6 that F17 mentions the word thesis. Note that she uses very formal words in line 5 and she shifts to the polite form in line 6 showing her commitment. (3) (JF115) 1 F17: shinkoku. serious 2 F18: saikin recently

a:a:a:a:a:, oh

soo that

na COP

n da COM COP

yo ne. FP FP

doo? how

3 F17: saikin? recently 4 F18: un yes

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saikin, recently

ichioo somehow

7 F18: a, soo oh that

demo but

ne FP

kikikan sense-urgency

torikundeorimasu, strive-HUMB na COP

shuuron thesis

o DO

motte (un) have yeah

kankei . . . related

n da. COM COP

‘F17: It is serious, oh: oh: oh: oh. that is how things are F18: How have things been recently? F17: Recently? F18: Uh-huh. F17: Oh, recently, but, I have the sense of urgency and I am striving in relation to my thesis. F18: Oh, is it so?’ The above type of exchange is not possible in institutional interactions or in talk between people who do not know each other well; however, it is very common between friends and probably family members as well. Another example where interesting aspects in relation to shared knowledge, informality and familiarity can be seen is in the next extract where F03 and F04 are talking about the former’s attendance of a lecture (most probably). Known as a pre-announcement (Schegloff, 2007; Terasaki, 2004), F03 asks ittake, kono aida no ‘Did I tell you about the other day’. This is a postponed question where the final verb and particle are placed first, itta (tell-PAST) kke (abbreviated quotative particle) followed by the phrase kono aida no ‘the other day’s’ (line 1). This is followed by F04’s question in line 2 consisting of a single question word nani ‘what’. This strategy of ‘announcing’ one’s next topic to the listener is an effective way of getting the attention of the listener (Schegloff, 2007; Terasaki, 2004). F03 explains in line 3 about the audio teaching materials’ event which she attended. At no other point is it made clear what F03 was referring to apart from chookai kyoozai no toki ‘at the event on audio teaching materials’. Note that they have no problem understanding each other as F04 immediately asks her question in line 4 doo datta ‘How was it?’ As analysts, we can only infer or speculate that it was either a lecture or a talk that F03 had attended and recorded (later F03 says that she used a recorder at the event). Although where F03 went is not revealed, it is clear that the speakers share that information and communication between them proceeds without any trouble. (4) (JF32) 1 F03: itta go-PAST

kke. Qt

konaida last-time

no of

2 F04: nani? what 3 F03: chookai kyoozai listening material 4 F04:

a oh

no of

toki when

doo datta? how COP-PAST

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Did I tell you? About the other day’s What? when the listening materials oh, how was it?’

The use of pre-announcements or turns which give a kind of preamble to what the speaker is going to talk about has been reported in English (e.g. Terasaki, 2004); however, to my knowledge no works have been published on this topic in Japanese communication. One of the characteristics of pre-announcements is that they can be other types of syntactic modes, and that questions are only one possible form. More details on these question sequences are given in the subsection on distinctive question– answer sequences. Another example of elliptical-Qs is seen in (5). It appears that F05 works, presumably part-time, in either a radio or television station. She is talking to her friend about how one can get into the building where she works. She says that a permit is issued at the entrance once a form has been filled out (line 1). F06 seems surprised, as observed in the use of e (Hayashi, 2009), and asks her question which ends in the conjunctive particle de and rising intonation. Possible endings to her question are iino and daijoobu nano, both meaning ‘is fine?’ or a longer predicate hoka ni nanimo iranaino ‘you don’t need anything else?’ F06 answers that it is enough to write (fill in) a form (the implication would be that one is not required to show an ID). Notice the exact repetition of the phrase kaku dake ‘only write’ which has been described as a collaborative stance (Tannen, 1989), but also as a communicative practice among young people (Fujimura-Wilson, 2007). (5) (JF33) 1 F05: soo yes

iriguchi entrance

de in

2 F06: e, really

kaku write

3 F05: kaku write

dake. only

4 F06: e. really

toiawase questions

‘F05: F06: F05: F06:

dake only

kaitara write-COND

kureru give

nyuukanshoo entry-permit

de? CONJ

toka like

sarenai? so-PASS-NEG

Yes, if you write (it) at the entrance they give you an entry permit. Really. Just writing (it)? Just writing. Really. Don’t they ask you questions?’

As stated in the introduction of this chapter, shared knowledge in talk between close friends or family members that is inaccessible to outsiders makes it difficult to fully understand the context and meaning of the exchange and sometimes assumptions have to be made, as in the example above. While F05’s workplace is known to both speakers, the researcher is left to make conjectures as to whether she is working there

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part-time or full-time and also that F05’s workplace must be a rather important institution because it requires visitors to register. In this particular case, assumptions were made based on the on-going conversation and the fact that many university students in Japan hold part-time jobs while studying; all these inferences are based on common knowledge of Japanese society. The elliptical-Qs in these examples are very common in the data as the frequency analysis shows. When looking at the data in detail, we can see that these questions are used to perform many other actions than asking for information. In the following section, we will see some more examples according to their grammatical format.

Asking for information Naturally, these short questions are also used to ask for unknown information or to introduce a topic. The next excerpt is from the start of the recorded conversation between M01 and M02 who seem to be rather nervous. M02 first says that they should see what the envelope contains but M01 seems reluctant. There is much laughter and M01 introduces a topic in the form of a statement. He says that this is the first time that he has been to where they are now. The topic is taken up by M01 and he starts talking about the buildings around them, presumably looking through a window. M01 indicates that the building far away looks typical of a university [1]; however, it appears that M02 is not sure which building M01 is referring to and says dore ‘which one’ with rising intonation which overlaps with M01’s turn. (6) (JM1) 1 M01: are that

daigaku[1]. rauniversity like

2 M02: [dore?] which-one 3 M01: [=shikunee] like-NEG 4 M02:

no FP

[are?] ano That-one that

[are] that-one yama no mountain of

ue? top?

‘M01: that over there looks [like] university (1) M02: [Which one?’] M01: [Doesn’t it look like?] [that one] M02: [that one?] on top of that mountain?’ The question are ‘that one over there’ overlaps with M01’s turn in line 4 and we can see that M02 has recognized one building on top of the hill and confirms whether this is the one with M01. This last question is also accompanied by rising intonation. What is interesting about the first question in line 2 is that because it completely overlaps with M01’s turn it could have been overlooked. However, we can see that the answer is given in line 3 when M01 says that it is the one over there are. Notice that these questions

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are used to establish a topic of conversation between these two friends, and they are used to ask for information known to the listener. Although they know each other, the extract above is from the beginning of the interaction, and for M02 the place is new and they know that they are being recorded. Sometimes, elliptical-Qs have to be accompanied by a grammatical particle in order to be understood or to be grammatically acceptable. M09 and M10 are talking about passing a university subject and their attendance rate. In many Japanese universities, attendance to lectures is a compulsory component and students can fail a subject if they do not complete that hurdle. Here, M09 asks M10 if one of their friends had obtained a 70 per cent without studying (line 1). However, instead of answering, M10 asks an elliptical-Q with the Wh-word and the subject marker possibly because M09’s question was not clear. (For more on this phenomenon see the section on asking for clarification in this chapter.) The question word nani can be accompanied by other grammatical particles such as the direct object o, the indirect object ni and so on; however, the only acceptable particle in this case is the subject marker. Moreover, some of the Wh-question words would mean something different if they did not have any particle as the one in line 2. The question word nani and rising intonation could imply ‘please repeat’ or ‘what did you say’. Once M09 knows that M10 needs to explain what he meant in line 1, he explains in detail what he had meant and the topic is developed further. (7) (M09–10) 1 M09: nani what 2 M10: nani what

nanawari seventy-%

iketa n janakatta go-PAST-POT COM COP-NEG-PAST

no? FP

ga? S

3 M09: nanika something

ben stu

benkyoosen study-NEG

to COND

uketa yatsu receive-PAST thing

((continues)) ‘M09: Didn’t he get 70%? M10: Of what? M09: That subject that (he) passed without stud- studying ((continues))’ In lines 1 and 2 of (8), M06 comments that he does not like to see photographs of himself, in response to which M05 asks nande ‘why’ in line 3. M06 gives a short answer and we do not know whether he intended to give a longer response; however, it is clear that M05 did not want to relinquish his turn as he continues to speak in line 5. Observe that the question in line 3, asked by M05, seems to function differently to obtaining unknown information as he does not wait for M06 to proceed but keeps talking. We can speculate that the question nande is a strategic one; it helps him develop his explanation about the purpose of people taking photos, as seen in

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line 5, although he is not allowed to finish because of M06’s overlapping answer explaining why he does not want to have photographs taken of him. (8) (JM3) 1 M06:

jibun oneself

ga S

sa, FP

utsutta appear

2

nai COM

n COM

3 M05:

nande? why

4 M06:

e. yes

5 M05:

futsuu normally

6 M06:

[iya.iya.iya. @@@ jibun no myself

da COP

[miru look

shashin photos

toka, ore like I

mitaku see-DESI-NEG

yo. FP

deshoo] COP-HORT o DO

bikashiteru tte ((continues)) beautify-PRE Qt

‘M06: I don’t want to see photos of myself. M05: Why? M06: Yeah M05: Usually, you would look at them, [wouldn’t you] M06: [no.no.no.] @@@@ It is like beautifying oneself ((continues)).’ There are three Wh-words meaning ‘why’ in Japanese naze, dooshite and nande. Dooshite is used to express ‘feelings of uncertainty’ and originally meant ‘through what means’ while nande expresses that the reason or cause is unknown (Morita, 1989). They are thought to differ in terms of formality, with nande being the most informal. All the occurrences of ‘why’ in the data between friends were exclusively those of the nande variety, confirming that their distribution is regulated by the degree of politeness. These questions seem to have a quasi-rhetorical quality as they are used by speakers without expecting their listeners to give answers. Although this aspect is beyond the scope of this study, nande seems to have a stronger illocutionary force (Morita, 1989) and therefore its use is slightly different to the other varieties of ‘why’. Next, we will consider examples of Wh-Qs and Y/N-Qs.

Wh-Qs: Introducing topics Wh-Qs in the dyadic interactions are characterized by their plain form; polite forms occurred only rarely. Wh-Qs are used to start a topic, as in the following example. F07 and F08 are planning to sell food (waffles and coffee or tea) at the coming university festival. In Japanese universities, most students join extra-curricular clubs and much of their time and energy is spent in activities organized by those groups. The two friends are finalizing the details for that day and F08 asks her friend koocha tte ikura? teikuauto tte ‘How much is the tea. As take-away.’ It is clear that F07 does not have the answer

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as she herself asks F08 who, despite having asked the question in the first place, says that it would not cost more than 100 yen. What is interesting here is that although F08 seems not to know the exact price of a cup of tea, she corrects her friend in line 4. She says that a cup of tea does not cost more than 100 yen. It is therefore interesting that the Wh-Q is asked by F08, perhaps to engage in conversation as it is asked after a pause of 4 seconds. It is, of course, possible that F08 was genuinely trying to determine the exact price, but she knew that a cup would not cost more than 100 yen. (9) (F07–F08) 1 F08: (0.4) 2 F07: soo, yes 3

koocha tea

ikura? how-much

koocha tea

ga S

doregurai?= 200en? how-much 200-yen

4 F08 [u-n], no 5 F07:

100yen 100en

teikuauto takeout

tte Qt

wakaranakute, koocha know-NEG-CONJ tea

tte Qt

ippai one-cup

[150en?] 150-yen

shinai cost-NEG

shinai no? cost-NEG COM

6 F08: un. yeah ‘F08: (0.4) How much is the tea? F07: Yes, I don’t know the price of the tea. How much does one cup of tea cost? Two hundred yen? [One hundred and fifty yen?] F08: [No], it does not cost more than 100 yen. F07: Doesn’t it? F08: No.’ A similar question is observed in the next extract where a Wh-Q is used to start a topic. M02 and M01, presented in example (6), had just started to talk. Remember that M01 wanted to open the envelope given to them, but M02 was not very keen so he changed the topic asking a Wh-Q in line 1. M01 appears to be a student in the university where the recording is taking place while M02 is new to the place. The question provides a topic of conversation as they seem to be rather conscious of being recorded. M02 is cooperative in trying to engage in talk. He uses the slang for big, dekkai, which is considered to be a rough word used by men; however, in this interaction it seems to work as in-group marker. (10) (JM1) 1 M02: 2 M01:

kore nani this what annewell

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ga mieru? S see-POT

toriaezu first

are that

ga: S

(un. un) uchi no yeah we of

toshokan?? library

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un. dekkai yeah humongous ‘M2: M1: M2:

neFP

What can you see? Well, firstly, that is the (yeah, yeah) our library?? Uhm. It’s humongous, isn’t it?’

Wh-Qs, as we have seen in various examples, prove to be very efficient in providing a new topic or changing into a different one. In Chapters 1 and 2, we have seen that when questions are in the informal style, the use of the particle ka is not necessary and that, in fact, it might make the question pragmatically incorrect. The use of ka in some interrogative constructions is also connected to the gender of the speaker: in prescriptive explanations, ka is considered to be a question particle used only by men in informal speech.3 It is interesting, then, that even in all-male interactions there were very few instances of questions ending in ka. This finding suggests that even in informal all-male interactions Y/N-Qs are not uttered with the final ka particle as we can see in the next excerpt. In (11), M02 wants to know what is around the building where both M01 and M02 are. M01 describes one of the buildings saying that there is a cafeteria on the first floor. M02, then, asks a Y/N-Q in line 3 about whether anyone can go to that cafeteria. In Japanese universities, there are some restaurants on campus where entrance is restricted to lecturers and staff. M01 answers that anyone can enter regardless of their clothing, or that is what one can infer from his statement in line 4 (he is probably pointing to his own clothes). (11) (JM1) 1 M01:

de, and

ikkai first-floor

ga S

(un), yeah

ano: shokudoo uhm cafeteria

2

nattotte become-CONJ

3 M02:

un. yeah

4 M01:

jiyuuni freely

haireru. moo go-in-POT well

koo this

5

betsuni haittemo not-particularly go-in-can

iin but

6 M02:

= [ore I

mo] too

7 M01:

zenzen totally

yoyuu. possible

sore that

wa TOP

n into

jiyuuni haireru? freely go-in-POT iu type

kakkoo clothing

de CONJ

dakedo, [ichioo= just-in-case

ikeru? go-in-POT

‘M01: And, the first floor (yeah) uhm is the cafeteria and M02: Yeah. Can anyone enter there freely? M01: Anyone can enter freely. Well, you can even go in these clothes, [just in case]=

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= [Can I] go in? Absolutely.’

The questions in (11) contribute to the ongoing talk and M02 uses them to show his cooperation and input in the talk. It seems that some of the Wh-Qs and Y/N-Qs are inconsequential, but they serve to maintain the talk. It is known that Y/N-Qs are restrictive in the sense that the listener must choose to give either a positive or a negative answer. These types of questions are avoided in interviews because they are known to be unsuitable for generating more talk (see Chapter 3), and it seems that a similar thing occurs in talk between friends (see Table 5.1). Here, F15 and F16 are talking about their experiences travelling in some Asian countries. However, F15 suddenly changes the topic and asks whether F16 has talked to a particular lecturer using a Y/N-Q. Note that she uses the word sakki ‘a while ago’ implying that either they had previously seen or talked to this person (lines 1 and 2). F16 answers negatively and in the next turn F15 mentions the name of the lecturer again, apparently confirming (line 3) that they are talking about the same person. What is interesting is that, in line 4, F16 suddenly realizes that F15 is referring to ano hito ‘that person’ and she asks another Y/N-Q that is elliptical. She starts her turn with a- ‘oh’ that functions to indicate a change-of state (Heritage, 1984b) and is followed by the phrase ano hito ‘that person’ and final intonation, probably because she realizes that it was a different person she was thinking about. (12) (J15–16) 1 F15: e? oh 2

sakki no a-while-ago of

{jinmei 4} {name 4}

sensee teacher

tte Qt

shabetta talk-PAST

koto aru? COM be-PRE

3 F16: nai. be-NEG 4 F15: ano that 5 F16: aoh

hito person ano that

{jinmei4} sensee {name 4} teacher

hito? person

6 F15: soo yes 7 F16:

chicchai ne little FP ‘F15: Hey, have you spoken to Professor {name 4} that we (saw/ talked) to before? F16: No. F15: That person Professor {name 4} F16: Oh, that person? F15: Yes. F16: He/she is short, ne?’

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In the extract above, we can see not only an exchange of questions in the informal style but an interesting phenomenon. Although some discrepancies appear in the content there are no interactional problems besides the ‘a’ in line 5. While F16 answers F15’s question negatively, she seems to realize that her friend was talking about someone else. However, it is difficult to understand what really occurred here except that the answers to Y/N-Q are short and talk is not generated. This might not, however, be the case every time a Y/N-Q is asked. Most interestingly, though, is the sudden change of topic in lines 1 and 7. In line 1, the previous topic, as mentioned before, was their experience overseas and in line 7 F16 talks about the height of the professor. These are all features of casual talk, in particular of high involvement interaction, mentioned by many researchers. Topics are changed suddenly and there is a lack of softeners (Tannen, 1984). It is known that dispreferred answers are generally ‘mitigated or attenuated’ (Schegloff, 2007: 64) as can be seen in the use of fillers or discourse markers. However, this seems not to occur in conversation between friends as we can see in the examples in this chapter. Another example of a Y/N-Q is seen in the next interaction where F03 and F04 are talking about F03’s experience teaching in a South East Asian country. Here, F03 is referring to the language of a particular group of young people from the capital city. F04 shows her surprise and interest in the topic as seen in line 3. Her initial a indicates that she was not aware that the languages in the urban and rural districts are quite different and asks a Y/N-Q. The answer is short and there is no any further talk possibly because F03 does not know more in detail, or because the question simply does not elicit more talk. (13) (F03–04) 1 F03: nanka DM 2

sugoi very

3 F04: a, oh

hoogen dialect wakamono young

tte Qt

iu say

ka Q

nan what

daroo COP

kotoba mitaina language DM

kotoba jitai language itself

mo also

chigau different

no? COM

4 F03: soo. yes 5 F04: a oh ‘F03: F04: F03: F04:

Well, it’s a kind of dialect or youth language, kind of Oh, so the language itself is different? Yes. Oh.’

In general, it is uncertain whether talk fails to be generated only because of the use of Y/N-Qs or because of the topic itself; however it appears that Y/N-Qs in conversations seem to be restrictive and generally do not generate further talk.

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Being friends: The different uses of no-Qs No-Qs are used very frequently in conversation between friends. We have seen in Chapter 2 that sometimes the particle no is compulsory when constructing questions in the informal style, and that on other occasions it can change the meaning of the question (to include/exclude the listener). Moreover, as discussed in Chapter 2, no-Qs are used in explanatory discourse (Kuno, 1973b); as a part of female speech (McGloin, 1986); when there is shared knowledge (Cook, 1990); to express personal attitude and indicate the ‘immediacy of experience’ (S. Maynard, 1990: 392); and to maintain harmony (Cook, 1990). Various arguments explain this phenomenon, but what seems to be basic to most of these views is that when the speaker asks a question with the no ending, there is an assumption that the listener knows the answer or that he/she has access to that information (Cook, 1990; McGloin, 1980; Noda, 1995). The next example illustrates such a point. F11 asks her friend whether Kaoru4 is here now, using the question Kaoru kiteru no? (Has Kaoru come/ Is Kaoru here?) but postposing the time word ima ‘now’. F12 says in line 2 that the person being discussed was here yesterday kinoo kitetandakedo leaving her sentence incomplete, and the listener assumes that her intended meaning is that Kaoru is not here today. In line 3, F11 asks the same propositional content as her question in line 1, but using a different construction. She uses a negative-Q kyoo wa kitenai no? that has the word kyoo ‘today’ and ends in no. The fact that F11 asks the whereabouts of Kaoru means that she assumes F12 has access to that information. We can only speculate that F12 is either closer to Kaoru than F11 or is better informed. F12 answers immediately in line 4 replying that she does not know, and adds that there is no guarantee that Kaoru comes to university every day. Her turn ends in question form. (14) JF112 1 F11:

Kaoru name

kiteru come

no? ima COM now

2 F12:

kinoo yesterday

kiteta come-PAST

3 F11:

kyoo today

4 F12:

wakannai. mainichi kuru Understand/know-NEG everyday come

5

n janai? COM be-NEG

wa TOP

n COM

kitenai come-NEG

dakedo but

no? COM to wa kagiranai COND TOP limit-NEG

‘F11: Is Kaoru here? now. F12: Well, he/she was here yesterday. F11: She/he is not here today? F12: I don’t know. It’s not as if he/she comes in every day, is it?’ It is interesting to notice that F12’s answer does not exactly correspond to what F11 wants to know. F11 is asking whether Kaoru is on campus now, and not about yesterday.

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The answer that F11 was after is provided in line 4. While it is an immediate response without any mollifiers it contains a slight reproach. However, in this example as in others, we can see how casual conversation proceeds without listeners giving answers that are expected of them. In line 2, F12 gives an indirect answer and expects F12 to infer that Kaoru is not in today but that he/she was in yesterday. The fact that F11 has to ask another question in line 3 indicates that either she did not infer from F12’s answer that Kaoru was not at university that day, or that this is an example of how casual conversation is managed. Even though the answer is not what the speaker wants to know, the fact that turn-taking is accomplished without problems indicates that talk with friends has a different purpose, not to exchange information but as ‘maintenance work’ on the friendship. Another characteristic of the no-Q is the difference in knowledge between the person who asks the question and the one who answers. The following extract shows that M13 is more knowledgeable about the internet than M14. M13 is not sure about the characteristics of internet chats and asks a no-Q in line 1 which overlaps with his friend’s lengthy answer (omitted here). From the previous topics before line 1, it is clear that M13 is quite knowledgeable about the internet and technology. Prior to this question, M13 was explaining the BBS (Bulletin Board System), and also the features of chat in detail. (15) JM7 1 M14: 2 M13:

chatto chat

tte Qt

[chatto] tte chat Qt

riaru taimu real time iu say

[na no]? COP COM

no wa-, . . . ((continues)) COM TOP

‘M14: Is chat real time? M13: Chat is ((continues))’. It appears that M14 does not know much about new technology whereas the listener does. This is in line with what some researchers have observed in respect to knowledge (Cook, 1990; McGloin, 1980; Noda, 1995). As Cook (1990) and others have pointed out, the function of the no-Q is used when there is an assumption that the listener has access to the information. In Chapter 2 we mentioned that the particle no besides being a question particle has a pragmatic function that directs the question to the listener. Thus, a question without no includes the speaker AND the listener, whereas a no-Q is directed at the listener. However, as with any pragmatic marker, it is multi-functional and depending on the context and the previous discourse, it can refer to both listener and speaker. In the following extract, M07 and M08 are talking about their summer plans for August. The question in line 1 can be interpreted in two ways: that M07 wants to know what M08 is going to do on the second of August, or what they (and their friends) are going to do on that date. It is only when looking at M08’s turn in line 2, which asks instead who is going to come, that we can understand the question is inclusive. The question in line 1 has a noun phrase in which the particles are missing and it is followed by the Wh-Q word doo ‘how, in what way’+ the verb suru ‘to do’. It is often the case that many

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constituents are omitted in Japanese, so it is difficult to know whether the question refers to M08 or to all of them (M07, M08 and their friends). Note also that M07’s question is answered with another question, a very common phenomenon in casual conversation that will be discussed in the subsequent section. (16) (M07–8) 1 M07: hachigatsu futsuka, August second 2 M08:

doo how

suru do

no? FP

dare who

ga iku koto natte S go COM become

n Com

no? FP

kekkyokuwa after-all

‘M07: M08:

The 2nd of August, what are we going to do? Who has said that they are going? In the end.’

This example shows the importance of previous talk or shared knowledge because it can determine the question’s meaning. Translated into English, the same question in line (1) could have two different renditions: ‘What are we doing on the 2nd of August?’ and ‘What are you doing in the 2nd of August’. This aspect of language is made more complicated in Japanese because of personal pronoun omissions and also the nature of no-Qs. At other times, no-Qs are used to introduce or change topics as in the following excerpt. F05 and F06 start the interaction with F05 asking her friend where she/they are going to drink. F05 seems surprised and confirms that Kichijooji is the place where she/they are going. It is unclear though, whether F06 is also included in the activity as F05’s question can imply both meanings: that F06 is going with her friends or that F05 is also going. This initial topic develops into a number of sub-topics and later on it appears that it is only F05 that is going drinking as we can see in example (25). (17) (IF05–F06) 1 F05: kyoo today

dokode nomu where drink

2 F06

kyoo today

3

iu say

4 F05:

kichijooji? Kichijooji

5 F06:

un. yes ‘F05: F06: F06:

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wa TOP

kichijooji Kichijooji

no? COM no of

[chimei] no place of

[tenmei] tte shop Qt

itarian Italian

kichijooji Kichijooji Where are (you/we) going to drink today? Today, we (are going to drink) in Kichijooji in an Italian [restaurant] of [place name] Yes, Kichijooji.’

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A similar question is observed in the next extract where a no-Q is used to start a topic. M08 and M07 have just started to talk, as in the example above, and M08 takes the initiative asking a no-Q as seen in line 1. The question seems to be a rather inconsequential one; however, it provides a topic of conversation. Asking what one had for lunch or dinner seems to be a rather banal question but, as we can see, this initiates the talk and soon both discuss the types of food one should eat to develop muscles and so on. Note that as a sign of camaraderie, M08 uses the slang terms for meal meshi and to eat kuu. These are considered to be rough words and are used by men; however, in this interaction they seem to work as in-group markers. (18) (M07–08) 1 M08: meshi meal

nani, what

kutta eat-PAST

2 M07: kyoo today

wa TOP

ne FP

3

oroshi to grated-daikon

4

raisu rice

wakadori young-chicken

(un) yeah

eru big-serve

n? COM

e:to: uhm

tte Qt

no of

wafuu Japanese-style

agedashitoofu agedashi-tofu

kanji form

to and

misoshiru miso-soup

de. and

5 M08: a: @@ oh 6 M07: itatte futsuu extremely normal 7 M08: tte Qt 8

iu say

ka Q

sukunasugiru little-overly

sa:, FP yo FP

no of

itsumo always

doori as

tenisugonishite tennis-after-to-be

no. of wa TOP

meshi food

na, demo. FP but

9 M07: so? really ‘M08: What did you eat today? M07: As for today, it was chicken with grated daikon a la Japanese and (yeah) uhm, agedashitoofu and miso soup, and a large serving of rice M08: Oh @@@ M07: Extremely normal, as always M08: Your meal is a little too insubstantial for after tennis, though M07: Really?’ Extract (18), in particular, is a good example of how speakers use no-Qs not only to ask for unknown information but also to show involvement in the interaction (Eggins and Slade, 1997). One of the findings of my research is that this is the main difference in how no-Qs are used in talk between friends versus institutional settings.

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As seen in this chapter, no-Qs occur with high frequency in informal conversations. However, there were no instances in which these questions were used to admonish or criticize the listener, in the manner seen in the previous chapter.

Shared knowledge and confirming information: deshoo-Qs We have defined deshoo-Qs in Chapter 2 as those that are used to confirm what is already known to the speaker, rather than to obtain new information. They have also been described as light questions (McClain, 1990), as tag-questions (Nakada, 1980), as questions designed to get the listener’s agreement (Makino and Tsutsui, 1992), as a politeness strategy, as soliloquy or when the speaker expects that the listener will not give an answer (Moriyama, 1992). Deshoo-Qs occur frequently in the data and as with the question types seen in the previous section, they are mainly used to create a collaborative interaction. These questions are inclusive as they invite agreement from the listener, and, as with English tag-questions, contribute to create a consultative and polite stance. It is, therefore, to be expected that they would be quite frequent in the present data, and also interesting that they are used often in television interviews and in radio programs. In (19), two friends are talking about meeting a future partner at university and the difficulties faced by girls who are attending all-women universities. Here, F10 is talking about a certain professor who teaches in one of the departments at their university who met his wife while still a student. F10 starts describing person 7, who is a writer, and his wife, who was also a student at the same university, in lines 1–2. F09 confirms that this is the person who gave a talk the other day saying kono aida kooen shita hito ‘the person who gave a talk the other day’ and adds deshoo because she knows that her friend knows who he is. Because deshoo questions are used with the understanding that there is shared knowledge and common experience, they are particularly representative of talk between close speakers. Similarly, speakers who use deshoo expect the listener to agree with them, emphasizing the degree of involvement in the conversation as we can see in the dialogue below. (19) (JF14) 1 F10: a, oh 2

te Qt

ano, uhm

5

ka Q

gakka x department

3 F09: [un, yeah 4 F10: a, oh

iu say

ne, {person 7} tte FP person 7 Qt no of

sa: FP

un, un] konaida yeah yearh last-time soo yes

soo yes

[sakka writer

irujan, be-NEG no of

hito] person

kooen shita talk do-PAST

soo. ano hito no yes that person of

hito deshoo? person COP

okusan mo wife also

ne . . . FP ‘F10:

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Oh, you know that there is this person [name], uhm in the x department, you know? [the writer]

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Japanese Questions F09: F10:

[yeah. yeah. yeah]. The person who gave a talk the other day, right? Oh, yes, yes, yes, that person’s wife too, you know.’

Some of the deshoo-Qs take the shortened version where the vowel and consonant / de/ merge into a single new consonant /s/. This phenomenon has been found in the speech of young males in their twenties and has also been reported in other predicate forms (Ozaki, 2000, 2002). As is invariably the case with all abbreviated forms, the question sounds very informal. M10 and M09 are talking about a drinking party they attended some time ago and M10 asks him if the particular Japanese liquor (similar to vodka) mentioned previously was delicious. His friend seems to disagree when he uses the expression maa ne in line 2. Lines 3 and 4 overlap and it appears that M09 did not relinquish the floor. M09 explains that he could have enjoyed it more if he had not had commitments the following day. M10 says that he is ‘recruiting’ friends that appreciate that particular brand of spirit. The deshoo-Q in this example is used when the speaker expects the listener to agree with him/her. However, when M09 gives a rather negative answer, he immediately tries to give an explanation in line 3 where he starts his failed turn with the words tte iuka ‘or I should say’ an often used discourse marker. As in the previous example, M10’s question in line 1 is chosen on the grounds that both of them did an activity together and had a common experience. Therefore, the function of this question, aside from asking for agreement, is a strategy to strengthen their friendship by referring back to common experiences. (20) (JM5) 1 M10:

ano that

hi day

2 M09:

maa well

ne. FP

3 M10:

[tte Qt

iu say

4 M09:

[tsugi no hi,] nanmo nakattara moo chotto nonda next of day nothing be-NEG-COND also little drink-PAST

5

yo FP

6 M10:

iichiko iichiko

7

o DO ‘M10: M09: M10: M09:

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oishikatta ssho? delicious COP

kaQ

o: DO

(un) oishii yeah delicious

boshuuchuu na recruit-during COP

tte nondekureru tomodachi Qt-say drink-receive friend

no. FP

It was good stuff the other day, wasn’t in? Well= [Or should I say] [If I hadn’t] had anything the following day I would have drunk a bit more

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M10: I am recruiting friends who appreciate Iichiko (yeah) to drink with me.’ Confirming past experiences with an interlocutor is, in general, an inclusive and cooperative action, and deshoo-Qs seem to be a very appropriate tool for doing this (see also example (21) in the next section). As would be expected, the deshoo-Q in example (20) is typical of informal interaction and found rarely in institutional interactions or talk between unacquainted people.

Confirming information: Janai-Qs In Chapter 2, janai-Qs were described as having almost the same function as deshoo-Qs (Adachi, 1999; Nitta, 1999). Although janai-Qs are negative and thus have a conducive stance, there are many cases that do not fit this description (Adachi, 1999; Miyazaki, 2005). In the present data, it appears that janai-Qs are used to confirm information in a very similar fashion to the deshoo-Qs mentioned above, and to express an opinion. Janai-Qs are, first, very informal because they are in the plain form. Second, in many cases, the speaker speaks with an awareness of the fact that both s/he and the listener have a shared knowledge of the information being discussed. Therefore, rather than asking for new information, janai-Qs are used to confirm known facts and to get the agreement of the listener. M01 and M02 had been talking about teaching and practice teaching. M01 says that he wants to do the practice teaching once more and M02 says that he should have done it, too. Then, M01 adds that all those who are looking for jobs have a degree in teaching (lines 1 and 2). In line 2, the phrase kyooin menkyoo mottemasu ‘I have a teaching degree’ is in the polite form but is a quotation as it is followed by the particle tte and refers to many girls (and boys) who are looking for work. Even though the janai-Q overlaps with M02’s turn, we can see that M01 insists on getting agreement from M02 in line 5 by asking a deshoo-Q. This happens even though M02 agrees with him in line 4. In a way, despite the fact that janai-Qs include a consultative stance, they might also be considered to have a conducive stance in that they expect to obtain the agreement of the listener. M02 mainly agrees with M01 as we can see in line 4 (the overlapped turn) and line 6. (21) (M01–02) 1 M01: chigawro-

datte, because

fu, uhm

un uhm

kekkoo shuukatsu futsuuni quite job-hunting normally

2

shiteru ko demo, kyooin do child even teaching

menkyoo (un) permit

3

ko child

janai?] COP-NEG

4 M02: [ooi many 5 M01: oru5 be-PRE

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toka like

[iru be-PRE

n COM

mottemasu tte have-PRE Qt

ne] FP deshoo? COP-HORT

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Japanese Questions 6 M02: totteru take-PRE ‘M01:

M02: M01: M02:

ne. FP

Wro-, because, uhm, even with those who are job-hunting, there are many who say that they have a teaching license, [aren’t there]?’ [There are many, right.] There are, aren’t there? Many have their licenses, don’t they?’

The next example shows three examples of janai-Qs. F10 and F09 are talking about a person they both know and about the fact that he/she is planning to become a lawyer. In line 1, F10 says that it is a profession that involves listening to people among other things, ending her turn with the janai-Q. The meaning of her question here is similar to that of a tag-question, and expects F09’s agreement. She says that the job of a lawyer involves things like talking and listening to people (lines 1–2). However, the second janai-Q has a slightly different tone, in line 9. Therefore, F09’s remarks in lines 5 and 6 refer to the fact that lawyers working for corporations do not have to attend court proceedings, indicating that their friend can still work as a lawyer. As we do not know what kind of person they are talking about, we can only assume from this remark that he/she is not that good at public speaking. The third instance of janai is seen in lines 11 and 12 and this is definitely not asking for new information, but as in the other two examples, seeking agreement. It could also be said that the use of janai-Qs reflects some kind of psychological process when the speaker is not sure about a proposition (Miyazaki, 2005). This can be seen in lines 9, 11 and 12 where it is quite clear that the questions are not asking for unknown information but, rather, are used to obtain some confirmation, in the first instance, or to express an idea, in the second and third. (22) (JF09–10) 1 F10: e:, demo bengoshi toka uhm but lawyer like 2

sa FP

hanashi talk

3 F09:

soo yes

da COP

4 F10:

u:n yeah

5 F09:

demo: are janai but uhm be:NEG

6

janakute be:NEG:CONJ

sa: FP

7

kaisha company

sa:, FP

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kiitari listen:and yo FP

no of

tte, Qt

honto, really

shinakyaikenai do:must

sorekoso that’s:just shokugyoo janai? profession be-NEG

ne: FP

no/ sono: COM that

(un), yeah

nan what

hootei ni court in te Qt

iu say

tatsu n stand COM

no, hora COM EXCL

[chotto] little

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bengoshi lawyer

9 F09: toka no, like of

dattara be:COND

10 F10

ii good

toka? like n janai? COM be-NEG

e:::::! ((surprised)) really

11 F09: koo uhm 12

(un) yeah

149

tsukue desk

aite ni partner to

koo yattereba ii n like do:COND good COM

janai? be-NEG

13 F10: sugoi great 14 F09: nanka like 15

(a::) oh

16 F10: a, oh

hora, ihoo EXCL illegal

o shinai DO do-NEG

ka or

toka like

o DO

sa: FP

shirabete. check koomu toka public:office like

ne. FP

17 F09: un. yeah ‘F10: F09: F10: F09: F10: F09: F10: F09: F10: F09: F10: F09:

But, lawyers, they have to listen to people, it is that kind of profession, isn’t, it? Yes, I agree. Yeah. But, isn’t it like, uhm, not lawyers representing someone in court, (yeah) but, what is it [called?] [like corporate] (yeah) lawyer? If it was something like that, there wouldn’t be any problems, don’t you think? Really? ((surprised)) Uhm, if it was like desk work, wouldn’t it be fine? Great. Like, checking whether there is something illegal (oh) or something like that Like public business, right? Yeah.’

One of the characteristics of the janai-Qs is that in comparison to other negative questions, their grammaticalization process is more advanced (Miyazaki, 2005). Therefore, janai-Qs can have various meanings and stances depending on the pragmatic elements of the interaction. They can be used to ask for confirmation

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when the speaker knows something about the proposition but is not sure, as observed in the example above when F09 talks about their friend (line 9). On other occasions, janai-Qs are used when the speaker wants to validate some information that the listener knows, as seen in lines 11 and 12. Naturally, the speaker might want to retrieve some missing information, or to confirm a piece of information that he/ she knows. However, it is clear that the function of janai-Qs is not that of asking for unknown information.

Kke-Qs Although kke-Qs were not very frequent, they are discussed here because they seem to be particular to informal talk. There were very few instances of kke-Qs in television interviews, and none in radio discourse. Kke-Qs are used when the speaker needs to confirm a piece of information with the listener or when the speaker tries to remember something. The kke form is termed a retrospective marker (Hinds, 1984), as mentioned in Chapter 2. They are used by both males and females (Hinds, 1984), but given their extremely informal nature, rarely occur in the television interviews and are completely absent in the radio phone-in programs. This is not surprising as a speaker using kke-Qs assumes that the listener has the information and thus communicates a desire simply to confirm that information. This form also has a ‘monologue’ nature. In (23) M09 and M10 are reminiscing about M09’s birthday, and M10 is not sure how many of them went drinking together. The questions in M10’s turn, seen in lines 1 and 2, are alternative questions, although they do not follow the canonical pattern. The first is a Y/N-Q that asks if there were six of them who went drinking, are wa rokunin de itta, and has rising intonation. The second question contains the ‘alternative’ number gonin (five people), and finishes with the kke particle. M09 answers immediately, confirming that the number was five as he had thought. It is clear from the context that M10 relies in M09’s memory as he is not sure how many went together and, as expected, M09 confirms the answer in line 3. (23) (JM5) 1 M10:

are that

wa rokunin de itta? TOP six-people with go-PAST

2

de itta n da kke? with go-PAST COM COP Q

3 M09:

gonin gonin five-people five-people ‘M10: M09:

gonin five-people

That time, did six of us go? Or was it five, did you say? Five, five.’

Kke-Qs are used when the speaker is certain that the listener can confirm the proposition and, as with deshoo-Qs, they do not ask for new information. This use is seen in a

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conversation about exams in (24). F09 confirms with F10 that even though they can use the context to understand the vocabulary, the text is long (lines 1 and 2). After obtaining an affirmative answer (line 3), F09 checks with F10 regarding whether the section of the exam they are talking about is in Japanese or in English. It is clear from F10’s answers that she knows the details and that F09 knows that her friend has the information. The turn-taking, as we can see in line 5, is immediate and F10 confirms the information F09 was looking for. (24) (JF35) 1 F09:

ato wa bun, then TOP text

2

deshoo? COP

3 F10:

un yeah

4 F09:

nihongo Japanese

5 F10:

kyookasho textbook ‘F09: F10: F09: F10:

bunmyaku context

tsu Qt

tta say

tte Qt

nagai long

datte even-though

da COP ga S

kke? Q

eigo English

nihongo Japanese

da COP

kke? Q

de, and

Then, the text, even as you say the context, isn’t it long? Yeah. Is it in Japanese or is it in English, did you say? The textbook is in Japanese and’

Questions ending in kke sound very informal and therefore, as stated earlier, they are rarely found in formal interactions. Moreover, in order to be able to use this question, there has to be common knowledge, in particular, knowledge that the speaker is confident that the listener has. Therefore, it is not surprising that kke-Qs are rarely found in ‘institutional’ interactions and with unknown people.

Criticism and disagreement: Negative-Qs Although not used that frequently in talk between friends, negative-Qs were used quite differently to janai-Qs and therefore they need to be mentioned in some detail. As stated in previous chapters, negative-Qs are known to be conducive and are used in a number of situations. In Japanese there are two types. One takes the janai (copula in the negative) form and functions more as a tag-question, as seen earlier in this chapter. However, other questions with predicates in the negative form indicate some kind of expectation of the speaker. As not all of these questions are conducive, one way to identify them is to look at the accompanying adverbial forms (Adachi, 1999). For example, in the extract below, F05 asks whether F06 is not drinking too much recently. The negative form nondenai ‘aren’t you drinking’ and the adverb yoku, which indicates frequency, add the pragmatic meaning to the question. The criticism intended in the

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question is further confirmed by the subsequent turn of F05 in line 3. F06 answers the first question by saying that it is the second time. F05 seems surprised and repeats the word nikaime ‘second time’; however, this is followed by the adverbial form soredemo ‘even so’. The turn is left incomplete but the implied meaning is clear. F05 vehemently stresses that it is only the second time. Note the use of mada ‘still’ and the sentence final particle yo which emphasizes that it is only the second time that she is going drinking. (25) (JF33) 1 F05:= e uhm

nanka DM

yoku nondenai? well drink-NEG

2 F06

nikaime second-time

3 F05:

nikaime? soredemo second-time even-then

4 F06:

un. yes

5 F05:

a, un Oh yes ‘F05: F06: F05: F06: F05:

mada yet

da ne. COP FP

nikaime da yo second-time COP FP

Uhm, aren’t you drinking very often? It is the second time, you know. Second time? Even so Yes, it is just the second time, I tell you. Oh, yes.’

The next example of the use of a negative-Q occurs when there is some disagreement. The two friends are talking about looking for jobs and the importance of having connections. They both agree that connections are one of the most important things; however, M11 says that this is more pronounced in the public sector. M12 says that on the contrary it is in the provinces that connections are the most important aspect (lines 1–2). This is stressed with the use of the word sorekoso which means ‘exactly right’ and it emphasizes that it is in public office where connections and networking are most essential. Note that M11 expresses his doubt in line 3 with the negative ya and dooka which has several meanings but in this context it expresses strong scepticism. What is interesting is the change of attitude in M11 after M12 says that connections are the most important aspect and uses the question kikanai ‘haven’t you heard’ in line 4. M11’s turn is marked, as seen, by many hesitations and the use of fillers, but after five tokens of uncertainty he changes his initial opinion and says that he had heard that in about 60 per cent of cases people get jobs through connections. (26) (JM6) 1 M12:

demo but

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chihoo province

noof

yakuba town-hall

toka like

yakusho toka public-office like

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waTOP

sorekoso.. just

3 M11:

ya-, no

dooka wonder

ne: FP

4 M12:- kone da connections COP

tte, Qt

5 M11:

a: a: oh oh

ma: well

6

chihoo province

wa, un TOP yeah

7

rokuwari sixty-percent

8

hanashi da talk COP ‘M12: M11: M12: M11:

153

soo uhm

gurai about

kikanai? hear-NEG un yeah

soo yes

demo but wa TOP

da COP

yo, FP

un yeah

un dakara- ma, yeah therefore well kone connections

da COP

tte iu Qt say

yo. FP

But, it is exactly in the town-halls of provinces and public offices No, I really wonder, you see Haven’t you heard that is a matter of connections? Oh, oh, well, um, yeah, yes it is so. Yeah. They say that connections count for about sixty percent in the provinces.’

As mentioned before, not every negative-Q is conducive, as Adachi (1999) and others have explained. In Japanese, questions in negative forms may function as suggestions. For instance, the question ‘eiga ikanai?’ uttered by a friend is a suggestion to go and see a movie. In the next example, we see the negative-Q as a suggestion and also to change the topic. One of the speakers had been talking about his experience with an internet friend who had committed suicide, and about how terrible he had felt when he learned about it. Then, his friend (M13) says that he (M14) had nothing to do with her death because he had never met her in person. M13 stresses that that was the reason he thought of not having any more internet friends. The fact that they are not comfortable with the topic is seen in the frequent laughter, which is not an indication of humour (Jefferson, 1985), in the use of a very shortened form of the copula desu (line 4) and the number of discourse markers (lines 6 and 7). At this point, M14 changes the topic by (inviting his friend to) suggesting that his friend open the envelope containing the instruction. He does so by using the question in the negative form minai ‘not see’. (27) (JM7) 1 M13: 2 M14:

bucchaketa blunt

hanashi @@ talk

kankei connection

nai desho? @@ none COP-DESI

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Japanese Questions 3 M13:

kankei nai connection none

4

shiranai know-NEG

5 M14:

un yeah

6 M13:

tsunagari relation

7

sonna nanka moo sore wa merutomo yameta hoo ga that DM uhm that TOP internet-friend stop way S

8

ii na good COP

9 M14:

aan yeah

10 M13:

iiyo. fine ‘M13: M14: M13: M14: M13:

M14: M13:

wake COM

tte itte Qt say

to Qt

jan, COP-NEG janai COP-NEG

mo even

ne FP

datte @@ because

kao mo face also

ssu ka COP Q

(un) nanka ne yeah DM FP

omotte think-CONJ

sorosoro minai? (@@) slowly see-NEG

Saying bluntly. @@ I have nothing to do with (her death), have I? @@ You have nothing to do with that. Well,@@ you don’t even know what she looks like, do you? Yeah Even if you say there is a relation, you know (yeah), well, uhm, yeah, that’s why I thought it was better not to have internet friends. Uh-huh. Shouldn’t we have a look? @@@ Fine.’

Note that M13’s use of the negative short and informal form kankeinaijan is used to stress his position as an ‘outsider’ and someone who has had no influence on the suicide of his ‘friend’. This position of ‘defence’ is emphasized by the use of datte ‘but’ a colloquial form of –demo ‘even’. This expression is used to give explanations and connect two sentences or phrases. As seen in all these examples, context, previous talk and shared knowledge can change the meaning of a question.

Distinctive question–answer sequences A number of interesting question sequences were observed in talk between friends that appear to be idiosyncratic of youth discourse. These features seem to be characteristic of informal talk and are strategies that denote cooperation and involvement in the interaction. In this section we will look at four of these aspects.

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Question–question sequence One of the features in the dyadic talk data was the use of more than one question in a single turn and in many cases it appeared that the listeners’ answers were irrelevant to the flow of discourse. Here F05 and F06 are talking about F05’s experience teaching in a classroom. It is not clear whether F05 teaches regularly or whether she is talking about a teaching practice experience. Nevertheless, F05 says that one of her pupils has a private tutor who comes to class on the special visiting days or sankanbi customary in Japanese schools. (Sankanbi allows parents to see their children in a class situation and results in the teacher also being exposed to a big audience.) F05 says that the tutor corrects the accent; however, it is not clear whose accent. In line 1, F06 assumes that the tutor corrects her friend’s accent and sounds quite upset. F06 asks nande ‘why’ but does not wait for an answer and immediately adds another question sensei dame nano? with a postposition. F05 (lines 2 and 3) explains that it is not her accent that the tutor corrects, but that of her pupils. F05 reacts to the explanation, showing that she had misunderstood. There is an initial a, which works in a very similar way to the English ‘oh’, when speakers learn something new from the talk (Heritage, 1984b) and the conversation continues with F05 complaining about this tutor. (28) (FF.05–06) 1 F06: nande? why 2 F05: chigau wrong 3

F05 F05

no, ano: COM uhm

janakute: COP-NEG

4 F06: [a:, oh

sensei teacher

seito pupil

seito pupil

5 F05: watashi ga I S 6

naosu fix ‘F06: F05: F06: F05:

no COM

no] of

ga S

dame bad watashi I

na COP

no? COM

akusento ga accent S

no akusento of accent

naosu n,, fix COM

[itta no] say-PAST of

akusento @@@ accent

naoseba fix-COND

ii good

jan. COP-NEG

watashi I

ga S

yo. FP

Why? Is teacher F05’s bad? Her accent. No, uhm she/he does not correct my accent but [the pupil’s] [Oh, the pupil’s] accent @@ I should be the one to correct it. I correct it.’

Another example where there are no pauses or possible non-verbal signs is observed in (29). M05 and M06 are talking about a common friend who had taken purikura photos with his girlfriend. Purikura is a photo sticker booth extremely popular among young people. It is a computer-based machine that allows the buyers to design their photographs with a variety of choices that include backdrops, clip art and other customized features. M05 says that he had not seen a photograph taken with someone else but M06 says that he had. Line 1 is the turn that follows M06’s comment. Note that

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M05 asks two questions in succession and the third one overlaps with M06’s attempt to answer, and it appears that M05 is not that keen to hear M06’s answer. This third question is a kke question that, as mentioned previously, is used to recall something that occurred in the past and that both speaker and listener know. What is even more interesting is that M06 does not answer M05’s questions ‘How (is the photograph)?’, ‘Does it look like him?’ or ‘Have you seen the photograph?’ but starts explaining the process behind some of the photographs taken at purikura. His explanation indirectly answers M05’s question but it takes about 13 turns to arrive at the description of the photograph. (29) (JM3) 1 M05: doonan? how-is-it 2 M06: [ano uhm 3 M05: [oma] you 4

honnin person

ne] FP kore, that

jitsubutsu mita koto real-thing see-PAST COM

aru be

n COM

da COP

kke? Q

5 M06: ano ne:@@ uhm FP 6

sonomanma? without-change

hikari light

ga S

ano: that

purikura purikura

patto kite rapidly come

sa FP

da COP

to when

(un) yeah

sugoi great

hotondo shirokunaru almost white-become

jan COP

‘M05: How is it? Is it a good likeness? M06: [Well] M05: [ You], uhm, have you seen the real thing? M06: Well, uhm, @@ when they are taken in the purikura, (yeah) the light flashes suddenly and practically everything is white, isn’t it?’ One possible explanation for the use of consecutive questions is as a strategy to demonstrate involvement and excitement in the conversation. Speakers’ interest and contribution to the exchange might be expressed in this style in a manner very similar to the ‘machine-gun’ exchange noticed in American conversations where rapport is expressed in a rapid succession of question and answer sequences (Tannen, 1981).

Half-Qs A phenomenon observed in the language of young people is the use of rising intonation in mid-sentence, not only in Japanese but in other languages as well (American English (Eckert, 2004)). In particular, this different intonation pattern was noticed in Australian English sometime ago (for details see Guy, Horvath, Vonwiller, Daisley, and

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Rogers, 1986). Reported in newspapers and the media, it has been criticized as a sign of insecurity and inability to give an opinion without testing if there is a consensus (Shin, 2006). With the exception of Shin’s (2006) paper, research on this aspect in Japanese is, to my knowledge, not widely available. The name hangimon ‘half-question’ is given to these expressions with rising intonation where speakers do not expect answers, as it is obvious from the context that the listener does not have the information. In the next example, which we encountered earlier in this chapter (example 10) and is repeated here for convenience, M02 and M01 are in a room and presumably looking through the window as they comment on the surrounding buildings. For M02, it is the first time that he has come to M01’s university where the recording is taking place. In line 2, M02 asks his friend what buildings can be seen kore nani ga mieru? ‘This, what can you[I?] see’. M01 answers that first they can see the library. Note that library toshokan is pronounced with rising intonation, as if confirming the accuracy of the information with his listener. It is obvious that M02 cannot answer his question so the rising intonation does not indicate interrogativity, and although the phrase shares the characteristics of other elliptical questions, the context and the details of the participants mean that we can safely deduce that this is not a question. (30) (JM1) 1 M02: kore this

nani what

ga S

mieru? see-POT

2 M01: anne- toriaezu are well first that ‘M2: M1:

ga: (un. un) uchi S yeah we

no toshokan?? of library

What can you see? Well, first of all, that is the (yeah, yeah) our library??’

In another example, two female friends in (31) are talking about a common friend who is working in a well-known bank. The topic branches out to another sub-topic in relation to the influence of women’s age on the types of jobs they can have. In Japanese banks, only young females work in positions that involve direct contact with clients. Older women are given posts that include supervising younger staff who sit as tellers. F10 tells her friend that girls are given instructions by older women who sit at the back. In line 1, F10 pronounces the noun and particle ginkoo de?? ‘at the bank’ with rising intonation as though asking F11 if indeed this is the case at banks; however, it is obvious that this is not a question even though it has the same phonological contour as a question. A second instance is seen a number of turns later when she pronounces the question word nani ‘what’, which seems to work as a filler, given that there are other accompanying discourse markers sono-, moo and nanka. (31) (JF35) 1 F10: 2

shikamo saa nanka onna no hito ga, ginkoo moreover FP DM woman of person S bank de??, tatoeba shiten toka ni itte sa at for-example branch like in go-CONJ FP

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Japanese Questions 3 F09: un yes ((5 lines omitted)) 9 F10: de and

itsumo always

sa, FP

obasan older-ladies

10

sono- nani?? moo well what uhm

11

madoguchi de, sono counter in that

ppoi like

[sa] FP

nanka 20dai no DM twenties of dai generation

[(un)] yeah

oneesan wa young-lady TOP

o, koo,, DO uhm

12 F09: kosuto,, over-COND 13 F10: kosuto over-COND ‘F10: And moreover, you see, women in the banks??, for example if you go to a branch F09: yeah ((5 lines omitted)) F10: And always an older looking woman is (at the back), [you know] [(yeah)] well, what?? uhm like the 20 year-old girls are sitting at the counter and when they are above, uhm F09: when they are over, F10: when they are over’ At other times, there is a fine line between a question and a half-question. In (32), the two friends are talking about a lecturer who seems to have impressed them. They comment on how this lecturer is already a professor despite her/his age. (Note that in Japanese it is impossible to guess the gender of a third person, particularly because they are addressed only by their family names which are not revealed in the transcriptions.) F09 says that it is impressive that despite his/her young age this person is already a professor. In line 2, F10 says yonjuu sugi? ‘over forty’ followed by the adverb gurai? ‘about’. Both words are followed by rising intonation. However, at this point, it is difficult to ascertain whether these two are intended questions. The fact that F10 does not wait for an answer after the questions, though, indicates that they were not designed as questions per se. This observation is further attested to by the expression wakannai ‘I don’t know’. (32) (JF14) 1 F09:

wakainoni young-despite

2 F10:

yonjuu: forty

3 F09:

ne FP

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sugi? above

datte because

sugoi great

yo FP

gurai? about sugoi very

neFP wakannai kedo know-NEG but

wakai young

jann ne COP FP

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‘F09: It’s impressive (that he/she achieved so much) even though he/she is young, isn’t it? F10: (He/she is) above forty? Around? I don’t know. F09: Isn’t it? It’s great because she/he is young, isn’t it?’ The use of half-Qs by young people seems to function in a similar way to sentence final particles which appeal to the listener. In example (30), we can speculate that M1 did not want to sound too assertive and by using a half-question, he could make his turn less direct and more consultative. Similarly, the speaker in (31) is explaining the system that controls the way women work in banks. Note that her turns are relatively long, and in a way she seems to be more knowledgeable than her friend. Therefore, F09 might be trying to sound more consultative by using half-questions. The same occurs in example (32) where F10 uses not only half-questions but also the term wakannaikedo ‘I don’t know, but’. These are two expressions that denote a humble and consultative stance. What is interesting is that this strategy is very common also in talk between unacquainted young persons (more details are given in Chapter 6 on this topic).

When a question is an answer The idea of ‘adjacency’ is one of the most relevant aspects of spoken communication, so one expects that a question would be followed by an answer; however, there are many instances in talk between friends when a question is answered with a question and the turn sequence is reversed. However, this reversal of turns does not affect the way communication is attained. Here we have such an example with M06 and M05 who are talking about a person whom they apparently both know. M05 asks his friend (in line 1) whether he knows Person [2], [jinmei 2] shitteru ‘Do you know person 2?’ and this question ‘pre-announces’ a topic (Terasaki, 2004). M06 says that he does not know him and although it is a negative answer, it is given without any attenuation, and M05 is rather surprised, as seen in line 3. He starts his turn with the token ‘e’ thus indicating surprise (Hayashi, 2009) and asks a negative-Q shirankatta ‘Didn’t you know (him)?’ which is an abbreviation of the longer form shiranakatta. M06 realizes that he actually knows him, and rectifies his answer in line 4. M05 asserts that M06 knows [Person 2] with another question in line 5 shitterussho ‘you know him/her, don’t you’. In the subsequent turns both seem to make sure that they are talking about the same person, and once they seem to agree M06 asks why M05 had introduced him as a topic (line 10). Note that in Japanese it is customary to use family names when people do not know each other very well, as mentioned previously, and since there are no other grammatical features that define gender it is impossible to know if a third person is a female or a male. Therefore, M06 asks M05 if Person 2 is a man and M05 agrees. Once they identify Person 2, M06 asks what the news is about Person 2 and instead of answering M05 asks another question nande shittenno? ‘How do you know him/her?’ The structure of this turn has a post-positioned subject which is used in situations where the speaker challenges the listener (Takagi, 1999). The reaction to M05’s question is interesting as he does not answer and repeats his question in line 12. It is only after this turn that M05 starts telling the intended initial story. Note

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that there is a kind of tension as neither provides an answer. We can infer that M05 does not want to answer M06’s question because his answer in relation to Person 2 was initially incorrect. Naturally, it is not possible to know whether M06 was lying; however, because of his laughter it is possible that M06 was not listening carefully. (33) JM3 1 M05: {jinmei2} tte Person2 Qt 2 M06: shiranai know-NEG

shitteru? know-PRE shiranai@@ know-NEG

3 M05: ee. {jinmei2} oh Person2 4 M06: =a, oh

shirankatta?= know-NEG-PAST

{jinmei2} shitteru Person2 know-PRE

yo= FP

5 M05: =shitterussho? know-HORT 6 M06: =otoko man

daro= COP-PLAIN

7 M05: =otoko man

da COP

yo:. FP

8 M06: hin, {gakka1} no, xx department 1 of 9 M05: soo soo yes yes

soo yes

10 M06: dooshita what-happened 11 M05: nande why

soo. yes no? FP

shitten no? know-PRE COM

12 M06: e. dooshita oh what-happened

no? COM

13 M05:

ya, nanka, soitsu ga no DM that-person S

14

rashii looks-like ‘M05: M06: M05: M06: M05:

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sore that nanka DM

ga. S sore o that o

barashita divulge

Do you know Person2? I don’t know him. I don’t know him @@@ Really? Don’t you know Person2?= = Oh. I do know Person 2. Isn’t it right that you know him? You do know him, don’t you?

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It’s a man, right? Yeah, it’s a man. xx, he is in the {xx department} yes, yes, yes, yes What about him? How come you know him? Oh, so why? Is there a problem? No, um, it seems that that guy, um, had divulged that’

This exchange shows some kind of conflict as there seems to be some reluctance on M05’s part to answer his friend’s questions. Naturally, there are other instances when questions are answered with questions, and sometimes they can be signs of interest in the conversation.

Multiple questions It has been reported that exact repetitions of single words or phrases are a feature of collaborative talk (Fujimura-Wilson, 2007; Tannen, 1984) and that there are two types: self-repetitions and other-repetitions. Although they are not a feature of Japanese alone, they are used to indicate the affective stance of the speaker and reflect the cooperative nature of the interactions. What is interesting is that young people use repetitions regardless of the degree of intimacy making this more a characteristic of a particular age group style of communication (Fujimura-Wilson, 2007). This type of collaborative exchange is seen in the next example. F10 had been saying that she had barely slept because she had been writing an assignment, and in line 1 F09 asks her why she has come today. She asks if she had anything to submit and whether that was the reason of her coming to class. F10 responds that she did indeed have to submit something. F09 asks her question in line 6 repeating the same question word dare ‘who’ presumably asking the name of the lecturer to whom she had to submit her assignment. The repetition of the question word shows her curiosity and interest in the conversation. However, as observed in other examples, F10 does not answer her friend’s question, but says that she had forgotten to submit her assignment. It is only after a few lines that F09 provides the information that F10 was seeking. (34) (FM 35) 1 F09: nande, why 2

kyoo wa, nanka dasu mon today TOP something submit thing

atta have-PAST

wake? COM

3 F10: atta. have-PAST 4 F09: a, atta no? oh have-PAST COM

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Japanese Questions 5 F10: a oh 6 F09: dare, dare who who 7F10:

a:, oh

ima now

dare? who wasureta, forget-PAST

dasu submit

no, COM

8 F09: yada. no 9 F10: sensei ni. teacher to

ma: well

dashini ikeba ii n submit-go-COND good

dakedo but

‘F09: Why, did you have something to submit today? F10: Yes. F09: Oh, you did? F10: Oh. F09: Who, who, who? F10: Oh, = I forgot to submit it. F09: No. F10: Well, I suppose I could give it to the lecturer.’ It is worth mentioning that this phenomenon is commonly found in the data from dyadic conversations and contrasts with the orderly sequence in interviews. It also occurs less frequently in radio discourse. The fact that the interaction among friends proceeds even in cases when questions are not answered shows that the purpose of talk between close interlocutors is that of nurturing the friendship rather than obtaining information, as is the case in institutional settings.

Conclusion This chapter has looked at the questions used in informal dyadic interactions between close friends. Throughout the examples, we can see the influence of youth language and shared knowledge between friends on how they use questions. The grammatical form of the questions helps in turn to create a particular stance that reflects the talk between intimate friends. Most questions were elliptical-Qs (27%), no-Qs (18%) and Wh-Qs (12%) while those used to confirm were the janai-Qs (8%) and desho-Qs (9%). The grammatically complete questions are in the informal style, that is, they did not finish with the ka particle and the only features of interrogativity are the rising intonation and/or the Wh-question words. The most distinctive characteristic of the questions in this data is that the participants have a great deal of shared knowledge and common experiences. This factor has a significant influence on the types of questions used in the interactions. In particular, the use of elliptical-Qs demonstrates that a simple noun phrase with rising intonation can function perfectly as a question. Therefore, questions can be very short and this

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contributes to the type of rapid turn-exchange. This aspect also helps to explain why casual conversation might sound fragmented or disorderly. Similarly, one way in which participants demonstrate their cooperation in the interaction is through the use of questions. Many questions are not used to obtain new information, but to confirm information and to show the participants’ interest and attention in the on-going talk thus contributing to the development of the topic. Questions in these interactions seem to be used more often to ‘express emotive states’ rather than to ‘elicit referential meaning’ (Berendt, 2009). On the other hand, it was surprising that negative-Qs appeared in much higher frequency than in other types of exchanges (although relatively low in comparison to other types of questions). As mentioned previously, negative-Qs are known to be conducive and are associated with a particular style of exchange where questioners are in a situation of power such as lawyers, doctors or policemen (Clayman and Heritage, 2002; Heritage 2002; Koshik, 2005) and this is also the case in Japanese (Adachi, 1999; Nitta, 1999). Negative-Qs used in exchanges between friends are employed to criticize, to show disagreement but also to make a suggestion or to invite the other person. This aspect once more emphasizes the multi-functional nature of linguistic elements that have a pragmatic stance. Another interesting finding in the data is the use of half-Qs that are sentences accompanied by rising intonation, but that do not function as questions despite their phonological features. They are characteristic of young people’s speech style, and have been reported elsewhere (Shin, 2006). They seem to work as mollifiers and to show a consultative stance. In conversation between friends, questions are not always followed by answers and question sequences in different turns or in the same turn are also very common. Some of these sequences are used to ‘pre-announce’ a story (Terasaki, 2004), to ask for clarification or to clarify information that was unclear. Many of these questions are not used to ask for new information but function to show the participants’ interest and involvement in the conversation. This is one aspect that makes friends’ talk different to institutional interaction where interviewees or callers will rarely change the sequence of turns except when they need a clarification. One final feature of youth language is the use of questions where speakers do not expect to get answers. It appears that these questions are designed to be used in a consultative way; and despite the fact they are not necessarily answered, turn-taking is managed and the conversation is maintained successfully. This might be one more feature of talk between friends which highlights the lack of correspondence between form and function in language. Questions in talk between friends are used mainly to show interest and involvement in the talk rather than to obtain new information, and, interestingly, the talk is maintained although answers in many cases are not provided yet.

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6

Categorizing, Introducing and Maintaining Topical Talk: Questions in Unacquainted Interactions

Introduction This chapter looks at questions used in unacquainted dyadic talk between university students. As the participants do not know each other, these interactions are quite different to those between close friends. These examples of unacquainted talk are also different to radio phone-in programs, for example, where the goals of the interaction are different. While in the former the objective is to get to know each other, in the latter advice giving is the purpose. Although some assumptions can be made on the basis of dress, behaviour or age, unacquainted interlocutors must try to obtain information about their conversational partners in order to choose appropriate topics that do not threaten face or infringe on their privacy. Asking questions to learn more about the interlocutors is one of the best strategies to achieve this goal. The importance of questions in unacquainted talk has been reported in many studies and researchers have noted that a high frequency of question use is one of the most prominent characteristics of these interactions (Berger and Bradac, 1982; Kellerman and Lim, 1989; Kent, Davis and Shapiro, 1978, 1981; Svennevig, 2000). Questions are not only one of the most preferred strategies when engaging with a stranger, but are essential in acquiring knowledge about the other person (Berger and Calabrese, 1975). Speakers can use many strategies to contribute to first-time conversations such as introducing topics or disclosing personal information and, in an indirect way, learn more about their interlocutors, but it appears that it is the frequency of questions that determines the ‘success’ of such interactions. Kellerman and Lim (1989) write that there is a close relationship between the level of interest and the number of questions. When interlocutors are not keen to know about their conversational partners, they ask fewer questions thus reducing the amount of disclosed information and, ultimately, creating a negative impression. Questions are used as the best strategy to obtain information about ‘membership categorization’ in the initial stages of conversation between unacquainted people (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984). By asking questions, interlocutors are able to

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‘categorize’ their partners, a process that enables them to have a broader choice of possible conversational topics. These initial questions are reported to be extremely important as they can influence the future of the relationship. In particular, when the interlocutors find that they have some shared background, they tend to believe that they also share the same beliefs and ideas, and feel more at ease (Berger, 1973; Berger and Bradac, 1982; Berger and Calabrese, 1975). This factor will determine the amount of commitment to the conversation in terms of revealing information and in furthering the first talk into a future friendship. Initial questions are also important because they serve to obtain some information about a person’s attributes that have not been openly stated. These questions ‘invoke categories’ and are ‘inference-rich’ (Sacks, as cited in Silverman, 1998). In other words, speakers learn something about the listeners, with whom they are unacquainted, but are also able to make assumptions through initial questions. Knowing about the interlocutor’s profession, place of residence or hobby allows people to make certain assumptions. For instance, if the conversational partner lives in an expensive neighbourhood or is a lawyer, inferences as to her/his socio-economic status can be made. This in turn will help the interlocutor to choose or avoid certain topics of conversation. Regardless of the assumptions people make through initial questions or impressions such as those based on outward appearance (Schegloff, 1972), there remains a level of ‘uncertainty’ in the interaction between unacquainted people. This ‘uncertainty’ is caused by the inability to make predictions based on knowledge of the conversational partners (Kellerman and Lim, 1989). In order to decrease the degree of uncertainty, interlocutors have to increase the level of knowledge about each other. The most effective way to learn more about one’s conversational partner is to ask questions. While speakers can introduce new topics by volunteering information, the most common practice is to ask questions known as pre-topical questions (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984) that propose a possible topic of conversation. While not every pretopical question generates topical talk, they are essential tools that keep the interaction alive and interesting. The role of questions continues to be important later in the interaction. Questions can be used to show interlocutors’ interest and, most importantly, to maintain a good balance of information. Reciprocating the number of questions in order to obtain a similar amount of information is essential in unacquainted talk (Ogawa, 2000). While other strategies such as self-disclosure can be used to achieve this balance, questions seem to be the most effective strategy to generate talk.

Unacquainted talk and questions Most of the research on unacquainted talk has been in the field of communication studies and psychology. Many scholars have tried to find out why some first-time talks are more successful than others and lead into further friendships, and have looked at how communication is accomplished (Berger and Bradac, 1982; Kellermann and Lim, 1989). Berger and Bradac (1982) write about the concept of ‘uncertainty’, which is a result of a lack of knowledge of the interlocutor. ‘Uncertainty’ is explained as the

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lack of possible predictions speakers can make about their interlocutors. However, speakers can reduce uncertainty by using various strategies defined as passive, active and interactive. Passive strategies are those that mainly rely on observation, whereas in active strategies the speaker asks others about his/her interlocutor. On the other hand, interactive strategies are those that consist of direct input by the interlocutors, and include asking questions and self-disclosure. On the basis of a study conducted by Berger (1973), Berger and Bradac (1982) write that questions are crucial in determining the future of a possible relationship. Among those that are used in first-time talk, impersonal and ‘externally focused’ questions are the most promising in facilitating further talk. Kellermann and Lim (1989) also write that questions are one of the prevalent strategies used in unacquainted talk although other strategies such as reciprocating self-disclosure are also commonly found. A highly routinized element is observed in these interactions. However, the authors argue that interlocutors in these types of interactions also display some flexibility. They argue that speakers have three types of strategies to get acquainted with each other, and they call these ‘interrogation, disclosure and relaxation’ (Kellermann and Lim, 1989: 174). What is most interesting is their suggestion that people who do not want to obtain much information tend to ask fewer questions while those who want to become friends tend to increase the number of questions. Kellermann and Lim (1989) also write of an element of tension in these encounters in relation to the amount of information the interlocutors are willing to reveal and that which is desired by the questioner. In general, there is a tendency to want to know rather more about one’s interlocutor than one is willing to disclose about oneself. While the studies mentioned above have looked at language in initial interactions, Maynard and Zimmerman (1984), and a more recent study by Svennevig (2000), take a detailed and focused approach to the turn-taking aspect. Maynard and Zimmerman’s study (1984) focused on the ways in which friends and unacquainted pairs initiated topical talk. They observed that unacquainted participants use two types of questions; those related to categorization and those related to activities related to categorization. These questions preceded ‘pre-topical sequences’ and seem to have an almost ‘essential’ nature in unacquainted talk. ‘Pre-topical sequences’, according to Maynard and Zimmerman, ‘invoke “discourse-identities” for participants’ (1984: 306) and they invite listeners to develop a topic. This is initiated with a question which the recipient can decline or accept to answer. When topical questions are accepted they are accompanied by a long answer. On the other hand, rejections are in the form of short answers and a return question. This return question is not a rejection of the topic but the interlocutor declining to initiate a topic. Short answers to questions can implicitly offer a topic-initial utterance to the questioner who has a number of ways to respond. The questioner can offer a display of interest and invite further talk or can produce a delayed response, silence or some token forms. However, some of these latter alternatives can be considered ‘continuers’ that allow further talk. Another kind of response, termed a ‘reclaimer’, is an utterance that follows a short reply and allows the questioner to provide a topical utterance. This in turn may or may not produce a response that leads to topical talk. What is of considerable interest in this study is the

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Japanese Questions

fact that all topical talk is reported to occur only after categorization sequences. This observation suggests that in unacquainted interactions, categorization is a prerequisite in order to enable interlocutors to develop talk. Svennevig (2000) argues that unacquainted speakers in Norwegian face certain restraints but also have resources in order to get acquainted. Though his study does not focus on questions, they are shown to be one of the most important communicative strategies in this type of interaction. He identifies a number of features that are characteristic of first-time talk, one of them being the self-presentational sequence. He identifies two types of questions that are representative of this initial section. The first type of question is used to ask details of the interlocutors in relation to their community membership. On the other hand, the second type of question deals with personal experiences and other information about current or future activities. The observation in Maynard and Zimmerman’s study (1984) on the nature of categorization questions is also highlighted by Svennevig (2000). Moreover, what is most fascinating is that the type of information that interlocutors seek about the other person seems to be closely related to the respective cultures, and is central to cultural social values. In Japanese, many of the studies on talk between unacquainted people are in the area of cross-cultural communication. Some studies have looked at how Japanese, Koreans and Chinese interact in first-time interactions (Chang, 2006; Nakai, 2003). With the rise of foreigners living in Japan, occasions in which people of different cultures must interact are on the increase, something that was uncommon in the past. Researchers have looked into how people of different cultures start an interaction with unacquainted persons, and interesting observations have been reported. Chang (2006) focused on the conversation of unacquainted Taiwanese and Japanese young women, and reports differences between the two groups. Japanese, she writes, tend to conduct the interaction with obligatory formulaic exchanges in the initial moments of talk whereas the Taiwanese tend to put more emphasis on the content. While Taiwanese obtain information about each other in the initial stages, Japanese exchange formulaic expressions. Chang suggests that this difference in strategy is the reason why Taiwanese feel that Japanese are cold and unfriendly while, on the other hand, Japanese feel that their privacy is being violated and that Taiwanese infringe on their privacy. Nakai (2003) also writes about the importance of the first moments of a meeting residing in the fact that it is in the initial stages of an interaction that people form impressions about each other. Through a qualitative observation of dyadic exchanges between Japanese university students, she found that particular pragmatic strategies that reflect the speaker’s and the listener’s attitude are crucial in conveying the desired attitude. To illustrate, speakers use sentence final particles or the ndesu ending at the end of their turns to draw the listener’s attention. On the other hand, the listeners send constant feedback in the form of backchannels. Failure to use the ndesu in question forms, for instance, can convey a distant and aloof attitude towards the listener regardless of how grammatically perfect the formulation of the question is. In the closing stages of the talk, speakers and listeners use adjectives, adverbs or verbs accompanied by final particles that foreshadow finality. Therefore, this strategy facilitates marking the end of the talk with an expression that contains some form of ‘assessment’. What is interesting

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is that most speakers who want to indicate agreement and acceptance of the listener do so by using informal forms at this final stage of the conversation. Ogawa’s (2000) study looks at the relationship between the amount of talk and the interlocutor’s impression of the exchange and the participants. Based on the talk of 20 pairs of unacquainted persons, the work looks at a number of elements in the conversation such as questions, responses, pauses and the amount of talk. Her results indicate that the more active an interlocutor is in leading a conversation the more positive the impression that the listener will have. Similarly important is the balance between the number of questions asked and the amount of disclosed information. Ogawa (2000) thus concludes that people get positive or negative impressions of the other party not only through aspects such as physical appearance but also through how the conversation is conducted. This finding indirectly supports the study of Kellerman and Lim (1989). These three studies in Japanese unacquainted interactions provide us with invaluable understanding of the mechanisms involved in this type of talk. At the same time, they highlight other aspects that need to be further explored, such as how topical talk is developed, how participants find mutual topics of interest and how often they infringe the listeners’ privacy.

Questions in unacquainted talk The dyadic interactions between unacquainted females in this study are part of the BTS corpora mentioned in Chapter 5. The participants, all university students, were asked to talk freely for a certain amount of time. A total of 676 questions were identified in 10 conversations totalling about 4 hours. Questions in the present study were chosen based on their semantic content, interrogative features (for details see Chapter 2) and the response of the listener. As seen in the conversations between close friends, names and place names here have been replaced by a term (person, school, place name, and so on) and a number because of privacy reasons. Looking at Table 6.1 and Figure 6.1, we can see that the majority of questions are Y/N-Qs (28%) and this is perhaps indicative of the way that participants may make assumptions about the listener. This is in a way an expected result as the participants do not have any information about each other and they would need to use questions mainly to learn more about their conversational partners. While most of the time the style in the interactions was polite, there were occasional style shifts that showed the desire of the interlocutors to shorten their social distance. UU-Qs (17%) also showed a polite stance as these questions do not have that strong imposition on the listener. Being unacquainted interlocutors means that they could not assume any shared knowledge or they did not have any shared knowledge. Pragmatically laden questions were also avoided with the exception of negative-Qs (8.6 + 1.8 = 10%) which, contrary to a general association with conduciveness, were used in a positive manner. However, the most interesting aspect was the high frequency of utterances that were accompanied by rising intonation or that had interrogative features in their structures but did not function as questions per se (17%). These types of non-question forms

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Japanese Questions

Table 6.1 Questions in unacquainted talk WH Short-Wh Y/N UU ~no ~ne deshoo Echo NEG kke kana janai COM Not Q e 14 1 28 16 3 2.4 2 1.3 8.6 1.6 4 2 0.15 17 1.2

30

28

25 20

17

16 14

15 10

8.6 4

P

i

M

na ja

O C

na ka

kk e

EG N

Ec

ho

oo sh

de

~n

e

o ~n

U U

N Y/

h tW

H W

or Sh

1.2

0.15

0

e

2

1.63

1.3

ue

2

Q

2.4

ot

3 1

N

5

Figure 6.1 Questions in unacquainted talk

were observed in the conversation between friends in Chapter 5, and the fact that they are more frequently used in unacquainted talk between university students suggests that this new development of youth language is used most frequently in unacquainted talk and may be indicative of a new politeness strategy.

The interaction: Initial stages As mentioned earlier, the role of questions in these interactions is central to enable participants to obtain details about their interlocutors. It is only after they feel comfortable with the acquired information that topical talk can develop. In the following sections, we will first see how this process develops. We will look at the types of questions in the initial stages or the ‘categorization’ questions (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984) and how they are used to maintain the conversation. In the next stage, we will look at pre-topical questions (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984) and whether they ‘invite’ the development of topical talk. The initial stage of the interaction and how it proceeds towards the start of topical talk can be seen in the next example, which illustrates how interlocutors obtain information about one another. Sometimes interlocutors volunteer the information and other times they respond to questions. In the following example, before the formal start of the talk, UF12 asks her interlocutor whether the recording has started. Once she gets confirmation that it has, she takes the lead by first exchanging routine

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introductory greetings (lines 3 and 5). In line 7, she gives her name and this is immediately reciprocated by UF11 in line 8. The next turn is a UU-Q that asks in which language department UF11 is studying (line 9), and is answered immediately despite its incomplete nature. UF12 reciprocates the information saying that she is in the Korean department. Next, the question in line 15 asks which year UF11 is in. There is a puzzling assessment of UF11 in line 18 in response to UF12’s information revealing that she is in her third year. First, UF12 says that it is her fourth year and that she is one year ahead (in line 16). From this comment one could speculate that UF11 knew UF12 was in her third year; however, UF11’s assessment is one of surprise (line 18) when UF12 volunteers information about herself. Even if the structure seems to be that of a question, due to the falling intonation we know that it is not asking but rather showing a reaction to new information. It is only in line 20, that UF11 provides a pre-topical statement iinaa ‘how good’ in relation to the fact that UF12 is still in her third year and has one more year at university. This turn introduces the topic of the rigorous process that Japanese youth has to go through to get jobs. We can speculate that UF11’s comment in line 20 is in reference to being younger, or that as a third-year student UF12 still has two more years to enjoy life as a student. (1) (UF25) 1 UF12: hajimatteru start

n COM

desu COP

yo FP

ne? FP

2 UF11: un yeah 3 UF12

[a oh

doomo] well

hajimemashite nice-to-meet-you

4 UF11: [konnichiwa] hello 5 UF12: [hajimemashite] nice-to-meet-you 6 UF11: [konnichiwa:] hello 7 UF12: {UF12} {UF12} 8 UF11: [a], oh

{UF11} {UF11}

9 UF12: e, uhm 10 UF11: eigo English

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desu. COP

[yoroshiku:] nice-to-meet-you desu. COP

yoroshikuonegaishima:su. nice-to-meet-you

goka language-department

wa TOP

dochira which

no. . . . . of

desu. COP

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Japanese Questions 11 UF12: a, Oh 12 UF11: a, oh

eigoka, English-program soo na that- COP

n COM

a, oh

koriaka Korean-program

desu. COP

desu ka. COP Q

13 UF12: hai. yes 14 UF11: kankokugo Korean 15 UF12: hai, yes

e, uhm

16 UF11: yonensei fourth-year

desu COP

ka. Q

gakunen wa? year COP desu COP

ima. hitotsu ue now one up

17 UF12: a, oh

sannensei third-year

18 UF11: a, oh

sannensei desu third-year COP

desu. COP

desu. COP ka. Q

19 UF12: hai. yes 20 UF11: ii na @@@ good FP 21 UF12: iya no

iya iya no no

22 UF11: mada yet 23 UF12:

shuushoku job

wa TOP

mada yet

desu ne. COP FP

mada desu ne. yet COP FP ‘UF12: It has started, hasn’t it? UF11: Yeah UF12: [Oh well] Nice to meet you UF11: [Hello] UF12: [Nice to meet you] UF11: [Hello] UF12: I am {UF12}. [How do you do?] UF11: [Oh] I am {UF11}= Nice to meet you. UF12: Uhm, which language department? UF11: English. UF12: Oh, English. I am in the Korean department. UF11: Oh, really. UF12: Yes UF11: Is it Korean language?

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Categorizing, Introducing and Maintaining Topical Talk UF12: UF11: UF12: UF11: UF12: UF11: UF12: UF11: UF12:

173

Yes. Uhm, what year? Fourth year. Now. One year above. Oh, I am in third year. Oh, are you in third year? Yes. How nice @@@@ No, no, no. You haven’t started looking for a job yet? Not yet.’

The almost ‘routine’ exchange of questions in the initial stages of the talk that we see in example (1) is common in all interaction between unacquainted people (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984) except, of course, when the strangers do not have to keep talking. Naturally, there are cases when topical talk can start without introductions (see example (8)); however, they tend to soon come to a halt. Example (2) below illustrates an attempt to start topical talk that is not successful. The interlocutors start exchanging routine introductory greetings in lines 1 and 2, then they greet each other in lines 3 and 4, and finally in line 9, UF19 asks for her interlocutor’s name with an elliptical-Q. This is not reciprocated as UF19 continues asking more questions. Note that the information-giving is one-sided until line 21, where UF19 starts saying something but her turn overlaps with UF20’s question – which mirrors exactly UF19’s own question in line 9 – and asks her name. The fact that UF19 starts her turn by first apologizing makes it clear that she has realized the one-sidedness of the interaction. She explains how her name is written, as it appears uncommon (In Japanese, first and family names can be written with an unusual combination of characters that sometimes makes reading them a difficult task). It is interesting to note that in line 15, UF19 introduces herself, and that it is only after this stage has been completed that topical talk can start. There are many points where the topic could have developed through some kind of assessment, self-disclosure or the asking of questions (lines 14, 18 and 20). Even in line 31, when they talk about Chinese characters the talk does not develop. Unusual characters always trigger anecdotes among Japanese people but this does not happen, and topical talk starts only after UF19 introduces herself. (2) (UF 29) 1 UF19:

doomo hello

hajime[mashite].@@@ nice-to-meet-you

2 UF20:

[hajime]mashite@@@ nice-to-meet-you

3 UF19:

konnichiwa hello

4 UF20:

konnichiwa hello

5 UF19:

e:to uhm

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Japanese Questions 6 UF20: e:to uhm 7 UF19: nanka.. DM 8 UF20: kinchoo nervous

suru do

9 UF19: onamae name

wa? TOP

10 UF20: {UF20} {UF20}

to Qt

11 UF19: e, ima yeah, now 12 UF20: ima now

mooshimasu say-HUMB shuushi masters

2nen second-year

ninen desu second-year COP

ka? Q

owatte . . . finish-CONJ

13 UF19: e yeah 14 UF20: kenkyuusei research-student

o DO

[shite]imasu. do-PRE

15 UF19: [aa,] oh 16 UF20: hai yes 17 UF19: eeto uhm

hakase doctorate

18 UF20: soo yes

desu. COP

19 UF19: ha: oh

shuuron thesis

ni in

wa TOP

susumu advance

ja then

tameni for

zenzen completely

ka wr

[kaki]agete write-up

20 UF20: [shuuron] wa hai kotoshi no 3gatsu ni (ha) dashimashita ne thesis TOP yes this-year of March in oh submit-PAST FP 21 UF19: [a atashi] oh I 22 UF20: [onamae wa?] name TOP 23 UF19: suimasen ano sorry uhm

{JIF 21} kanji21

to Qt

mooshimasu. say-HUMB

24 UF20: hai yes

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Categorizing, Introducing and Maintaining Topical Talk 25 UF19: etto, {UF19kanji1} ni (hai), {UF19kanji2} to uhm {UF19kanji1} in yes {UF19kanji2} Qt

175

kaite, [{JIF21}] write kanji 21

26 UF20: [a], {JIF21} san. oh kanji21 title 27 UF19: hai. yes

{JIF21} desu @@@ {kanji21} COP

yoroshiku onegaishimasu. nice-to-meet-you

28 UF20: mezurashii unusual 29 UF19: aa, oh

soo yes

desu ne COP FP

30 UF20: hajimete kikimashita. first-time hear-PAST 31 UF19: hai. kanji ga yes character S

chotto mezurashii kamoshirenai little unusual perhaps

32 UF20: u:n, yeah 33 UF19: e, ima nani no uhm now what of

kenkyuu research

o DO

shiteru n desu ka do-PRE COM COP Q

34 UF20: a, ima wa, {jinmei1} sensei no (ee) shakaigengogaku no (ee) oh now TOP {name1} teacher of yeah sociolinguistics of yeah ((continues)) ‘UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20:

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Hello. Nice to meet you @@ Nice to meet you, too @@ Hello Hello Uhm Uhm Well One gets nervous Your name? My name is {UF20} Oh, Are you a 2nd year postgraduate? I’ve just finished my second year and . . . . Uhm and I am a research student. Oh. Yes. To continue to a doctorate? Yes. The thesis, you have writ- finished writing. The thesis, I finished writing and submitted it in March. Yes.

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Japanese Questions UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF18:

[Oh, I] [Your name?] I am sorry. My name is {UF19} Yes. Uhm, you use {kanji 1} and {kanji 2} and it is read {name 21} Miss {name 21}. Yes. It is {name 21}@@@. Nice to meet you. How unusual. Yes, it is. It is the first time I’ve heard that name. Yes, maybe the characters are unusual. Yeah. Uh, What is your research topic? Oh, now I am taking professor {name1}’s sociolinguistics ((continues))’

The excerpt above highlights the importance to unacquainted people of gathering information about each other before initiating a topic. Observe that both could have contributed with some form of assessment in lines 15, 16, 18 and 32. In these lines, they either give a short answer or do not contribute to the conversation in an active manner. Maynard and Zimmerman (1984) have pointed out that categorization sequences are ‘required’ before topical talk develops, and this might be a universal phenomenon regardless of language differences. The examples presented above show the use of questions in the initial stages of unacquainted talk, in particular when interlocutors are in a situation where they have to talk for some time. Although unacquainted talk does include those short exchanges that, for instance, strangers can have while waiting for a bus, they are no doubt quite different to situations where interlocutors must engage in a conversation. A short exchange in a queue will exhibit different features to those of a talk between people that must keep talking for a much longer period of time. In Maynard and Zimmerman’s (1984) and Ogawa’s (2000) studies, the interlocutors were placed in a very similar situation to those in the present data. Svennevig’s (2000) interlocutors also met in different places where they had to engage in talk and they exhibited the same features.

The establishment of membership categorization As mentioned briefly, in the initial stages of unacquainted talk, it is known that interlocutors exchange ‘categorization’ questions that ask for information about one’s profession, place of residence and so on (Kellerman and Lim, 1989; Schegloff, 1972; Svennevig, 2000). Svennevig (2000) calls this stage a self-presentational sequel that is characterized by a question–answer sequence that obtains personal information. In addition to those details, Japanese speakers need to know the age, status and institutional affiliation of their listener in order to choose a particular speech level. Although this

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is not a unique feature of Japanese, it is more pronounced than in other languages because of the Japanese language’s complex system of linguistic politeness levels (see e.g. Ide, 2005; Kindaichi, 1994; Mizutani and Mizutani, 1987; L. Tanaka, 2004; Yoshida and Sakurai, 2005). This is in contrast to the data on Norwegian participants about which Svennevig (2000: 136) writes where geography seems to be more crucial. This aspect highlights the differences in the type of information that each culture deems to be important in terms of membership categorization; information that is closely related to the determination of certain social values such as prestige.

Y/N-Qs, Wh-Qs and UU-Qs Member categorization questions in the data are mostly Y/N-Qs or Wh-Qs while UU-Qs are asked after greetings and self-introductions have been exchanged. Due to the fact that all the participants were recruited through the university, they all assumed that their interlocutors were also students. Therefore, most questions asked for information about the interlocutor’s year level and department. Despite the fact that all participants are university students, asking about year level and majors is an important step in order to determine seniority and status differences. However, even though there is only a one- or two-year difference, their language style is polite. Style shifts to the informal occur mainly in the latter part of the interactions but they are not consistently maintained. The types of questions in the initial stages of the interaction were mostly Y/N-Qs (28%), Wh-Qs (14%) and UU-Qs (12%) as seen in Table 6.1. These questions were asked after the interlocutors had exchanged routine greetings. Some examples are presented below. In excerpt (3), line 2, UF19 asks a Y/N-Q ima shuushi ninensei desuka? ‘Are you a second-year postgraduate?’, after she learns her interlocutor’s name. In excerpt (4) the first question, which is grammatically unfinished, starts with the question word nani, and is interpreted by the listener. It can be contested that the question word nani could have been intended to ask another question like nani o benkyooshiteimasuka. ‘What are you studying?’, for example. However, because UF18 does not correct her, we can assume that the interpretation of the question was correct. It is also asked following UF17’s selfintroduction. Another question in excerpt (4) (line 2) is a Wh-Q, nannensei desuka, which is a reciprocated question that asks for the same information. Another UU-Q is seen in excerpt (5), following the exchange routine greetings: it starts with the topic goka ‘language department’ and is followed by the question word dochira. This question is interesting because the interlocutor assumes that UF12 is not only a university student but that she studies in the same faculty. This assumption can be related to the particular way in which these interlocutors were recruited (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984). (3) (UF 29) 1 UF20: 2 UF19:

{UF20} {UF20}

to Qt

mooshimasu. call-HUMB

a, ima shuushi ninensei desu ka? oh now post-graduate second-year COP Q

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Japanese Questions 3 UF20:

ima now

2nen second-year

‘UF20: UF19: UF11: (4) (UF 28) 1 UF17:

a, oh

3 UF17:

ima now

desu. COP

ima now

‘UF17: UF18: UF17: (5) (UF25) 1 UF11:

My name is {UF20} Oh, Are you a 2nd year postgraduate? I’ve just finished my second year and . . . .’

{UF17} {UF17}

2 UF18:

owatte . . . finish-CONJ (UF 25)

na wh

yonensei 4-year

2nensei 2-year

nani, nani.. what what desu. COP

nannensei what-year

desu ka? COP Q

desu. COP

I am {UF17}. Wh- what what.. Oh, I am now in 4th year. What year are you in? Now, I am in second year.’

=yoroshikuonegaishima:su. nice-to-meet-you

2 UF12:

e, uhm

3 UF11:

eigo desu. English COP ‘UF11: UF12: UF11:

goka language-department

wa dochira no.. TOP which-one of

Nice to meet you Uhm, which language department . . . It is English.’

When only names are provided, speakers ask for essential information that would enable them to categorize their listeners and themselves to later allow them to choose appropriate conversational topics. These questions ‘invoke “discourse identities” for participants’ (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984: 306) and precede any topical talk in unacquainted talk. The following example shows how these questions are used and seem to be a ‘requirement’ that allows interlocutors to ask topical questions. It appears that the two women are somehow embarrassed and uncomfortable with the meeting as observed in their laughter (lines 2 and 9) and by the fact that they exchange greetings twice; the second time comes after they had finished introducing themselves (line 9). However, once UF22 asks her first Wh-Q in line 10, the interlocutors seem to relax and a more natural exchange is observed. Nevertheless, before a real topic is developed, the speakers ask each other Y/N-Qs (lines 12, 17) and a Wh-Q (lines 19) to inquire about where and what they study. While UF22 asks the first questions (lines 10 and

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12), initially she does not reciprocate the information; however, she gives more details about herself than she was asked for by UF21 in line 18. It has been reported that in first-time talk, revealing an equal amount of information is one of the factors that allows the participants to have a positive impression of each other (Ogawa, 2000). As we can see in this example, both participants volunteer to reveal information about themselves (see lines 18 and 21). After this exchange the interlocutors produce pretopical questions that develop into a topic. (6) (UF30) 1 UF21: hai, yes

ja so

kon[nichiwa] hello

2 UF22: [konnichi]wa] [hello]

[@@@][(@@@)]

3 UF21: hajime[mashite.] nice-to-meet-you 4 UF22: [a], yes

hajimemashite. nice-to-meet-you

5 UF21: a-, yes

{UF21} {UF21}

6 UF22: a-, oh

konnichiwa hello

7 UF21: {UF22} {UF11}

to Q

mooshimasu. call-HUMB {UF22} tte {UF22} Qt

iimasu. say-

san. Title

8 UF22: hai. yes 9 UF21: konnichiwa [@@@][(@@@)] hello 10 UF22: e-, ikutsu desu uhm how-old COP 11 UF21: 22 22 12 UF22: a-, oh

desu. COP ja then

13 UF21: sannensei third-year

gakubu undergraduate

sannensei. third-year.

15 UF21:

a, oh

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yonen? fourth-year

[desu] COP

14 UF22: [a-] oh hai. yes

ka? Q

sokka I-see

sokka. I-see

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Japanese Questions 16 UF22: u::n, uhm

nee.. FP

17 UF21:

koko here

e, uhm

18 UF22: a, oh

hai. yes

19 UF21: a, oh,

e, uhm

no of

hai. watashi yes I

21 UF21: a oh

watashi I

2 UF22:

chikai near

‘UF21: UF22: UF21: UF22: UF21: UF22: UF21: UF22: UF21: UF22: UF21: UF22: UF21: UF22: UF21: UF22: UF21: UF22: UF21: UF22: UF21: UF22:

no hi, kata desu ka:? of pe person COP Q gakubu undergraduate

nanika what-department

20 UF22: itaka Italian-department

[a] oh

gakusei student

yonensei desu. fourth-year COP

desu ka? COP Q

desu. COP

supeka Spanish-department

na COP

n [desu COM COP

yo] FP

[@@@][(@@@)]

Yes, then, he[llo]. [Hello] @@@@ Nice to [meet you] [Oh], nice to meet you. Oh, I am UF21. Oh, hello, I am UF22. Miss UF22. Yes. Hello @@@@ Uhm. How old are you? Twenty two. Then you are in 4th year undergraduate? Third [year]. [Oh] third year. Yes. Oh, I see, I see. Uhm, you see.. Oh, are you a per- student of this university?= =Oh, yes. Yes, I am in fourth year. Oh, uhm, in which department are you? Italian. Oh, I am in Spanish,[ you see] [Oh], it is close @@@@@’

While asking about each other’s membership category is routinely accomplished, there are also other avenues for unacquainted people to get information about each other. One is to make some assumptions about others from their outer appearance (e.g. clothing, age). The other is to talk about the setting or the weather or other circumstances and is a very common practice in talk with strangers (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984). Only

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one interaction in the data for the present study displays such an exchange. It appears that one of the participants (UF09) arrives late and apologizes to her interlocutor (line 3); however, UF10 also apologizes saying that she was the one that was late. The first question (line 6), a Wh-Q, functions as a pre-topical question even though they have not introduced themselves. UF09 asks her interlocutor at what time she arrived. UF10 says that she came on the 6 minutes past train and thus, answers the question indirectly. This pre-topical Wh-Q develops into topical talk about trains then commuting. The talk continues for many lines and includes the topics of commuting and different stations around universities in the area they are in. The listener’s interest is apparent in the way she sends backchannels and asks questions, as in line 21. This example shows that unacquainted persons can develop topical talk that is known as ‘setting talk’ (Sacks, as cited in Silverman, 1998; Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984). Talking about the setting or the weather is considered to be a ‘false’ topic as it soon comes to a halt (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984: 304). (7) (UF24) 1 UF09: toriaezu to-start-with

jikoshookai self-introduction

kara @@@ from

2 UF10: hai yes 3 UF09: hajimemashite. nice-to-meet-you 4 UF10: = watashi, I 5

osokunatte late-become

watashi no I of

hoo side

gomennasai @@@@= sorry ga S

osoku natta late become-PAST

to Qt

[omoimasu@@@] think-PRE

6 UF09: [e] oh 7 UF10: nto: uhm

itsu when

gurai about

(un) 6pun 6-minutes

ni to no of

korareta n desu ka?. come-HON-PAST COM COP Q {rosenmei} sen name-line 1 line

de in

kimashita come-PAST

8 UF09: a:. oh 9 UF10: @@@ 10 UF09: e-, ja hayakatta desu ne: 15fun ni wa moo uhm then early-PAST COP FP 15-minutes at TOP already 11

irashitemashita come-HON-PAST

12 UF10: soo yes

yo ne. FP FP

desu ne. COP FP

13 UF09: isoide rushing

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Japanese Questions 14 UF10: isoide [@@@][(@@@)] in-a-hurry 15 UF09: watashi I 16

{ekimei1}

kara

kita

n

desu

kedo,

station1

from

come-PAST

COM

COP

but

[57fun] 57-minutes

17 UF10: [aa, oh

soo] yes

de by na COP

n COM

18 UF09: nanka, 45fun no tsugi DM 45-minute of next

desu COP

ka.. Q

ga (un), 50pun datta S yes fifty-minutes COM-PAST

((2 lines omitted)) 21 UF10: ouchi house

ga S

acchi there

na COP

n desu ka? COM COP Q

22 UF09: un, ano: .{ekimei1} no (un) sugu norikaejanai desu kedo yes uhm station1 of yeah immediately change -NEG COP but ((continues)) ‘UF09: UF10: UF09: UF10: UF09: UF10: UF09: UF10: UF09: UF10: UF09: UF09: UF10: UF09: UF10: UF09:

To start with, shall we introduce ourselves @@@@ . Yes Nice to meet you. Sorry for being late= @@@@ =I, I think I was late @@@@ Oh, When did you get here? Uhm, (yes) I came on the 6 o’clock {line 1} Oh. @@@@ So, you were early=you were here already at 15 past, weren’t you? Yes, that’s right. In a hurry. UF10: In a hurry [@@@][(@@@)] I came from {station1}, on the 57 train. Oh, really? Well, the next train after the 45 was at 50 minutes.. ((3 lines omitted)) Is your house in that direction? Yeah, uhm: it’s not like immediately changing trains at {station1} but ((continues))’

It is only after many turns (about 40) that they ask each other about their fields of study, but, interestingly, this particular interaction finished without the participants revealing their names. Nevertheless, the conversation seems to have developed without problems as there were very few instances of pauses or silences. In line 66, we can see that UF09 asks her listener whether she is an undergraduate student, and two lines later

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she volunteers information about herself. Then, UF10 asks in turn, in line 71, what language program UF09 belongs to. The fact that these participants could converse without exchanging information about categorization membership suggests that the setting was an important factor that provided them with enough shared knowledge of the university and its surroundings. This is also emphasized by the fact that both interlocutors know about the train schedule and how long it takes for someone to get to the campus (example (7)). In example (8), they both assume that they are university students belonging to the same faculty and that both commute. Therefore, shared knowledge about the geography and landmarks around the university provided enough common points to talk about. (8) (UF24) ((40 lines omitted)) 66 UF09:

a, oh

gakubu undergraduate

67 UF10:

hai. yes

68 UF09:

watashi I

69 UF10:

a oh

70 UF09:

un yeah

71 UF10:

nani what

72 UF09:

choosengo de Korean in

73 UF10:

a oh

74 UF09:

[koriago] Korean

soo yes

[soo yes

kata person

desu COP

ka? Q

gakubu. undergraduate

na COP

go language

‘UF09: UF10: UF09: UF10: UF09: UF10: UF09: UF10: UF09:

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mo too

no of

na] COP

n desu ka. COM COP Q

ka program

desu COP

ka? Q

n desu ka. COM COP Q

Are you an undergraduate? Yes. I am also an undergraduate Really. Yeah. What language program? Korean language [Really] [Korean]’

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With the exception of the example above, all other interactions in the data exhibited similar characteristics where participants exchanged greetings, introduced themselves and only then, introduced pre-topical questions. Topical talk was generated only after a pre-topical sequence was exchanged, highlighting the ‘routine’ or ‘obligatory’ nature of category-membership questions (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984; Sacks, as cited in Silverman, 1998).

Introducing topical questions In any communicative interaction, topical talk can start spontaneously as a natural process or when a speaker introduces a topic. In talk between friends, topics can be introduced without major problems (possible FTAs) as the speakers have a great deal of shared knowledge related to people they know, to common experiences, to socio-geographical knowledge and so on as we saw in Chapter 5. However, when unacquainted persons interact, the choice of topics might be more problematic because of the lack of information about each other. It is difficult to avoid possible embarrassing or inappropriate topics without knowing about one’s interlocutor’s beliefs, ideas or thoughts. Therefore, as seen in the previous section, questions about each other’s membership group are routinely exchanged and appear to be a requisite before the speakers can move to a stage where talk about safe topics can evolve.

Y/N questions, Wh-questions, grammatically unfinished questions Most Japanese self-introductions include information related to one’s birthplace, or to a company or school name, and one’s position within the company or year of study. Example (9) shows a prototypical Japanese introduction. Through lines 1 to 2, UF06 introduces herself by giving the name of the department in which she is studying, the year she is in and finally her name. Note that the other speaker repeats the same format in lines 5 and 6 with the only difference being the final verb. They do not exchange the standard phrases such as yoroshiku onegaishimasu or hajimemashite ‘nice to meet you’, and the fact that UF05 reciprocates the self-introduction seems to provide the necessary information about each other to start a pre-topical question in line 7. Initially it looks like a membership categorization question; however, a closer look shows that this information has been requested before. Despite the fact that UF05 had already stated that she is in third year, UF06 asks whether she is in her third year, indicating that it is not a categorization but a pre-topical question. (9) (UF22) 1 UF06: watashi I 2

{UF06} {UF06}

3 UF05: {UF06} {UF06}

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wa TOP to Qt

{gakkamei 1} {department 1}

no, of

yonensei fourth-year

de, and

mooshimasu. say-HUMB

san Title

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4 UF06: hai. yes 5 UF05: hai. yes 6

no, of

etto uhm (hai) yes

watashi I {UF05} {UF05}

7 UF06: sannensei third-year

desu COP

8 UF05: sannensei third-year

desu. COP

‘UF06:

wa, TOP to Qt

{gakkamei 2} {department 2}

no, of

sannensei third-year

iimasu. say-

ka? Q

I am in the {department 1}, and I am my 4th year. I am {UF06}; Miss {UF06} Yes. Yes, uhm, I am in the {department 2}, and I am in my 3rd year. I am {UF05}; Are you in 3rd year? I am in 3rd year.’

UF05: UF06: UF05: UF06: F09:

In three out of the seven interactions in the data, the first topic was initiated by a question that asked about the listener’s activities. Contrary to what Maynard and Zimmerman (1984) found in their study, activity-related initial questions generated long and elaborate talk in the present data. However, they occurred after categorization questions had been exchanged. The response to a topical question does not necessarily have to be long and elaborate as in example (10), and the introduced topic can be developed in subsequent turns. UF07 asks UF08, who is now in her 7th year at university, whether all her studies have been at this university. UF08 gives an explanation as to why she has been a student for so long (in Japan the standard degree takes four years). (10) (UF 23) 1 UF07: [kono], gakubu kara, this department from 2

n COM

desu COP

3 UF08:

=soo desu, yes COP

zutto, throughout

irasshatta be-HON-PAST

ka?= Q [hai] yes

((3 lines omitted)) 6 UF 08: ichinen one-year 7

kara from

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gakubu, haitte, de, undergraduate enter-CONJ and

3nen no natsu third-year summer

ichinen one-year

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kankoku Korea

ni to

ita be-PAST

nde: because

‘UF07:

[that], Have you been in this department all the way through from when you were an undergraduate? UF08: Yes, that’s right. ((3 lines omitted)) UF08: I entered first year and from summer of my third year I was in Korea for a whole year – that is why (I am in my 7th year).’ Topical questions were either Y/N questions, Wh-questions or grammatically unfinished questions. The next example (11), first introduced in (2), shows a Wh-question in line 7. At this point, UF19 and UF20 had already exchanged categorization questions and briefly remarked on the characters used to write UF19’s name which, UF20 comments, is an unusual combination of Chinese characters. In line 1, UF19 asks a Wh-question, nani o kenkyuu shiterun desu ka, about the topic of her research. UF20 produces an elaborate answer and talks in detail about the content of her research. In unacquainted talk, initial questions can also be those termed category-activity (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984) whereby the information about what people ‘do’ can provide information that allows the interlocutors to categorize them. (11) (UF 29) 1 UF19:

{JIF21} {JIF21}

desu @@@ COP

yoroshiku onegaishimasu. nice-to-meet-you

2 UF20:

mezurashii unusual

3 UF19:

aa, oh

4 UF20:

hajimete first-time

5 UF19:

hai. yes

6 UF20:

u:n, yeah

7 UF19:

e, ima nani no uhm now what of

8 UF20:

a, ima wa, {jinmei1} sensei no (ee) shakaigengogaku no (ee) oh now TOP {name1} teacher of yeah sociolinguistics of yeah

soo yes

desu COP

ne FP

kikimashita. hear-PAST

kanji character

ga S

chotto little

mezurashii unusual

kamoshirenai perhaps

kenkyuu o shiteru n desu ka? research DO do-PRE COM COP Q

((continues)) ‘UF19: UF20:

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It is {Kanji 21}@@@. Nice to meet you. How unusual.

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Categorizing, Introducing and Maintaining Topical Talk UF19: UF20: UF19: UF20: UF19: UF18:

187

Yes, it is. It is the first time I hear such a name. Yes, maybe the characters are unusual. Yeah. Uh, What is your research topic? Oh, now I am taking professor {name 1}’s sociolinguistics ((continues))’

Grammatically unfinished questions were used frequently and, despite their incompleteness, they were interpreted correctly. These types of questions are also present in television and radio interactions and they seem to be a common strategy for asking questions without being too inquisitive or direct. Here, UF22 asks her conversation partner why she had to come to university on that particular day. Observe that both of her turns are interpreted as questions because of the rising intonation (lines 1 and 3). In line 1, UF22 says ‘and today? Today is in the summer holidays.’ implying perhaps that she wants to know why UF21 is on campus despite the fact that it is summer holidays. UF21 takes her turn, but UF22 butts-in and asks one more grammatically unfinished question ‘Why are you at school?’ These questions initiate topical talk as UF21 starts explaining why she is on campus during the summer holidays, and the conversation develops into another one. (12) (UF30) 1 UF22: de, de, kyoo and and today 2 UF21: a, oh

e= uhm

3 UF22: =nande why

wa? kyoo natsu yasumi da kedo . . . TOP today summer holidays COP but

. gakko school

ni? in

4 UF21: kyoo wa, ano: today TOP uhm ((continues))

{jinmei1} name 1

san ni Title by

(un)

onegaisarete ask-PASS

‘UF22: And, and today? It is summer holidays. UF21: Oh, uhm= UF22: Why (did you come) to school? UF21: Today, I was asked to do something (yeah) by {name1} ((continues))’ As mentioned previously, topical talk can evolve naturally (as in example (7)) or when speakers initiate a topic. In the latter case, a new topic can be introduced when a speaker volunteers information or when she asks a question. Questions that trigger the development of topical talk have been termed pre-topical questions (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984) and are considered to be invitations that can be declined or accepted. Declining such invitations is manifested in short replies or delayed responses

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that do not generate further talk as seen in example (13). At this particular point in the excerpt, the participants had introduced themselves, and already knew each other’s names, in which department they are studying, their year and where they live. In line 1, UF17 says that she lives 5 minutes away by bike from the university. A pause of 10 seconds follows after UF18’s assessment. The first pre-topical question is uttered by UF17 immediately after this pause: nanka, bukatsu toka yattemasu ka? ‘Are you in a club, or something?’ (lines 3–4). UF18 answers with a question, a phenomenon we saw in the previous chapter. It appears that in order for UF17 to explain which extra-curricular club she belongs to, she needs to know whether UF18 knows about the existence of that club. She asks if UF17 knows {Name 1 club} in line 5, adding that she performs with a band. However, both seem to fail in producing further talk. First, UF17 does not send any backchannels or use an evaluative comment after line 9, thus showing her disinterest. On the other hand, UF18 does not produce further talk either and there is another pause of 3 seconds. It is only after that pause that UF18 reciprocates the pre-topical question, and talk about belly-dancing develops for a number of turns. (13) (UF28) 1 UF17: jitensha de bicycle INST 2 UF18: chika:i @@@ near (10 sec) 3 UF17: e, Uhm 4

5fun gurai no 5-minute about of he: uhm

nanka, DM

yattemasu do-PRE

bukatsu toka extra-curricular-activity like

[ka?] Q

5 UF18: [a], oh

{saakuru 1} {club 1}

6 UF17: a, oh

hai. yes

7 UF18: are that

ni in

8 UF17: e, yes

nanka DM

e uhm

11 UF17

beridansu belly-dance

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tte Qt

shittemasu? know-PRE

haitte . . . enter-CONJ

9 UF18: keion light-music (3 sec) 10

soo ka really Q

nanka DM

gakki instruments de, and

bando yattari band do-CONJ

saakuru club yatteru DO-PRE

haittemasu? enter-PRE n COM

desu kedo: COP but

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Categorizing, Introducing and Maintaining Topical Talk 12 UF18: a:, oh 13

beriidansu, belly-dance

sai ni festival in

UF17:

{daigakumei} {university 1}

detari perform-CONJ

14 UF17: sukoshi dake. little only ‘UF17: UF18: (10 sec) UF17: UF18: UF17: UF18: UF17: UF18: (3 sec) UF18: UF17: UF18:

e, kyonen no uhm last-year of

189

kyonen ((continues)) last-year

It is about 5 minutes by bicycle That’s close. Uhm, really Uhm, are you doing any extra-curricular activi[ties]? [Oh] Do you know{club 2}? Oh, yes. I am a member. Uhm, it’s to do with instruments or something. Light music, and I perform in a band Uhm, are you in a club? I am doing belly-dancing, Oh, belly-dancing. Uhm, like you performed in the {university 1} festival last year and Just a bit. Last year ((continues)).’

Pre-topical questions, as in the case of invitations, can also be answered with an acceptance that takes the form of a long and elaborate answer which then develops into topical talk (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984). Following the excerpt from the example above, after UF18 asks about UF17’s extra-curricular activities in line 10, the latter produces an extended answer as seen in the excerpt below. UF18 shows her interest by sending three backchannels in lines 2 and 5 and her compliments in line 7 and 10. Perhaps due to the interest that UF18 displays by sending backchannels at appropriate places and her assessment turn in lines 7–8 beriidansu tte sugo::i desune ‘Belly dancing is rea:lly amazing, isn’t it?’, UF17 also shows her involvement in the talk by developing the topic further. Her cooperative stance can be seen in her use of the question in lines 11 and 12, where she asks about a person who is in a different club, and in this way she also tries to establish a common or shared knowledge. (14) UF28 1 UF17:

sukoshi little

dake. kyonen ichinensei only last-year first-year

2

de (n) ano, ryooriten and uhm well restaurant

3

dakara therefore

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sukoshi little

shika only

datta n COP-PAST COM

ga chotto S little odottenai dance-NEG

isogashikute (a:), busy-CONJ oh n desu kedo, COM COP but

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anmari gogeki wa, nanka, kyasuto de not-much drama TOP DM cast in

5

node (n) kekkoo because n quite

6

ka Q

na FP

to Qt

7 UF18: beriidansu belly-dance 8

watashi I

omou thing

tte Qt

beriidansu no hoo ni belly-dance of way in n COM

sugo::i terrific

mitete watch-CONJ

wa nai TOP COP-NEG

omou think

desu COP

desu COP kedo, but

dereru appear-POT

kedo but ne: @@@ (@@@) nanka FP DM desu COP

ne. FP

9 UF17: kekkoo: muzukashii . . . quite difficult 10 UF18: a:: oh

nanka DM

ishoo costume

ga S

sugoi, great

suteki desu ne, minna. cool COP FP all

11 UF17

demo, ano, nanda, nanka {saakuru 2} de, sukoshi dake odotteru but uhm what DM {club2} in little only dance

12

hito iru no shittemasu ka? nanka, sugoi, motto person be COM know-PRE Q DM amazing more

13

sugoi desu yo. amazing COP FP

14 UF18: e:, oh

{circle2} ((continues)) {circle2}

‘UF17: A little. Because last year I was a freshman (n) uhm, the restaurant was busy and (oh:) that’s why I danced only a few times, but because I do not belong to the drama team, (n) I thought that I would be able to do more belly dancing UF18: Belly dancing is really amazing, isn’t it? @@@@ Well, when I watch it I always think that it is ama:zing. UF17: It’s quite difficult . . . UF18: Oh:, well the costumes are really amazing, they are cool. UF17: But, uhm, what’s that, do you know that there is a person in {circle2} who dances a little? Well, that is more amazing, I can tell you.. UF18: Oh {circle 2} ((continues))’ Topical talk sometimes comes to a halt despite the cooperation and interest shown by the interlocutors and in this example we can see that neither of the women introduces a topic nor asks a question of the other even though they are not enjoying the talk. Each participant seems to be very aware of signs of the other interlocutor’s interest in relation to their talk, and try to address possible troubles. The most obvious sign of problems is when interlocutors yawn or seem to be uninterested. In the following

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excerpt (15), UF13 and UF14 are talking about how differently some words are pronounced depending on dialects, but the talk is abandoned. After some efforts on both sides to keep talking, UF13 sighs deeply in line 4. Although she tries to introduce a topic with the word sooieba ‘by the way’, it does not go unnoticed and UF14 interrupts her asking otsukare desuka? ‘Are you tired?’ The action, however, is redressed because of the accompanying laughter that diminishes the force of the indirect comment by UF14. This question, although it does not directly ask for information but rather seems to be an indirect criticism, manages to generate some talk as UF13 starts explaining that she is rather tired because she had come to the university by scooter. (15) (UF26) 1 UF14: ha: oh

naruhodo: @@@ I-see

2 UF13: omoshiroi desu interesting COP 3 UF14: soo yes

desu COP

4 UF13: [ha:]

(n) kekkoo. uh-huh quite

ne: [fu:n] FP uh-huh

((a deep sigh)) sooieba by-the-way

5 UF14: otsukare tired 6 UF13: soo yes

yo FP

soo yes

‘UF14: UF13: UF14: UF13: UF14: UF13:

desu COP na COP

ka?@@@@ Q n desu COM COP

yo, FP

kekkoo @@@ quite

Oh, I see. @@@ It is quite (Uh-huh) interesting, you see. Yes Uh-huh. ((deep sigh)), by the way Are you tired? @@@ Yes, I am quite tired, you know @@@’

Other signs of problems are silence or long pauses. Invariably, in these cases, interlocutors will try to introduce a new topic as in the next example where UF18 uses a question to introduce a new topic and generate talk. In excerpt (16), the participants were talking about belly dancing. They also talk about a different dance costume that leaves the stomach area exposed and comment that it is very cold to wear such garments. In line 1, UF17 says it looks cold, and then there is a rather short pause of 3 seconds after UF18 sends her backchannel. UF17 responds that it was very cold in particular in the previous year. Having talked for about four turns about university extra-curricular activities and the costumes, the topic comes to a complete halt after both interlocutors stop talking. After a very long pause of 18 seconds UF18 introduces a new topic by asking the question natsuyasumi wa, kekkoo toshokan kitetandesuka? ‘Did you come to the library often during summer holidays?’ UF17 gives a long answer and for a number of turns they talk about going to university during the holidays. However,

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this topic also dies out. There is another pause of 12 seconds, and this time UF17 introduces another topic related to summer holidays with the question natsuyasumi dokka ittarishinain desu ka? ‘Don’t you going somewhere for the summer holidays’? This question introduces the topic of travel (not included in the example), and UF17 talks about her experiences of going overseas. (16) (UF28) 1 UF17: 2 UF18:

warito ashi wa relatively leg TOP

anmari mienai. onaka dake. anot-much see-NEG stomach only oh

u::n. e. uh-huh uhm

(3 sec) 3 UF18:

ano that

jiki hontoni samui noni season really cold even

4 UF17:

samu, katta desu ne: kyonen. cold PAST COP FP last-year ((about 3 lines omitted)) 8 UF17:

yoru night

toka like

9 UF18:

[samusoo] cold-seems

ne: FP demo but

arede ((continues)) that

wa [chotto] TOP little

(18 sec) 10 UF17:

e. natsuyasumi wa, kekkoo toshokan kiteta n uhm summer-break TOP quite library come-PAST COM

11

desu COP

12 UF18:

iya, sonna kitenakute, nanka, mainichi baito ga no that-much come-NEG DM every-day part-time-job S

13

atte, sorede nanka natsuyasumi chu da to, minnna be then DM summer-break during COP when everybody

ka? Q

14

konakute ((continues)) come-NEG-CONJ ((20 lines omitted)) 34 UF18:

hitorimo inakatta noni, kyoo mitara, kekkoo ite no-one be-NEG despite today see-COND quite be-CONJ

35

bikkurishichatta shock-PAST

36 UF17:

a: naruhodo. oh I-see

(12 sec)

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Categorizing, Introducing and Maintaining Topical Talk 37 UF17:

natsuyasumi summer-break

dokka ittarishinai somewhere go-NEG

193

n desu ka? COM COP Q

‘UF17: You cannot see the legs. Just the stomach. Oh UF18: I see. Uhm (3 sec) UF18: That time of the year is really cold, isn’t it? UF17: It’s cold, it was co:ld, last year. But ((continues)) ((about 3 lines omitted)) UF17: At night it was (cold). UF18: It seems cold (18 sec) UF17: Did you come to the library much during the summer break? UF18: No, I did not come that often, uhm because I had a part-time job and during the summer break no one came ((continues)) ((20 lines omitted)) UF18: There wasn’t anyone, but when I saw that there were many people today I was surprised. UF17: Oh, I see. (12 sec) UF 17: Did you go anywhere during the summer break?’

Maintaining topical talk As we have just seen, one of the difficulties in unacquainted talk is maintaining the communicative interaction because of insufficient information. Showing interest can act to provide a new topic and also to promote talk. Listeners can demonstrate their cooperative stance by using assessments and by sending backchannels at appropriate points. Similarly, research suggests that speakers who provide the lead in a conversation are seen favourably by their listeners (Ogawa, 2000). This means that while it is important to show interest using ‘passive’ strategies, such as backchannels that do not take the floor, taking a more active stance, such as generating new topics by asking questions, is perhaps more effective in unacquainted talk.

Displaying interest: Elliptical questions As we saw in the examples of informal talk between friends in Chapter 5, questions can be used to show interest. These tend to be very short questions which do not change the flow of conversation. Their use demonstrates the listeners’ curiosity and shows a cooperative stance. In (17) the interlocutors are talking about studying overseas, and UF01 is narrating the story of a friend of hers who went to Canada, but despite being in an English-speaking environment was not able to acquire fluency. The topic of English fluency is a common one in Japan where, as is the case in other countries, students who have learned a foreign language at school for many years do not acquire a satisfactory

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degree of fluency in the target language. Observe in lines 2 and 4 that UF02 asks two questions one after the other. These show the listener’s interest and do not derail the topic of the talk. Although it seems that UF02 does not wait for UF01’s answer, her use of questions is not an aggressive one but one that shows the listener’s curiosity. This has been reported to be a cooperative style that is often observed in talk between young females (Coates, 1996; L. Tanaka, 2004). (17) (UF 20) 1 UF01:

atashi I

no of

2 UF02:

ninen? two-years

3 UF01:

[kanada ni] Canada to

4 UF02:

[tsuzukete] continuously

tomodachi friend

desu COP

mo also

ryuugakushiteite. study-overseas-CONJ

ka? Q

‘UF01: My friend was also studying overseas and UF2: Two years? UF01: [in Canada] UF02: [Continu]ously?’ A similar use of questions to show interest is seen in the next excerpt. The topic here is UF08’s Korean language class. Prior to line 1, UF08 had explained the start of her focus on Asia and her decision to study Korean. UF07’s questions in lines 1 and 4 are a strategy for showing her interest by eliciting more talk on the same topic. UF07’s first question is related to the number of classmates studying the same language. As soon as she gets an answer, she asks a second question. The interlocutor answers that it is a medium-sized class, and that the English classes are larger. This topic is developed further and evolves into sub-topics. The natural flow of sub-topics in this particular interaction resembles an interview where the host asks questions to elicit further talk. It appears that there are some interactions where one of the participants does most of the questioning, an interesting aspect of dyadic talk and an area requiring future research which cannot be dealt with here. Nevertheless, this phenomenon seems to be connected to Ogawa’s (2000) study on unacquainted talk that reports that interlocutors have a positive impression when their conversational partners take the lead. (18) (UF 23) 1 UF07:

ano uhm

doregurai ano ninzuu how-much uhm persons

iru n desu ka? onaji.. be COM COP Q same

2 UF08:

unto: hito gakunen, gakubu no ho wa, 30 atashi iru uhm one year undergraduate of side TOP 30 I be

3

toki when

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wa, 35, TOP 35

desu [ne..] COP FP

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Categorizing, Introducing and Maintaining Topical Talk sore, that

4 UF07:

[n;] uhm

5 UF08:

[warito, {daigakumei} no nakade wa, chuu gurai?? ka na quite university-name of within TOP middle about Q FP

6

tte Qt

7 UF07:

un uhm

8 UF08:

hee/ really

iu say

tte Qt

kekkoo, ooi quite much

hoo, side

195

desu [ka?] COP Q

kanji..] impression

‘UF07: Uhm, how many people are there? Same.. UF08: Uhm, in one year, at undergraduate, thirty, my year there are 35 five, [you see] UF07: [uhm] is that quite a [lot?]. UF08: [Quite] in university X it’s, I think, medium??, I think.. UF07: Uhm UF08: Really?’ One last example to illustrate the use of questions to maintain talk is seen in (19) where UF20 and UF19 are talking about UF20’s house and how she has to commute to university. In line 1, UF20 says that her house is far away from the university. UF19 asks a Y/N question that is recognizable as such because of the final rising intonation (line 2). Instead of giving an answer, UF20 asks a question of her interlocutor that reverses the sequence. However, the second pair is not produced by either of them and UF19 asks another question in line 6 that clarifies UF19’s first question in line 2. After UF20 explains that the train line goes across (the prefecture), UF19’s third question in line 11 asks whether the line crosses the prefecture vertically. This is a negative question that reveals UF19’s familiarity with the transport system around the area. The questions in this excerpt show UF19’s display of interest and her efforts to contribute to the conversation. (19) (UF29) 1 UF20:

tooi far

desu COP

2 UF19:

oomiya Omiya

3 UF20:

a oh

4 UF19:

a: oh

5 UF20:

ano uhm

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moo well

ne: FP

toka like

motto ue? more above

koshigaya tte Koshigaya Qt

owakari know

desu COP

ka?. Q

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Japanese Questions 6 UF19: e, eh

nani what

sen line

desu ka? COP Q

7 UF20: musashino Musashino

sen line

de and

8 UF19: hai yes

hai yes

hai yes

9 UF20: zu:tto oodanshitekuru n desu kedo (ha:), ima teeki all-the-way cross-come COM COP but oh now pass 10

nai have-NEG

kara, because

11 UF19: ano: uhm

musashino Musashino

12 UF20: na what

n COM

sen line

tte Qt

koo, uhm

tate ni nai? vertically into be-NEG

daroo COP

13 UF19: aru? be 14 UF20: nai desu. be-NEG COP ‘UF20: It is far away. UF19: Further north than Omiya? UF20: Do you know where Koshigaya is? UF19: Oh UF20: Uhm UF19: What line is it? UF20: It is the Musashino line and UF19: Yes, yes, yes UF20: It crosses all the way, but (uhm) because I don’t have a pass UF19: Uhm, doesn’t the Musashino line go vertically? UF20: I wonder UF19: Does it? UF20: No, it doesn’t’ It might be argued that UF19’s question interrupts UF20 in line 10 and does not allow her to finish her turn. However, the topic of the conversation does not change and even if UF19 has been interrupted, this is not an aggressive action by UF19 but one that is caused by interest and curiosity. It should be stressed that not all interruptions are associated with an aggressive stance as there are also cooperative interruptions (Murata, 1994).

Reciprocating questions It has been reported that the success of a communicative interaction between unacquainted persons can be measured by the amount of reciprocity in the information

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exchange (Ogawa, 2000). Reciprocity can be observed in a number of practices. Revealing personal information on the same topic is one. Another is to reciprocate the same question that one was asked. This allows speakers to show their interest in maintaining the conversation and their other-oriented stance. At the same time, because the current topic is seen to be a safe one, speakers can avoid threatening the listener with a potential loss of face or intruding on personal territory by introducing a completely new topic. In other words, it is safer to maintain the current topic or go back to a previous one. Reciprocal questions can be asked immediately after another question, and they are more frequently found in the initial stages of the interaction. The next example, presented briefly in (4), shows that the interlocutors have just started to ask categorization questions. UF17 asks UF18’s name and, after line 2, she gives hers without waiting to be asked. UF18 then starts another question that is unfinished but interpreted as one that asks the year level, as seen in the answer (line 4). Naturally, UF17 might have wanted to ask a different question such as nani o benkyoo shiteimasu ka ‘What are you studying?’ This point reminds us that interlocutors implicitly know that in the initial stages, the questions will be related to membership categorization and not to something else. UF18 reciprocates the same question, although in grammatically complete form. (20) (UF 28) 1 UF17: a, oh, 2 UF18: a, oh

onamae wa? name TOP {UF18} {UF18}

3 UF17: {UF17} {UF17}

desu. COP

to Qt na, wh

iimasu. say-PRE nani, what

nan.. what

4 UF18: a, ima 4nensei desu. nan nensei desu oh now fourth-year-student COP what year-student COP 5 UF17: ima now

2nen second-year

ka? Q

desu. COP

‘UF17: Oh, your name? UF18: Oh, my name is {UF18} UF17: I am {UF17}. Wh-, what, what . . . UF18: Oh, I am now a 4th year student. What year are you in? UF17: I am in second year now.’ At other times the reciprocated question takes a different format but essentially asks for the same type of information. In (21), the first question is a Y/N question yonensei desuka ‘Are you a fourth year student?’ and in the next turn UF16 asks a short Wh-question nannensei ‘What year’, where the only signs of interrogativity are the question word and rising intonation. These are two different questions in the way they are structured and produced, however, they ask for the same thing. What is interesting

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is the reciprocity of the questions. UF16, for instance, does not wait for any type of assessment and immediately reciprocates the question. (21) (UF27) 1 UF15: [a], oh

yonensei fourth-year-student

na COP

n COM

desu COP

ka? Q

2 UF16: hai. nan [nensei]? yes what year-student 3 UF15: [yonen][sei] fourth-year-student 4 UF16:

[a] oh

soo yes

na COP

n COM

desu COP

ka. Q

‘UF15: Are you a fourth year student? UF16: Yes. What year? UF15: I am a fourth year student. UF16: Oh, is that so.’ The questions in examples (20) and (21) are those used in the membership categorization stage of the interaction and perhaps it is not strange that they are reciprocated because it is the most certain way of obtaining information about one’s conversation partner. There are also questions that ask for category-activities such as in the following excerpt. UF04 asks whether UF03 is going to work after graduating. UF03 does not answer immediately, and UF04 gives her another choice, asking whether she is going to continue studying. It is interesting that UF04’s third pair part after UF03’s answer is soonandesune (line 5) instead of the usual expression soonandesuka. The former expression would have been more appropriate if UF04 had already known that her partner was going to continue studying, whereas the latter is used when hearing a piece of news for the first time. Despite this answer, UF03 reciprocates the question in line 6, and regardless of its unfinished structure doo nasaru ‘What will (you) do?’, it is correctly interpreted by UF04 who answers immediately. She says that she feels she already has a job and continues giving a detailed explanation of what she means. (22) (UF21) 1 UF04: shuushoku work

nasaru do-HON

n COM

desu COP

ka? Q

2 UF03: e:to uhm 3 UF04: shingaku continue-education 4 UF03: daigakuin ni graduate-school to

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toka like ikoo go-HORT

to Qt

omotte:[imasu] think-PRE

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soo yes

na n COP COM

desu COP

199

ne FP

6 UF03: doo nasaru . . . what do-HON 7 UF04: =iya moo shuushokukatsudoo o oeta tte kanji desu no well work-searching DO finish-PAST Qt feeling COP 8

ne. FP ‘UF04: Are you going to work? UF03: Uhm UF04: or going to graduate school? UF03: I am thinking of going to graduate [school]. UF04: I know. UF03: What are you . . . UF04: No, well, it feels like I have already finished searching for jobs, you see’

Other reciprocated questions can elicit topical talk in the same way as in (23). The excerpt shows that the first question, which is a Wh-question, asks whether UF06 is travelling during summer. The topic does not develop fully as we learn that she is, in fact, going to Korea to study. In the subsequent lines, UF06 explains that she is going to a particular university; however, she does not provide more information and instead reciprocates the question. This question is a Y/N question with the verb accompanied by rising intonation, and the noun is added as an afterthought. It is an unexpected question particularly because it is embedded in her answer. The reciprocated question elicits some topical talk that is developed after UF05 says that she will travel only inside Japan. Although the topic of domestic travel is not talked about for very long, it does indirectly lead to a different topic, not included in the example, in which different places in Japan are discussed. (23) (UF22) 1 UF05:

kotoshi no natsu tte dokka this-year of summer Qt somewhere

ryokoo travel

2 UF06:

a, atashi, ano, raishuu no oh I uhm next-week of

getsuyoobi Monday

3

ryuugaku ni overseas-study to

ni to

4 UF05:

[a] oh

5 UF06:

hai yes

6 UF05:

a: oh

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soo yes

desu COP

iku go

koto COM

ka @@@. yappa Q of-course

ikimasu go-PRE

kara from

ka? Q

jitsuwa in-fact

na[tte: ]@@@ become kankoku: Korea

kankoku ni. Korea to

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200

Japanese Questions 7 UF06: ano, kankoku ni mo {daigakumei2}daigaku tte iu toka . . . uhm Korea in too {university2}university Qt say place 8

ga S

atte be-CONJ

9 UF05: hai yes 10 UF06: soko de benkyoosuru n desu kedo. e, ikimasu? ryokoo.. there in study COM COP but uhm go travel 11 UF05: ryokoo wa, ya, travel TOP no ‘UF05: UF06: UF05: UF06: UF05: UF06: UF05: UF06: UF05:

kotoshi wa tabun kokunai @@@ this-year TOP probably domestic

Are you going somewhere this summer? Uhm, the fact is that I am going to study overseas from Monday next week @@@ Oh, really. @@@ Of course to Korea. Yes. To Korea. Oh Uhm, in Korea too there is {university 2} and Yes. I am going to study there. Are you going? On a trip? Probably this year I am going to travel inside Japan @@@’

The reciprocation of questions can be observed throughout the interaction, and what is interesting is that they can be used again many turns later. In example (24) the topic of the thesis is introduced with a Wh-question in line 1. The fact that sotsuron is topicalized (marked with the particle wa) indicates the shared common knowledge and takes for granted that every fourth-year university student has to write a thesis in order to graduate. UF04 gives a very detailed explanation – that goes for about ten turns – about the area she wants to write about for her thesis. After a lengthy description, UF03 responds with an expression of interest (line 12), and immediately after UF03 reciprocates the same question, although she uses the honorific form of the verb. Prior to the topic of thesis writing, they were talking about UF03’s field of study and at this time UF03 talked about a particular author. In this turn, she is referring to that writer when she uses sono ‘that one’. (24) (UF 21) 1 UF03: 2 UF04:

sotsuron thesis

wa TOP

sotsuron wa?? thesis TOP

doo what

suru do

n desu ka? COM COP Q

n:to betonamu uhm Vietnam

ni okeru in in

gaishi bijinesu foreign business

((10 lines omitted)) 12 UF03: he: I-see

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Categorizing, Introducing and Maintaining Topical Talk 13 UF04: sotsuron thesis 14 UF03: sono, that

wa TOP

doo nasaru what do-HON

201

n desu ka? COM COP Q

{bunhitsuka mei} de author name of

15 UF04: a:, hai oh yes 16 UF03:

n: ‘sakuhin o yominasai yominasai’ to, iwaretsuzukete uhm work DO read-IMP read-IMP Qt say-PASS-continue

17

imasu. @@@ ((continues)) be-PRE ‘UF03: UF04:

What are you writing about in your thesis? The thesis?? Uhm, I am going to write about foreign businesses in Vietnam ((10 lines omitted)) UF03: I see. UF04: What are you writing about in your thesis? UF03: It is about that {author’s name} and UF04: Oh, yes UF03: Uhm, I am continuously told to read his/her works @@@ ((continues)).’ In the majority of cases, reciprocated questions are successful in generating topical talk as they are, in many ways, other-oriented strategies that are inclusive and extremely important in interactions between unacquainted partners (Ogawa, 2000). Reciprocated questions do not always follow immediately after the initial question as in the previous example or the following two examples. In (25), UF10’s question in line 1 is a topical question that is accepted by UF09 and fully developed as the few lines here show. UF09 says that while she does not have a driving licence she wants to obtain one. The talk develops naturally for about ten turns on the different needs of people living in big cities and in the countryside. Just before line 14, UF10 says that she is from Nagano Prefecture where transport is a problem and UF09 reacts to her comment. UF09, then, reciprocates the question she was asked in line 1. UF09’s question comprises the adverbs ja ‘then’ and moo ‘already’ and the verb motsu ‘have’; however, the noun menkyoo ‘licence’ is missing. From the structure of this question we can see that UF09 assumes that UF10 has a licence but UF10 immediately answers negatively. The noun phrase kore ga ‘this one’ stresses the fact that contrary to expectations she does not have one. This question introduces the topic of getting a licence in Tokyo, the prices and other options available for prospective learners, and develops further into a subtopic. (25) (UF24) 1 UF10:

menkyo licence

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mottemasu have-PRE

ka? Q

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Japanese Questions 2 UF09: menkyo, korekara licence from-now

torini take-to

ikitai na tte go-DESI FP Qt

omotte @@@, think-CONJ

3 UF10: @@@ 4 UF09: sotsugyoosuru madeni wa toritai tte omoun desu kedo . . . graduate by TOP take-DESI FP Qt think COP but ((10 lines omitted)) 14 UF09: a, soo oh yes

na COP

n desu COM COP

ka? Q

15 UF10: un uhm, 16 UF09: a: oh

ja, then

17 UF10: mottenai have-NEG

moo already n COM

motterasshaimasu ka? have-HON-PRE Q desu COP

yo, FP

kore this

ga @@@ S

‘UF10: Do you have a licence? UF09: I am thinking of getting a licence and @@@ UF10: @@@ UF09: I would like to obtain it before I graduate . . . ((10 lines omitted)) UF09: Oh, really? UF10: Yeah. UF09: So, then you already have it? UF10: No, I don’t have it, you know. @@@’ The last example of question reciprocation shows how this can be done even if the topic has developed and changed. Reciprocating a question, as mentioned before, ensures that topical talk will develop, in particular when it has proven successful in the course of the interaction. As we have seen, the question does not have to be an identical copy of the original one. In fact, most of the reciprocal questions differ slightly. However, there are other extreme examples. In (26), UF01 asks her partner about her reading preferences. The topic develops into a full topical talk in which UF02 talks about her liking of Russian literature and evolves into a sub-topic about Chinese literature. After a few turns in which F01 comments that Chinese literature seems very difficult, UF02 adds a comment saying that what is difficult is its Confucian approach. Both seem to agree in lines 28, 29, 30 and 31, but the talk stops there, and there is a pause of 5 seconds. It is at this point that UF02 asks her question that reintroduces the topic of books and reading. Despite her grammatically unfinished question, where the verb is missing, because the topic was developed earlier, UF01 does not have any trouble interpreting it correctly. In fact, it could be said that reciprocal questions are expected by interlocutors.

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Categorizing, Introducing and Maintaining Topical Talk (26) (UF20) 1 UF01:

hon books

toka like

2 UF02:

eigo? English

3 UF01:

iya no

iya no

203

yomimasu? read-PRE

iya, nihongo no Japanese

de. in

((20~25 lines omitted)) 28 UF02: ju Con 29 UF01: so yes

jukyooppoi Confucian-style so so so yes yes yes

30 UF02: [dakara that-why 31 UF01: [un yeah

ka Q

un yeah

no FP

ka @@@ Q

so da @@@ yes COP

na:] FP un un un] yeah yeah yeah

(5 sec) 32 UF02: nihonbungaku Japanese-literature 33 UF01: a oh

kekkoo quite

tte Qt

mukashi old

nanka DM no of

donna what-type

no? FP

desu ne. COP FP

34 UF02: mukashi no?= old of 35 UF01: =dazai Dazai

osamu Osamu

toka like

suki desu ne. like COP FP

‘UF01: Do you read books and the like? UF02: In English? UF01: No, no, no, no. In Japanese. ((20 ~25 lines omitted)) UF02: It is kind of Confucian @@@ UF01: Yes, yes, yes, yes. @@@@@ UF02: [It must be because of that] UF01: [Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah] (5 sec) UF02: What kind of Japanese literature (do you read?) UF01: Rather old works. UF02: Old?= UF01: =I like authors like Dazai Osamu, you see.’

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Reciprocal questions might not be a feature exclusive to unacquainted talk; however, the analyses suggest that they are one of the strategies to establish a good rapport when speakers do not know each other yet. The fact that several researchers have suggested that a balance in the amount of information that is disclosed is closely related to the development of a positive impression between the interlocutors (Ogawa, 2000) indicates that reciprocal questions are an important strategy for showing interest and a cooperative stance in unacquainted talk.

Showing an other-oriented stance: Negative questions and half-questions As mentioned in Chapter 2, negative questions are associated with conduciveness (Nitta, 1999). However, Japanese has two types of negative questions. One is conducive – the typical negative question designed to elicit a particular type of answer. The other type does not ask for new information, but for confirmation or agreement, and resembles deshoo type questions that ask for the listeners’ agreement (Adachi, 1999; Nitta, 1999). The overwhelming number of negative questions found in unacquainted interactions was not negatively conducive, as is the case in the courts or police interviews. Most of the negative questions were also different in nature to those used for criticism and disagreement between friends that were presented in Chapter 5. In fact, the negative questions used among unacquainted persons were used to obtain agreement and seem to be used as a cooperative communicative strategy. In the excerpt below, UF12 had previously asked whether UF11 was in the midst of looking for employment. This section occurs after they have introduced each other, and at this point they both know that they are in their third year of university. UF11 had said that she does not have a job yet, and the topic shifts to the difficulties of getting employment. In line 1, UF12 asks a negative question that, although it anticipates an agreement from her partner, is a cooperative action. Had the question been formatted with the negative form kinchoo shinaidesuka ‘Do you get tense in an interview?’ the implied meaning of the question would have been quite different to the one used by UF12. By using the shimasen form, the speaker implies that she too feels tense in an interview. Thus, this negative question can be considered an agreementseeking negative question (Adachi, 1999: 68). This type of question is used when both speaker and listener have the same amount of information. In Japan, it is generally the norm that university students start looking for a job in their third year of university unless they are planning to go to graduate school. In (27) both speakers are third-year university students and are experiencing the same kind of processes. This is further demonstrated in UF11’s initial answer with the expression soo desune that can be used if, and only if, the amount of knowledge held by the speaker and the listener are the same (Adachi, 1999). (27) (UF25) 1 UF12: nanka DM

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mensetsu interview

toka DM

kinochooshimasen? tense-become-NEG

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205

2 UF11: soo desu ne:, nanka mensetsu kinchoosuru n desu kedo yes COP FP DM interview tense-become COM COP but ((continues)) ‘UF12: UF11:

Uhm, don’t you get tense in interviews? Yes, I get tense in interviews, but ((continues))’

In another example, the interlocutors are talking about the size of different language departments in their university. Here, UF09 volunteers information and says that there were 30 students in her class, although the numbers dropped down to 20. UF10 comments that if it is one class, everybody would get to know each other well. She uses a negative question demo nakayoku narun janai desuka? with a postposed clause zenbu hito kurasu dato. It is a matter of common sense that naturally a smaller class will allow its students to get to know each other better than a bigger class. This aspect is also reinforced because both of them know the Japanese higher education system and how the majors are structured. Observe that in line 5, UF09 starts her turn with the answer soodesune, indicating that both speaker and listener share the same quantity of information or knowledge. (28) (UF24) 1 UF09: uchi mo I too 2

20nin 20-people

30nin gurai 30-people about gurai about

ka Q

na@@@ (@@@) FP

3 UF10: demo but

nakayokunaru n become-friends COM

4

1kurasu da to 1-class COP if

zenbu all

5 UF09: soo yes

desu ne:, COP FP

6 UF10:

soo na n da. yes COP COM COP

aa oh

dakedo (unun) but yeah

janai COP-NEG

nanka, onna no DM woman of

ima wa now TOP

he: uhm desu COP

ka? Q

ko bakkari child only

desu yo. COP FP

‘UF09: In my class there were about 30 people (yeah, yeah) but now there are about 20, I think @@@ Uhm. UF10: But, doesn’t that mean that you can all become good friends? if there is only one class. UF15: Yes, well there are only girls, I tell you UF10: Oh, I see.’ Another example shows the importance of shared knowledge and its effect on the type of communicative strategies chosen by the interlocutors. Here they are talking about studying the Korean language and the fact that if they were to take it as an elective subject, they would obtain fewer credit points than if they were to take it as a general subject. UF06

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explains the credit points in lines 1 and 2 and continues in line 4 with a negative question sonshita kibun ni narimasen? ‘Don’t you feel like you are disadvantaged?’ Observe that the listener immediately answers with an agreement that takes a different form from the previous example, but nevertheless indicates her sharing the same opinion. It is obvious from earlier (line 3) and later turns that UF05 knows about this discrepancy in the system. Thus, UF05’s answer in line 5 is a strong agreement to UF06’s negative question that is highlighted by the shift to informal style and laughter. (29) (UF22) 1 UF06: a:, are oh that 2

desu COP

tan’i credit-points

3 UF05: [a:] oh

soo yes

yo FP

desu COP

ne, FP yo COP

jiyuukamoku de electives in ne, FP

toreruto, 2 take-COND 2

[tabun] probably

desu ne. COP FP

4 UF06: nanka, sonshita DM lose-PAST

kibun feeling

ni into

narimasen? @@@ become-NEG

5 UF05: a:, [naru] @@@@ Oh become ‘UF06: UF05: UF06: UF05:

Oh, it’s that, when you take it as an elective you get 2 credit points, don’t you? probably [Oh, yes] Well, don’t you feel like you are disadvantaged? Oh, it feels like that @@@.’

One last example to illustrate the use of negative questions is seen in (30). In this excerpt, both women are talking about their experiences of living abroad because of their fathers’ overseas posts. UF12 asks a negative question in line 2 saying that being overseas for 14 years is a long time. Although the question is conducive in the sense that anyone would agree that living overseas for that many years is a rather long period of time, it is used by UF12 to show her concern and interest. Her second negative question in line 4 is overlapped by UF11’s answer that shows total agreement. This is because once again both of them share the same experiences of living overseas because of their father’s jobs. (30) (UF25) 1 UF11:

chichi father

no of

shigoto desu work COP

2 UF12:

a:. oh

3 UF11:

soo desu ne. yes COP FP

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14nen tte 14-years Qt

kekkoo demo, nagakunai quite but long-NEG

desu COP

ka? Q

kaisha nani kangaeteru n [deshoo ne?] company what think COM COP FP

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4 UF12:

[futsuu] nanka, kekkoo 5nen tan’itoka ooi [janai desu ka?] normally DM quite 5-year unit like much be-NEG COP Q

5 UF11:

[desu COP ‘UF11: UF12: UF11: UF12: UF11:

yo FP

ne:] FP

It was my dad’s job. Oh, but isn’t 14 years quite long? Yes, I just wonder what the companies are thinking, [don’t you?] [Well, normally] it’s a period of 5 years, it is quite a lot, isn’t it? Yes.’

As we have seen through these four examples, most negative questions used in unacquainted talk did not function in a restraining manner as was observed in the talk between friends. This might be due to the fact that when the goal of the encounter is to engage in talk, participants will be cooperative and will use different strategies to fulfil that objective.

Questions ending in janaidesuka In recent years, expressions with the janaidesuka ending and falling intonation have been noticed in the language of young people. Their use has been commented on by researchers as a change to a new linguistic form (Nakato, 2005; Tsuruta, 1997). As with many new linguistic changes, it has been widely criticized because of its imposition on the listener. However, users of janaidesuka expressions seem to be employing them as a strategy to avoid conflict, to appear inclusive and to be able to change one’s statements quickly. In other words, they are used for purposes other than asking for information, and work as an inclusive communicative tool. Expressions ending in janaidesuka tend to occur at the end of turns and invariably elicit some kind of response as in examples (31) and (32). They seem to be used in particular circumstances such as when giving explanations, when stressing one’s opinion and when offering a reason (Tsuruta, 1997). In (31) UF08 had previously said that she was interested in teaching and that she had done a round of practice teaching for two weeks. Accordingly, UF07 asks doo deshita ‘how was it?’ in line 1. UF08 begins to explain, saying that if she had taught English she would have been able to use some of her experience of learning the language. She uses the expression, aru janai desuka which could be roughly translated as ‘isn’t there’. In this case she refers to the experience of learning English. Her listener agrees with her, and gives her answer that overlaps with UF08’s turn. This usage of the janaidesuka type invites agreement from the listener and assumes that she/he shares the same information. Tsuruta (1997) writes that janaidesuka is very often used when speakers are explaining something and they want to make sure that their listeners understand. (31) (UF23) 1 UF07:

doo how

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deshita? COP-PAST

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Japanese Questions 2 UF08:

ya: nanka, @@@ moo, yappari eigo toka dattara (n:), no DM well after-all English like COP-COND

3

aru some

4

tte Qt

5 UF07:

[ari]masu be-PRE

teido degree iu say

koo, well

no COM

jibun ga oneself S ga S

arujanai be-NEG

koo naratta well learn-PAST

na FP

[desu ka.] COP Q

ne: FP

‘UF07: How was it? UF08: No, well, @@@ after all, if it had been English, (uhm) it would have been something like we have learned it, wouldn’t it{ there} UF07: [It would,] wouldn’t it’ Sometimes, it is not clear whether the speaker uses this expression to get the attention of the listener or because she knows that what she is talking about is common knowledge. Therefore, this expression seems to function in a very similar fashion to a tag-question. This can be seen in (32). UF04 had been talking about job hunting, and she says that she became obsessed with manufacturers and how their commercials influenced her in her decision to choose which jobs to go after. Any citizen in a modern city is exposed to advertising via different media and therefore UF04’s expression in line 1 can be taken as a tag-question, or as an expression that requests agreement. Note that in both examples (31 and 32) the agreement overlaps with the expression janaidesuka. (32) (UF21) 1 UF04: 2 UF03:

meekaa da to CM toka sugoi ippai yatteruja[nai desu ka] maker COP Q CM like quite a-lot do-NEG COP Q [a:, oh

hai] yes

‘UF04: UF03:

yattemasu. do-PRE

Manufacturers run a lot of commercials,[don’t they?] [Oh, yes] they do.’

At other times, it appears that janaidesuka is used without the expectation that the listener will agree or know what the speaker is talking about. However, it seems that speakers use janaidesuka to stress their point. Here, UF03 had been asked about the topic of her master’s thesis, and while the response is in lines 1 to 4, her reply takes many more turns. Although her response to the question comes much later, this is a very long introductory section in which she explains that she wants to, at least, get a master’s degree. What is interesting is her use of janaidesuka in line 3 with a double negation, which could be attributed perhaps to a mistake. There is a verb nakunaru ‘to lose’, and the nai is a negative suffix. Nevertheless, after her expression there is no pause, and the listener does not send any backchannels. Although one can say that it is common knowledge that a recession affects many fields, the fact that the listener

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did not show any acknowledgement indicates that janaidesuka does not necessarily request an agreement. (33) (UF21) 1 UF03:

e:to: . . . ya: soo desu ne:, nanka, yappari anmari, nihon no tte well no well COP FP DM after-all not-much Japan of Qt

2

iu say

ka, ano, Q well

akademizumu academia

3

fukyoo recession

janai desu be-NEG COP

4

nakunai be-NEG

janai desu be-NEG COP

5

ima now

shoku job

‘UF03:

Well, no, uhm, yeah, after all, in Japan, kind of, um, in academia too there is a kind of recession, but there aren’t any jobs, are there. Because there are no jobs in research ((continues))’

ga S

kyookai mo yappari association also after-all

kedo, but ka, Q

nai be-NEG

moo, well

shoku job

ga S

kenkyuushoku mo research-job too kara, ((continues)) because

On other occasions, janaidesuka is used together with a compliment that might stress its content. UF16 compliments UF15 commenting that she is in the English department of {university 1}. It is of course impossible to know the name of the university, however, the fact that belonging to the department of English carries more prestige in Japan explains why this is taken as a compliment (Kubota, 1998). UF15 downgrades the compliment, but UF16 says that studying English at {university 1} is commendable. UF15 downgrades the compliment by saying that she only knows English (as opposed to others who are learning other foreign languages). On both occasions, UF16 uses the expression janaidesuka highlighting that it is also used in this context. (34) (UF27) 1 UF16:

sugoi great

supesharisuto specialist

janai be-NEG

desu ka. COP Q

2 UF15:

iya no

iya, no

3 UF16:

{daigakumei1} dai no eigoka tte, sugoi janai [desu ka.] {university 1} uni of English-program Qt great be-NEG COP Q

4 UF15:

[u:n], eigo shika yes English only

dekinai n desu yo. do-POT-NEG COM COP FP

‘UF16: Aren’t you a specialist, then? UF15: No, no.

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Japanese Questions UF16: UF15:

Isn’t it great that you are in the English program of {university 1}? {Yes} I can only speak English.’

The expressions with janaidesuka are frequently used in this data set of unacquainted university students, but not observed in other types of interactions. This suggests that they are used by young people in rather formal situations. It is, of course, not known how widespread this phenomenon is; however, its use was first noticed in the mid90s. As with many new expressions or linguistic changes, it has been criticized and in general there is not much acceptance by the older generations or in more formal interactions as attested in the present book (see Chapters 3 and 4). The fact that this use is not very popular can be explained in terms of a natural reaction that occurs whenever new linguistic expressions start being used (Tsuruta, 1997; Yonekawa, 1996, 1998). Youth language, for instance, has always been the target of criticism by older generations. However, listeners might associate the use of janaidesuka, for example, with one of the original usages of this expression that functions to scold or criticize (Tsuruta, 1997).

The use of half-questions As mentioned in Chapter 5, a recent phenomenon in youth language is the use of rising intonation in mid-sentence, a phenomenon that seems to occur in the speech of youth in other languages as well (American English (Eckert, 2004), Australian English (Guy et al., 1986) and Japanese, Shin, 2006)). It is associated with a consultative stance and appears to be used more frequently by young women. Termed hangimon ‘halfquestion’ in Japanese, these are expressions characterized by their rising intonation, and are used to ensure that meaning has been correctly conveyed. Half-questions have a consultative stance and thus facilitate talk (Shin, 2006). Despite their intonation, speakers do not use half-questions in order to ask questions but to ensure that listeners understand what they are talking about (Shin, 2006). Although they are not questions per se, it seems appropriate to make a few observations about this phenomenon in this study for a number of reasons. First, they show that structure and intonation pattern do not always perform a traditionally defined function. Second, they demonstrate that even though some are structured as questions, they have a consultative function. And last, their high frequency suggests that they are becoming an established communicative strategy. In the data, noun or adjectival phrases or verbs were accompanied by rising intonation and uttered in mid-turn. A more detailed and thorough analysis would be necessary to find particular characteristics in terms of turn-taking, but at this point distributional patterns were not sought. The fact that the rising intonation in this case does not function as a question is clear in the excerpts that follow. In (35), UF11 who had learned previously that UF12 lived overseas asks her where she lived (line 1). Observe that in line 2 UF12 gives her answer with rising intonation. It is clear that only she knows the answer and that the rising intonation is not used to ask for information. One of the reasons for this use has been explained in terms of politeness strategies. By

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showing a consultative stance, the speaker is not seen as boasting that she had lived in France but rather as displaying a kind of modesty (Shin, 2006). (35) (UF25) 1 UF11:

dochira where

ni to

2 UF12:

=furansu??. France

3 UF11:

he: really ‘UF11: UF12: UF11:

irasshatta n desu go-HON-PAST COM COP

ka?= Q

Where did you go?= =France? Really.’

In the next excerpt, the use of half-questions is slightly different to the one above. The topic of the talk in (36) is about practice teaching and UF09 tells her partner that there are five people including her who will start teaching in schools as studentteachers. In line 1, UF09 says four or five people with rising intonation. It could be, in this case, that she is not sure, and rather than asking her listener, she is almost talking to herself. A few turns later, on the same topic of practice teaching, she talks about a teacher who shows them videos of his own teaching. Here again, we can see rising intonation after the particle no, and in this case it could be interpreted as showing a consultative stance and at the same time ensuring that her listener understands her explanation. (36) (UF24) 1 UF09: kekkoo 4nin? 5nin? 4nin ka, watashi irete 5nin quite 4-people 5-people 4-people Q I include 5-people 2

iru be

n desu yo. COM COP FP

((14 lines omitted)) 15

de nanka jibun no, na n daro jyugyoochuu no?? koo and DM oneself of what COM COP class-mid of this

16

iu fuu ni oshieteru mitaina (un) jibun no dake janakute ironna say like in teach like yeah oneself of only be-NEG various

17

sensee no teacher of

‘

UF09:

bideo o video DO

misetekureru n desu show-receive COM COP

yo. FP

Quite, uhm four people?, five people? Oh, it is four people. With me there are five people, you know. ((14 lines omitted)) and somehow, his, I don’t know, his class ?? how he teaches kind of

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Japanese Questions (yeah) not only his, but he shows us videos of other teachers, you know.’

The last excerpt shows another example of hangimon where UF19 uses rising intonation to invite some response from the listener and in this way to ensure that her listener understands her. UF19 is asked, prior to line 1, about her area of research. In line 1 she starts answering and says that her field is Japanese but continues to say that, in fact, it is Japanese and linguistics. The rising intonation comes right after the word gengogaku, and there is a backchannel sent by the listener. (37) (UF29) 1 UF19:

ima now

wa, TOP

etto, uhm

nihongo Japanese

2 UF20:

hai. yes

3 UF19:

gengogaku?? (hai) nihongogaku linguistics yes Japanese

4

n COM

desu kedo soo COP but yes

na COP

desu COP

n desu COM COP

kedo but

to, gengogaku n bunya na and linguistics of area COP ne ((continues)) FP

‘UF19: Now, it is Japanese but UF20: Yes UF19: Linguistics?? (yes) it is the area of Japanese and linguistics, but ((continues))’ What is interesting about these half-questions is that they were only found in the speech of young speakers and mostly between unacquainted people (see Chapter 5 for data between friends). This fact suggests that half-questions are a politeness strategy used, in particular, when the relationship is distant, to show some kind of unassuming and modest attitude. While these half-questions need to be researched further, their high frequency in unacquainted talk indicates that they are a widespread phenomenon.

Conclusion The present chapter has focused on exploring the questions used in unacquainted talk. One of the characteristics of these types of interactions is the high frequency of questions. As this study is not based on quantitative analyses, it is hard to say that questions were more frequently used than in other interactions. However, what can be said is that the way questions are used in first-time talk is quite different from other types of talk. First, more than half of the questions were used to obtain new information. This is, naturally, an expected outcome as strangers have no common or shared knowledge, and it is mainly through questions that they start learning about each other.

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We saw that in the initial stages of unacquainted talk the exchange of ‘membership categorization’ questions is routinely accomplished. While assumptions are made about the conversational partner through other means, it is mainly through ‘inference-rich’ questions that participants can provide topical questions. Once this initial facet was accomplished, interlocutors could start asking pre-topical questions, which work as invitations to develop topical talk. When a listener ‘accepts’ this invitation, they begin developing topical talk immediately. However, when these invitations are rejected, only minimal answers are given. The participants in the interactions were all female university students and it is perhaps important to stress this aspect while also emphasizing the fact that they were meeting for the first time. The high number of cooperative and other-oriented stance strategies observed as being used by the speakers in all the interactions evokes other studies of all-female interactions (Coates, 1996; Holmes, 1982, 1995). Negative questions, the expressions with janaidesuka and half-questions were used as politeness strategies. The high frequency of half-questions in unacquainted interactions suggests that they might already be in general use among young people and that it is a rather polite communicative tool as they were not that common in the speech of close friends in the previous chapter. Similarly, the reciprocation of questions, seeking the same type of information, was an interesting aspect of these interactions. This occurred at different stages of the talk: in the early exchange of personal details and further in the conversation when topical talk had developed. The same question was asked by the listener even if the topic had changed. This aspect emphasizes the importance of reciprocity in unacquainted talk, something that was not observed in other types of interaction in this book.

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7

Questions Used in Japanese Discourse: Discussion and Conclusion

Introduction This book has examined Japanese questions used in television interviews, radio phone-in programs, and talk both among friends and during unacquainted interactions. Based on grammatical, functional and conversational features, the study analysed all questions in these four interactions to understand how they are used, what forms are most common and how they influence the course of the talk. The findings suggest that the context and the goal of the interaction determine the types of questions interlocutors choose, and that those questions in turn contribute to create a particular stance. Interlocutors use a great variety of question forms that are multi-functional. Most interestingly, ‘standard’ questions are only used in 10.56 per cent of the data and not at all in talk between friends, a finding that calls for a re-appraisal of their description in traditional Japanese grammar in particular. The fact that ‘standard’ questions are used so seldom creates a gap between prescriptive and descriptive accounts of language use. Only 10.56 per cent (202) of all questions fit the traditional grammatical description of a ‘question’ that one finds in textbooks. In addition, most speakers add the explanatory n, or opt for other types of interrogatives or use grammatically unfinished forms to mollify the question. This suggests that the illocutionary force of ‘standard’ questions is too strong; therefore, speakers try to use alternative forms or strategies to mollify them to reflect a more consultative stance. Moreover, although the prescribed basic function of questions is to ask for unknown information, most often they are used to accomplish other functions not related to attaining knowledge or information. While it is known that speakers can use particular grammatical structures to accomplish other social functions, the results in this study suggest that speakers use questions strategically because of their illocutionary force while at the same time choosing forms that are mollified. This study is based on the premise that the relationship between language and context is symbiotic. The language is influenced by the context in which an interaction takes place and, likewise, language is a reflection of the setting. The claim that context is an important factor is not new, as mentioned in Chapter 1; however, the paucity of studies on Japanese authentic interactions limits our understanding of what kind of

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linguistic changes occur with a few exceptions such as the use of honorifics (see e.g. Ide, 2005; Kindaichi, 1994). It is known that speakers do not follow prescribed rules when using honorifics and that they shift styles within the same interaction despite all factors remaining the same (see e.g. Janes, 2000; Megumi, 2002) and that those shifts are accomplished tactically. Therefore, it is highly likely that the speakers’ choices of questions in the data are made strategically. The most important observations obtained in the analyses of the four data sets are summarized in this chapter followed by a discussion of questions in Japanese and the implications of this work for future research. The final section includes future research ideas and a short conclusion.

Summary Chapter 1 included a synopsis of the most relevant research on questions and provided the theoretical background to the study. The introductory section raised the polysemous aspect of questions and also the fact that their meaning can, to a large extent, be determined by the context in which they are used. Therefore, the same question can be interpreted differently according to the context. The most representative studies in mainly English concerning interactions where questions are central, such as interviews or court hearings, were also presented together with a section on the relationship of gender and power and the use of questions. Next, there followed an explanation of two concepts used in this study: that communication is context bound and interactive (see e.g. Biber and Conrad, 2009; Ervin-Tripp and Miller, 1977; Fetzer, 2007; Fetzer and Oishi, 2011; Giles and Coupland, 1991; Goffman, 1981; Goodwin and Duranti, 1992; Gumperz, 1982; Hymes, 1974; Levinson, 1992; Schiffrin, 1987) and that the basic unit in an interaction is a turn (Sacks et al., 1974). Interrogativity in Japanese was also discussed, including an explanation of the grammatical rules and related issues regarding modality. According to grammar books and textbooks (Makino and Tsutsui, 1992; Shibatani, 1990), the Japanese question is characterized by the question particle ka and final rising intonation, but defining Japanese questions solely on the basis of grammatical features gives rise to many problems. The addition of the particle ka, for instance, does not automatically transform any statement into a question. Therefore, applying a rule that transforms a statement into a canonical question sometimes produces ungrammatical results, in particular if applied to informal questions. It was argued that when talking in the plain style the particle ka is not required and, if used, it acquires a particular stance associated with the speaker’s (male) gender. Most importantly, it was pointed out that what occurs in actual communication observed in the data is quite different to the prescribed grammatical rules. Many questions can be understood as such even though they do not have the phonological contour of a question (e.g. they exhibit a question word). The final section covered some aspects of Japanese communication and some of its characteristics. Chapter 2 presented the literature pertaining to research on Japanese questions focusing, in particular, on studies of modality and pragmatics. There was also a description of Japanese questions, based on the discussion in Chapter 1. Five features considered

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to be crucial in distinguishing questions in the data were described: (1) the use of a Wh-word, (2) rising intonation + question particle ka (Q-particle) or rising intonation, (3) rising intonation (alone), (4) ending particle (kke, tte, no, wake, ne), (5) Grammatically incomplete questions (UU-Q). The most common Q types found in the present study were the Wh-Qs (feature 1), Y/N-Qs, those with rising intonation (tag-like phenomena (ne-Qs, deshoo-Qs, tte-Qs, kke-Qs)) (feature 4), UU-Qs (including elliptical-Qs) (features 3 & 5) and no-Qs (feature 3), COM-Qs (features 2&3) and negative-Qs (features 2 &3). Wh-Qs in Japanese are similar to their equivalents in other languages; however, the movement of constituents is not required as it is, for example, in English. These questions are useful because they do not require the question particle ka or final intonation as the Wh-word has enough illocutionary force to convey interrogativity. Wh-Qs sometimes are in the canonical question form, although in the majority of cases they are accompanied by the explanatory n, while in other cases they are grammatically incomplete; however, listeners display no problems understanding the question. Another group of questions might exhibit the Q-particle or not but have rising intonation. In this group there are Y/N-Qs, alternative-Qs and negative-Qs. Almost any sentence can become a Y/N-Q because final intonation is enough to transform a sentence into a question and in that sense Japanese questions are similar to English questions (Hayashi, 2010; Hinds, 1984). Japanese negative-Qs, on the other hand, unlike negative questions in other languages, are answered in reference to the form and not the content of the question. Another feature of Japanese negative-Qs is that not all are conducive; some negative-Qs can be used in a consultative way. Alternative-Qs were few across all the types of data, suggesting that they are not very common in spoken Japanese. There are also many examples of elliptical-Qs classified under UU-Qs (grammatically unfinished questions). Elliptical-Qs are usually very short and many contain only a noun phrase, for example, whereas other types of UU-Qs are truncated and end in clauses. Sometimes they are not accompanied by rising intonation or the question particle; however, interlocutors recognize them as questions. Their high frequency indicates that they are very common in Japanese discourse and are very useful communicative tools. Tag-like phenomena (Nakada, 1980) is observed in questions that have only final rising intonation and have either a particle ne, kke, tte or the hortative copula deshoo. These questions confirm something known to both the speaker and the listener and are used when both share some common knowledge, but they also have a wider usage. In particular ne-Qs can be used to change ‘footing’ and allow speakers to interpret, to admonish, to comfort or to exert control over the exchange and, therefore, they are very useful in institutional interactions. Another feature of some questions in Japanese is the use of nominalizers and particles in final position to achieve specific purposes; these are termed COM-Qs in this study. They add a pragmatic meaning and show the speaker’s stance in relation to the listener, thus, they are frequent in institutional settings. There are two types of COM-Qs: koto-Qs and wake-Qs. Koto-Qs are used in situations when explanations or summaries are expected. On the other hand, wake-Qs are used to ask for explanations. Koto-Qs and wake-Qs are most common in television and radio talk. This is a way in

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which interviewers or hosts help the audience understand the gist of the topic. No-Qs, on the other hand, are multi-purpose and multi-functional. No-Qs and those with n are used when a speaker assumes that the listener already knows the information being given. They can also give a softer and more polite nuance to the question. The use of no in the informal style is sometimes obligatory, and can change the meaning of the question to include or address the listener depending on the preceding discourse. No-Qs are also very frequent in informal talk as the nominal adds a consultative stance to the question. In general, questions that contain pragmatically laden items in their structure highlight language’s polyfunctional nature. Chapters 3 to 6 were dedicated to the analyses of four different types of interactions and are summarized in the next section.

Different contexts, different questions Major results found in the four chapters of this book are summarized in this section followed by a discussion. The findings of the analyses show that the most frequent types of questions differ across each of the four data sets as well as in their functions. Formality, the relationship between interlocutors and the goal of the interaction, in particular, seem to be the defining factors. The data includes 1,908 structures identified as questions in interviews from television, radio phone-in programs, conversation between close friends and unacquainted talk. Their distribution can be seen in Table 7.1 and Figure 7.1. The most frequent questions in television interviews are Wh-Qs (24%), followed by ne-Qs (21%), Y/N-Qs (19%) and UU-Qs (10%). These are mainly used to establish the topic and to confirm something known to the interviewer and the interviewee, in order to generate talk. One of the most important aspects of modern-day journalism is that interviewers prepare themselves ahead of the interviews. The preparation includes detailed research on interviewees’ achievements, lives and other details (L. Tanaka, 2004, 2006); therefore, there is much common knowledge between interviewers and their guests (although this is different to the type of shared knowledge between friends). This is confirmed by the high frequency of ne-Qs that are used mainly to obtain the agreement of the listener. We mentioned in Chapter 2 that questions used for confirmation require the speaker and listener to have access to the same knowledge (Cook, 1990; Nakada, 1980; Nitta, 1999; H. Tanaka, 2000). The high frequency of ne questions might be explained by the fact that interviewers know a great deal about interviewees and used these questions to confirm the veracity of that information. Many Wh-Qs are open-ended and give guests the opportunity to talk at length. Of considerable interest is the fact that most of the Wh-Qs are used to solicit impressions, feelings or thoughts of the guests that can only be given personally by them. While undoubtedly some questions are used to ask for new information, they are also used to confirm, to summarize, and to elicit talk from interviewees, all very important moves in the interview process. As already stated, the majority of Wh-Qs and Y/N-Qs are produced with the explanatory n that functions as a softener and mollifies the question. It is clear that in these settings ‘asking carries a command function apart from asking for information’

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Table 7.1 Questions across four different contexts Q TV Radio Friends Unacquainted

Wh 24 15 12 14

Y/N no 19 1 11 11 5.6 18 28 3

ne 21 24 5 2

UU* 10 12 27 12

deshoo Neg 8.5 5 7 1.2 9 11.5 1.8 10

kke 1 0 3.8 1.6

tte 2 0.3 0.8 0

COM half-Q 5 0.7 13 0 1.8 1.8 0.15 17

*= UU-Q include elliptical-Qs Questions across four different contexts

30

25

20

15

10

5

0 Wh

Y/N

no

ne TV

UU Radio

desho Neg Friends

kke

tte

COM half-Q

Unacquainted

Figure 7.1 Questions across four different contexts

(Athanasiadou, 1991: 119) and because of this aspect there is an effort on the interviewers’ side to mollify their questions by using the n form. Acting in a similar way to cushion the illocutionary force of questions is the use of UU-Qs, that have been discussed elsewhere (Hinds, 1984; Kindaichi, 1994; Mori, 1999; L. Tanaka, 2004, 2006), and their high frequency in television interviews shows that interviewers use various strategies to try to diminish the force of their questions. In this way, interviewers can elicit adequate talk from interviewees while also maintaining rapport. While Wh-Qs and ne-Qs are the most frequent in television interviews, hosts use many other strategies to elicit talk such as UU-Qs, deshoo-Qs and Y/N-Qs. The last type of question has been described as constrictive because the interviewee has only two choices and therefore it has been regarded as not a very efficient interviewing tool (Heritage, 2002; Heritage and Roth, 1995). However, when Y/N-Qs are pre-faced or have prefatory comments they prove to be as effective as other types of eliciting devices. On the other hand, UU-Qs and deshoo-Qs are excellent strategies in the interview setting because the former does not impose on the listener and the latter has a consultative stance.

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Koto-Qs and wake-Qs are used exclusively to summarize or clarify details of the story for the benefit of the audience. The same questions are very different in radio programs where they are used to admonish or reprimand callers. This aspect clearly relates to the status differences between the interlocutors. While the hosts in television interviews may have more rights as interviewers, their status in relation to their guests is relative. The interviewer might be a relatively unknown journalist talking to a very famous and respected artist. In this situation, the status difference is very difficult to manage as the host can exert his/her rights; however, their style of speech is likely to be very polite. In the radio programs, the hosts and counsellors have more rights than the callers. Moreover, because they are famous or well-known, their status is higher irrespective of the program. Questions in radio phone-in programs were the focus of Chapter 4. Even though these programs are also institutional interactions, their question distribution is different to that of television interviews. The most frequently used question type is the ne-Q (24%) that functions to confirm information, but Wh-Qs, Y/N-Qs, no-Qs, UU-Qs and COM-Qs are also quite frequently used (15%, 11%, 11%, 12.3% and 13% respectively). While many of the Wh-Qs and Y/N-Qs are basically formulaic questions that ask for the callers’ age, family composition and the age of the family members, UU-Qs are also used for that purpose. In this counselling situation, hosts and counsellors expertly use ne-Qs, no-Qs and other COM-Qs such as koto-Qs and wake-Qs to change footing and accomplish counselling moves. They are used to admonish, criticize, persuade, praise or comfort the advisee and to interpret or to summarize a problem on behalf of the audience. While participants in television interviews adhere to their roles throughout the program, hosts and counsellors in the radio data use questions to change ‘footing’ during the program. They use ne-Qs and no-Qs, for example, in order to construct rapport with the caller on one hand, and to show authority on the other. Changing ‘footing’ allows them to perform their original roles, but also to become a ‘parent’ or a ‘friend’. In some cases, ne-Qs are used in the same way as tag-like questions; in other situations, they are used to gently reprimand or give advice to the callers. Moreover, they use ne-Qs to confirm and interpret problems of the callers for the benefit of the overhearing audience. In a similar way, no-Qs are used in two particular ways: first, to create rapport between the host, the caller and the counsellor and, second, as a tool to show authority and enable them to give advice to the advisee in a manner resembling a parent talking to a child (McGloin, 1980, 1986). Thus, questions used in the radio data are also used to accomplish the goal of counselling. On the other hand, wake-Qs and koto-Qs are used to interpret or summarize the callers’ problems, often on behalf of the overhearing audience. As stated previously, advice seekers generally talk about the symptoms of problems but they may not be aware of the real causes. Many times, those problems are extremely complex and not all information is provided at once by callers. In these cases, hosts or counsellors intervene to summarize important points or to construe possible causes of their problems. In these interactions, it is known that the intervention of the host is particularly relevant when there is an overhearing audience (Heritage, 1985; Hutchby, 1995). Koto-Qs and wake-Qs are also used as strong requests for explanations. By using questions that

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contain strong pragmatic content, hosts and counsellors can manage to conduct the program and counselling in both a professional manner and to fulfil the element of entertainment as is often observed in contemporary media. This is also seen in the use of rhetorical questions that are quite critical of the caller or of third parties causing the trouble. Another distinctive aspect of questioning in these radio programs is the style shifts from polite to informal questions and vice-versa. Sometimes the cause of the shift is obvious; hosts change to the informal style immediately after they learn that the caller is much younger. Other times, the shift seems to be a strategy to create a more relaxed stance, because speech styles do not only reflect differences in status and age, but also create or diminish social and personal distance. Therefore, if the advice giver uses informal style it is less threatening and imposes less. This does not deny the possibility that the contrary may occur, creating a very unequal relationship; there is a fine line between being friendly and being patronizing. However, the fact that shifting to informal styles is so common indicates that speaking in informal Japanese is a very effective tool in radio counselling. However, it should be pointed out that the shifts are not reciprocated; callers always use the formal style regardless of how the host or counsellor talks. At the same time, callers rarely ask specific questions, using them only as a ‘repair’ mechanism or when they are not prepared to accept advice; that is, when the delivery of the advice is premature and callers use questions as well as other strategies as tools of resistance. Questions used in dyadic interaction between close friends were described in Chapter 5. All questions in these interactions are in the informal style and elliptical-Qs (27%) are the most frequently used. Other types of questions in order of frequency were no-Qs (18%), Wh-Qs (12%) negative-Qs (11.5%) janai-Qs (8%) and other negative-Qs (3.5%) and tag-like questions deshoo-Qs (9%). The most distinctive feature of these questions is that the participants have a shared knowledge and common experience. Therefore, questions are used mostly to initiate a topic or to contribute to the ongoing conversation. Because of the high number of elliptical-Qs, turn-taking is impressionistically quick and turns are shorter. These questions highlighted the aspect of ‘shared knowledge’ among the participants because despite the speaker not needing to spell out every detail, the listener had no problems understanding the intended question. Elliptical-Qs are also used to show interest in the conversation and they are very efficient communication tools as they are very short and can elicit talk with less input. They help to keep the conversation going at a very fast pace and even though sometimes the information that is sought is not given, the talk continues without any problems. No-Qs are also used when the speaker assumes that the listener knows the answer. This aspect of shared knowledge and common experience characterizes talk between friends and its influence is reflected in the use of no-Qs. Moreover, no-Qs can be inclusive or directed at the listener and they can only be understood from the content of the conversation. Some questions might involve the speaker and the listener doing something; others involve only the listener. Wh-Qs in these interactions act mainly to introduce a new topic. There are few instances of pauses or problems in the communication because the participants are

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very close friends. However, in order to start the conversation or to change or introduce a topic, Wh-Qs seem to be very efficient. Sometimes the speaker genuinely seeks new information; however, other times, Wh-Qs are used just to introduce a topic. In many of those cases the speaker seems to know the answer, yet he/she asks a Wh-Q. In talk between friends, questions are not mollified and negative-Qs (3.5%), although small in percentage, are used to criticize and disagree. This aspect demonstrates that when talking to friends, speakers can afford to do without politeness strategies, to a certain degree, because loss of face is perhaps not so important. It is obvious that there is a difference between public and private interactions where in the former there is more at stake than in the later. There is another type of negative-Q called the janai-Q (8%) that is used mainly for confirmation and in many ways can be termed conducive because it expects agreement from the listener and is associated with deshoo-Qs (Adachi, 1999; Miyazaki, 2005; Nitta, 1999). One of the most interesting aspects of questions in talk among friends is that they are not necessarily asked to obtain new information but, rather, to engage in the interaction. Thus, there are many instances when the answer is not provided yet the talk continues without problems suggesting, that questions in talk with friends have another purpose that can be described as a strategy to show interest and active participation in the interaction. Naturally, there are cases when friends do ask for information; however, in the majority of cases questions are used to keep the talk going. At times, the questions in talk between friends are answered with some irrelevant information without hindering the turn-taking process, as mentioned earlier. There are also sudden topic changes that are typical of informal conversation, although preannouncements are occasionally used without interference in the communicative interaction. The idiosyncratic characteristics in terms of question use in this data set may be attributed to the fact that turn-taking is not set as in institutional discourse and roles are not pre-determined. One of the most striking aspects, as mentioned already, is that questions are not necessarily answered. In other words, the Q-A sequence is not always maintained. There are many instances when questions are answered with another question and the sequence is reversed or used for ‘repair’ purposes or when question sequences are asked without the speaker waiting for the listener’s answer. It is quite interesting that these question sequences are not very common in radio and television data except for a few cases when the caller or guest might ask a question to clarify the content of what was being asked. This difference might be explained by the nature of turn-taking pre-allocation in ‘institutional’ settings. In particular, television interviews are exchanges where roles are clearly demarcated with set duties and obligations, as we have seen. It is the interviewer who asks the questions and the interviewee who answers them. In radio phone-in programs, the roles are also allocated, however, callers have the opportunity to ask specific questions. In talk between friends, interlocutors are not bound by any restrictions. Lastly, a phenomenon observed in the language of young people is the use of midsentence rising intonation where there is no interrogativity present. These are called hangimon or half-Qs (1.8%) and they are a recent trend which is not entirely unique to Japan, having been observed in other languages as well (Australian English (Guy et al.,

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1986)). It appears that half-Qs are a way of showing a less assertive stance thus creating a more cooperative communicative style among young people who are not very close and between whom a certain distance and politeness are observed. These questions are discussed in more detail later in this section. The importance of questions in unacquainted talk is evident in Chapter 6. More than half of the questions are used to ask for new information. Among those, Y/N-Qs are used most frequently (28%) demonstrating that unacquainted people tend to make predictions and assumptions about the other party (Kellermann and Lim, 1989; Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984; Svennevig, 2000). Similarly, by using Wh-Qs (14%) and UU-Qs (12%), speakers try to ‘categorize’ their listeners and obtain as much information as possible about them. Most of the negative-Qs (10.4%) in the data are not conducive and instead are used as collaborative strategies (Adachi, 1999). Questions in unacquainted talk are used to ask for information about the listener (in order to help with the choice of topics), to introduce topics, to maintain talk, to display interest and, particularly important, to reciprocate questions in order to show interest in the other. In unacquainted talk, the use of questions varies according to the stages of the talk. In the initial stages, questions are mainly used to obtain details about the interlocutors such as name, age, affiliation and so on with Y/N-Qs as well as Wh-Qs (14%) and UU-Q (12%) being used for that purpose. These questions have almost a ‘ritual’ aspect and topical talk seems to develop only after they have been asked and answered. In the subsequent stages of talk, questions have been termed pre-topical questions (Maynard and Zimmerman, 1984). Questions are also used as cooperative communicative strategies to show the interlocutors’ interest in the talk. One of the ways of doing this is to ask for more details about the topic being discussed using short Y/N-Qs or Wh-Qs and also negative-Qs; and, more importantly, to reciprocate questions. Negative-Qs in unacquainted talk are mainly used as a cooperative communicative tool. Many of them highlight the common or shared experience of the interlocutors, which in the present study revolved around university life. Note that negative-Qs in Japanese have two uses: one is conducive and is used to criticize while the other use functions to project an inclusive stance. It has been noted in this study, for example, that in the case of television interviews little talk is generated after negative-Qs; in talk between friends they are used to give some negative comments; but in unacquainted talk they are used as a cooperative strategy. The practice of reciprocating questions can be observed at any stages of these interactions and this seems to be very important for rapport creation. In unacquainted talk, the balance in the disclosure of information is a key aspect that determines the success of an interaction (Ogawa, 2000). Reciprocal questions usually are slight variations of the original question and they can be asked in close proximity or many turns later. A particular feature of these interactions was the high frequency of half-Qs (17%) mentioned earlier in the talk between friends and the use of structures ending in janaidesuka. Half-Qs are a new linguistic phenomenon in Japan and are observed in youth speech (Miyazaki, 2005). Although half-Qs have rising intonation and janaidesuka structures exhibit interrogative features, both are used not as questions but as cooperative and consultative communicative tools. These do not ask for new

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information but function as tag-questions or to show modesty and, in general, display a consultative stance. These questions are also observed in talk between friends; however, their high frequency in unacquainted talk is one of its notable aspects. This suggests that it is a phenomenon of young people’s speech. In particular the janaidesuka structure seems to be a new politeness strategy among young people. As linguistic historical changes have shown, this phenomenon could spread broadly or might become obsolete in a number of years. At this stage it is difficult to predict whether these forms are just some form of youth language or a linguistic trend that will become more generalized.

Questions and interrogativity The fact that so many structures with interrogative features have been found in the data supports the suggestion that questions should be classified along a gradient (Mikami, 1972). As stated in Chapter 1, Mikami (1972) and Shooji (1992) proposed a model based on the structure of questions. Mikami’s model has four groups based on structure: (a) questions with a Wh-question word and the ka particle, (b) questions with a Wh-question word, (c) questions with only the ka particle and (d) questions with only rising intonation. On the other hand, Shooji’s (1992) hierarchy model is based on three interrogative elements: (1) Use of Wh-Q word (2) Rising intonation + Q-particle ka and (3) Rising intonation. While these two approaches seem to encompass more than the traditional grammatical rules regarding the particle ka and the addition of final intonation, the most important characteristic is that not all questions are equal. The analyses in this book show that questions, depending on their structure, have a different degree of interrogativity and, most importantly, that not all questions have the same illocutionary force. Question forms can be based on three elements that influence each other in predictable ways: (1) the presence of an interrogative element (Wh-questions words, rising intonation or question particles) that would define the degree of interrogativity, (2) the type of relationship between interlocutors that would be reflected in the use of formal or informal style, and (3) the function of the question. In terms of interrogativity, the combination of all three interrogative elements would have the strongest illocutionary force, thus having the highest degree of interrogativity or imposition. Hence, a question such as dokoka e ikimashitaka? ‘Did you go anywhere?’ asked as a genuine inquiry has the strongest illocutionary force. However, as we have seen in the data, in most cases, interlocutors will avoid using this form and opt for a softer one. In deciding which type of question, the context acts as a deciding factor. Thus, between friends this same question would probably be ‘dokoka ittano?’ whereas in unacquainted talk it might be dokoka e ikimashita? and in a more formal situation it could simply take the form of an unfinished utterance such as dochiraka e? Among interrogative elements, Wh-words appear to be the most important and the strongest element in terms of interrogativity in Japanese (applicable to other languages as well). In the formal style, they might be accompanied by the ka particle thus any phrase or statement containing a Wh-word can function as a question without rising intonation. Thus, Wh-Qs seem to be the most easily identifiable for listeners, and very

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often a simple Wh-word is enough to function as a question. Other times, Wh-words are accompanied by other elements but grammatical completeness is not necessary to make them into a question. Hence, as long as there is a Wh-word, other interrogative elements such as rising intonation and particle ka are not essential. These observations support both Mikami’s (1972) and Shooji’s (1992) models where the first and strongest interrogative element is the Wh-word. However, the interesting aspect of questions highlighted by this study is that an overwhelming majority are grammatically unfinished. In other words, many questions required only final rising intonation, which is an interrogative element that can convert almost any utterance into a question (Hayashi, 2010). Elliptical-Qs and all informal questions can be categorized as grammatically unfinished. Rising intonation can turn even an adjective into a question, a feature that is not unique to Japanese but is observed in almost any language. Elliptical-Qs can consist of only a single noun phrase or a predicate without subjects, leaving rising intonation as the sole interrogative element. Although elliptical-Qs are observed in other languages, particularly in casual speech (Eggins and Slade, 1997), they might be easier to construct in Japanese because of its grammatical structure. While a statement in English such as ‘This is expensive.’ cannot generally be made into a question by simply raising the intonation ‘This is expensive?’ (unless it is pronounced with a particular phonological contour to indicate surprise), in Japanese rising final intonation is sufficient. Similarly, in English the movement of constituents is necessary to change a statement into a question whereas in Japanese the statement kore wa takai (This is expensive) can become a question kore wa takai? (Is this expensive?) simply with the addition of rising intonation. In other cases, if there is a verb in the predicate in English, as in the statement ‘You are reading’, the standard question ‘You are reading?’ cannot generally be constructed (unless used to indicate surprise in a situation where the listener is known to never read books, for example). The pronoun’s position and the verb form must be changed so that the question ‘Are you reading?’ can be produced. Compare this to Japanese where the statement yondeiru ‘You are reading’ can be easily changed into a question by simply adding rising intonation yondeiru? ‘Are you reading?’ Because verbs in Japanese are not conjugated according to person but to tense, any statement can be easily converted into a question. That is not to say that exactly the same question (as in the English example ‘You are reading?’) cannot be asked. However, its use would be limited to a particular circumstance where reading is known to be a rare occurrence for the listener (or somebody else), thus requiring that the question be accompanied by a nominal such as no. Final rising intonation as the only interrogative feature is seen in elliptical-Qs and UU-Qs, as mentioned before, and their frequency is defined according to the formality of the interaction. Elliptical-Qs are used more often in talk between friends and they seem to work in a cooperative way to show interest in the conversation. On the other hand, UU-Qs were more frequent in institutional discourse and in unacquainted talk where these were used as politeness strategies. Similarly noteworthy is the high number of questions that fit the tag-question phenomena, in other words those questions that function in a similar fashion to English tag-questions. These questions also require only final rising intonation.

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There are the ne-Qs, deshoo-Qs and those with the hearsay particles kke and tte. Although the particle ne has been thoroughly studied as a discourse marker (Cook, 1990, 1992; Martin, 1975; S. Maynard, 1989; Sakata, 1991; H. Tanaka, 2000; White, 1989) and associated with ‘agreement’ or ‘rapport’ seeking elements, ne-Qs have not been traditionally considered as questions. However, as many scholars have proposed (Nakada, 1980; Nitta, 1999), ne-Qs fulfil a similar role to tag-questions and as such they should be categorized as questions. One of the most interesting findings in this book is that ne-Qs are more frequently used in institutional discourse than in talk among both friends and unacquainted groups representing a younger generation, suggesting that they might be rather formal. The difference in frequency (21% and 24% in television and radio respectively and 5% and 2.4% in friends’ talk and unacquainted interactions) shows that the ne-Qs might be going through a change and becoming more accepted forms in polite speech. They are, as any tag-question, consultative and ask for the listeners’ agreement. Another important aspect of questions in Japanese is the use of nominals (Horie, 2000; Kuno, 1973b; S. Maynard, 1997; Miura, 1976; S. Suzuki, 2000, 2005). When questions are designed to demand explanations, to accuse, to admonish and so on, they contain the nominals wake, koto and no. These are also used to show unequal power relationships and would be stated with particular phonological characteristics to hint at or show the intended aim (sarcasm, irony and so on). There is a strong indication of the speakers’ stance that is absent in questions that exclusively ask for information. They can be used in formal or informal styles with similar effect; although it is known that changes of style could themselves be an indication of a change of stance (Megumi, 2002; Yoshida and Sakurai, 2005). No-Qs have more than one meaning and depending on context they are used to show status differences, to genuinely ask for information, to inquire about the listener or to include both the speaker and the listener. This aspect will be discussed in the next section. One of the most significant findings in this study is that there are few ‘standard’ questions; that is, questions with all the three interrogative elements mentioned above. In particular, questions that end in ka are almost always accompanied by the n particle just before the end of the copula. Why is there such a big discrepancy between the prescriptive grammar and how questions are really produced? In Chapter 1, we mentioned the illocutionary force of questions (Athanasiadou, 1991; Goody, 1978; Sacks, in Silverman, 1998) and that they almost demand an answer from their listeners. Japanese speakers might try to mollify the force of the question and use other forms of interrogatives that do not have the final rising intonation and the ka particle together. This aspect can also be seen, for example, in the large number of questions accompanied by the explanatory n in television interviews. By adding the n to questions that exhibit all three interrogative features, speakers can soften the illocutionary force. This strategy might explain the low number of questions that exhibit all the interrogative features. As we can see, not all questions have the same degree of interrogativity and there seems to be a tendency in Japanese for interlocutors to soften the illocutionary force of question through various strategies. These in turn create a great variety of question forms that fulfil many other social actions in addition to the function of asking for information.

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Questions and context We have seen that that the forms that we recognize as ‘questions’ have many syntactic structures and can be used in different ways according to the contexts in which they are uttered. The analyses in this book demonstrate the symbiotic relationship between language and context. Speakers’ choices are determined by the types of interactions, and project a particular stance. Kiesling (2009) has written that a speaker’s stance is the ‘expression’ of their relationship with talk and with their interlocutors. The speaker’s decision in choosing one question form over another results in the creation of a particular stance that reflects and creates the context. As mentioned earlier, the claim that context is an important factor in language is not new; however, this study shows how the variety of question forms used in different types of settings affect the interactions. The high frequency of elliptical-Qs in informal talk, for example, gives an impression of rapidity and while the UU-Qs in interviews reflect a politer and a slower tempo in the exchange. The goal of the interaction is of similar importance in the interlocutors’ choices of question types thus, even the highly conducive negative-Qs have a different use depending on the context. In television interviews, negative-Qs are avoided as they prove to be rather unsuccessful strategies for eliciting talk. In talk between friends, they can be used to criticize or accuse; however, another form of negative-Q observed in talk between unacquainted persons is used to show inclusiveness. The janai-Q is used when speakers want to obtain the agreement of the listener, and it is a very cooperative strategy. One of the most important aspects of questions and interrogativity is the amount of shared information that exists between interlocutors. We have seen that in television interviews and talk between friends there is much common knowledge (although that knowledge varies greatly), therefore, many of the questions are used mainly to confirm or to introduce or set a new topic of talk. Thus, ne-Qs that ask for the guests’ agreement are frequent in interviews and elliptical-Qs and sequences of questions, for example, are common in friends’ talk. On the other hand, radio phone-in programs and unacquainted talk share a similar aspect in the ritualized questions at the beginning of the interactions where personal details are needed in order to continue with the interaction. In radio discourse, it is the age, marital status and family composition that is important while in unacquainted talk it is their rank and affiliation within the university. In both contexts, there is a need to obtain personal details. In the radio interactions, hosts need these details to have a better understanding of the callers’ problems. In unacquainted talk, interlocutors need to know something about their listeners so that they can choose a safe topic. The difference between these interactions is that in radio talk the questions are one-sided while in unacquainted talk reciprocity of questions is paramount. Although we regard questions as a linguistic tool to obtain new information, we have seen that on most occasions they function to perform other social actions such as to initiate topics, to show interest in the conversation, to confirm, to admonish and so on. In particular, questions in talk between friends are very important as a means of showing interest in each other, and friends can demonstrate their eagerness and

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participate in the interaction by asking questions. As already mentioned, questions often ask for inconsequential information; however, it is the very act of engaging in talk that is critical because this is how friends can nourish the friendship with gossip and idle talk. In radio counselling, questions can be used to change footing and to deliver unpleasant actions such as admonishing or criticizing the callers. The frequency of COM-Qs in the radio programs is determined by the nature of these counselling sessions. Their institutional nature can be observed in the koto-Qs, wake-Qs and no-Qs that are used to conduct the program where the callers are sometimes criticized, reprimanded and given advice. The comparatively low frequency of these questions in unacquainted talk, for example, illustrates the role of status differences between interlocutors as one factor influencing the choice of this type of question as well as the goal of the interaction. In unacquainted talk, each person needs to know about the other in order to keep talking for a certain amount of time, regardless of whether they are interested in the other person or not. As with any linguistic form, question forms are dynamic and ne-Qs and half-Qs seem to be developing into a new discourse strategy that shows politeness. Ne-Qs seem to be more standard and used in formal interaction, whereas half-Qs are observed mainly in the speech of young unacquainted people. Both strategies seem to display a cooperative stance. While ne-Qs are used to ask for agreement, half-Qs use rising intonation to show a degree of modesty or a consultative stance, both of which are politeness strategies. Although the half-questions are not questions per se, it is interesting that the rising intonation has an illocutionary force that invites the listener to agree or give approval. This phenomenon needs further investigation in order to be fully understood.

Future research and conclusion The limitations in this study are many, but perhaps the most crucial is that the data is limited. The talk of family members, police interviews, classroom interactions and other types of interactions are not represented. Undoubtedly, a broader pool of interactions would enable us to further understand more about questions in relation to power, for example. Future research needs to include a wider variety of exchanges such as arguments, disagreements, family interactions, classroom situations and other institutional settings in order to obtain a broader range of question forms. Similarly, the number of participants in each interaction was limited to either two or three in the present data and this also has affected the interaction. Having more interlocutors and expanding the range of interactions would no doubt increase the type of questions. These are issues for future research in order to deepen the understanding of how questions are used, how they function and if there are other types not found in this study. The fact that there is such a gap between prescriptive descriptions of questions as observed in the present study has further repercussions in the way in which Japanese is taught as a second language. In any introductory textbook or grammar book,

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questions are explained as being structures with the particle ka and rising intonation. The consequence is that questions in textbooks are invariably introduced as just the ‘standard’ question that is infrequently observed in our data (as low as 10.56 %). There is no doubt that these interrogative elements are important as one grammatical rule; however, a description of how people really communicate rather than teaching rigid grammatical rules would be of more benefit to students. It is worth asking whether the current lack of exposure to the array of question forms in Japanese might underlie the lack of fluency so characteristic of foreign language learners. The present findings can also be applied to other areas related to human communication such as journalism, human–robot communication, counselling, interviewing in general and teaching where the use of questions is essential. A conscious awareness of the fact that question forms can be determined by the context in which they are used, that they do not always ask for information and that some interactions can be successful even if answers are not given are aspects that could help us understand more about human relationships and communication. This study has shown that language is an extremely complex system where ambiguity and multi-functionality are always present in any communicative interaction. We have seen throughout the chapters, the multifaceted aspect of questions, how different they are in shape and function, how they are used in different environments, and, most importantly, how useful they are in communication. It is hoped that the results of this study will contribute to the understanding of questions in Japanese; how they affect interaction, how context influences language, and, in particular, the diversity of question forms.

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Notes Chapter 1 1 In Japanese there are, however, a number of sentences that cannot be made into questions with rising intonation alone as they become ungrammatical, such as those that end in the polite form. Examples include soodesu ‘Yes, it is so’, and many second pair parts of expressions such as kekkoo desu ‘It is good/enough’ and itadakimasu as the response to meshiagatte kudasai ‘Please start eating/drinking’). 2 In Japanese, a sentence with no subject in its surface structure implies that the subject is generally ‘I’. 3 As personal pronouns are avoided, the question could be addressed to the listener or it could be about another person or persons. 4 There are, however, no clear-cut differences between male and female speech in authentic data (Inoue, 2006; L. Tanaka, 2006). 5 A detailed explanation of styles is given in Chapter 4. 6 For a more detailed discussion please read Chapter 2. 7 The author thanks Dr Mayumi Usami from the Tokyo University of Foreign Languages for kindly providing access to the data (Usami, 2007).

Chapter 2 1 For convenience sake, the initial Q will be used as a term in this book from now on so that a Y/N question, for example, will be referred to as Y/N-Q. 2 For a detailed explanation of n, please refer to the section on no questions. 3 Hinds (1984) considers echo questions to be those that end with the particle tte. However, here they are not categorized as such but as elliptical questions.

Chapter 3 1 Prince Takamatsu (1905–87) was the younger brother of Emperor Hirohito and is known for opposing Japan’s role in the Second World War. 2 Rakugo ‘fallen leaves or words’ is a traditional performance where humorous stories are told by a single rakugoka (rakugo actor). Its origins date back to the eleventh century, but it appeared in its present format in the eighteenth century.

Chapter 4 1 H: host, Ca: caller, Co: counsellor. 2 Yoshida and Sakurai (2005) report that speakers shift speech styles in order to index their role identity and that their choice of style indicates a particular stance.

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3 The use of a family term to address a person who has no such connection with the speaker is common in Japan. The use of the objective case of the first personal pronoun and the second person in the translation conveys the sense of the original Japanese term.

Chapter 5 1 The author thanks Dr Mayumi Usami from the Tokyo University of Foreign Languages for kindly providing the data which is originally in Japanese script (see Usami (2007) in references). I have transliterated into Latin script and followed the Du Bois et al.’s transcription conventions (1990) based on the BTS system (Usami, 2007). 2 In Chapter 7, janai-Qs and negative-Qs are combined in one category. 3 The question ikuka? ‘Are you going?’ is, for example, most likely to be uttered by a male. The alternative ikuno? would be used by a female. 4 A fictitious name is used here to replace the name + number in the original data to make reading easier. Kaoru was chosen because it can be used for either males or females. 5 oru is a variation of the verb iru (to be)

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References Expressing Opinions in French and Australian English Discourse: A Semantic and Interactional Analysis. Research on Language and Social Interaction Journal of Pragmatics Aspects of Interrogative Structure: A Case Study from English and Japanese. . Waseda University Japanese Language Studies Center Kiyoo. 7195.

Josei no Kotoba. Shokubahen Hyooron

In uence

Shakaigaku Japanese Society. Nihongo no Baraetee. Keesu Stadii . Power in Language: Verbal Communication and Social Nihongo no Modaritii to ninshoo Nihongo no Modaritii

Nihongo Ruigihyogen no BunpooJoo Discourse Studies Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language Syntax and

Semantics, Vol. 12: Discourse and Syntax

Bulletin of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, NagoyaUniversity (Psychology and Human Development Sciences) Language in Society

e Pragmatics of Irish English

References Semiotica,

Discourse Markers

Aspects of Meaning Construction Japanese Womens Language. e Languages of Japan Wakamono no kotoba ni tsuite ka Linguistics, Nihongo, nihonbunka kenkyuu 2 Oosaka Gaikoku Daigaku Talk and Practical Epistemology: e Social Life of Knowledge in a Caribbean Community. Harvey Sacks: Social Science and Conversation Analysis Towards an Analysis of Discourse: e English Used

by Teachers and Pupils

Advances in Spoken

Discourse Analysis Journal of Pragmatics,

Japanese/Korean

Linguistics Vol. 5

Discourse Analysis: e Sociolinguistic Analysis of Natural Language Waseda Daigaku

Daigakuin Nihongo Kenkyuuka

Waseda Daigaku

Daigakuin Nihongo Kenkyuuka Emotive Communication in Japanese Journal of Pragmatics Pragmatics

. Journal of

Tozasareta Gengo: Nihongo no Sekai Getting Acquainted in Conversation: A Study of Initial Interactions. Human Studies,

Interaction. of Pragmatics

Turn Taking in Japanese Conversation. A Study of Grammar and ne

Journal

Index activity types 1, 4, 8 Adachi, T. 3, 4, 8, 11, 19–21, 32, 39, 79, 147, 151, 153, 163, 204, 222, 223 agreement 16, 20, 21, 25, 30, 32, 35, 37, 39, 56, 75–7, 88, 108–9, 111, 115–16, 126, 145–8, 169, 204, 206–9, 218, 222, 226–8 aizuchi 17, 81, 126 see also backchannel anata 33, 96–9, 106, 108, 109, 112, 116, 121–2 see also pronoun, personal Athanasiadou, A. 5, 21, 66, 72, 219, 226 audience 7, 17, 33, 49, 52, 54, 56, 58, 64, 66, 67, 81, 84, 86–91, 102, 105–6, 115, 118, 123, 155, 218, 220 backchannel 7, 12, 16–17, 61, 73–5, 80–1, 90, 116, 126, 168, 181,188–9, 191, 193, 208, 212 see also aizuchi boku 62, 68, 86 see also pronoun caller 9, 17, 18, 33, 39, 45, 91–6, 98–9, 102–24, 163, 220–2, 228 Clayman, S. 5, 7, 49, 50–1, 67, 69, 79, 82, 85, 104, 163 conduciveness 11, 20, 21, 50, 51, 169, 204 conducive 6, 22, 30, 32, 39, 49–51, 64, 79, 80–2, 147, 151, 153, 163, 204, 206, 217, 222–3, 227 Cook, H. M. 35, 38, 41, 75–6, 95, 105, 112, 115–17, 128, 141–2, 218, 226 counselling 9, 17, 89, 90–2, 94, 96–7, 102, 104, 110, 117, 122–3, 220–1, 228–9 counsellor 39, 89, 90–2, 98, 102, 104–6,108–13, 115–18, 120–4, 220–1 criticism 51, 79, 80, 104, 112, 119–23, 151, 191, 204, 210

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da see politeness; style De Capua, A. 89, 91, 105–6, 108, 117 desu see politeness; style disagreement 16, 54, 116, 151, 152, 163, 204, 228 discourse markers 10, 61, 126, 140, 153, 157, 226 Drew, P. 2, 5, 6, 49 English 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 16, 17, 19, 20–2, 24, 27, 31, 35, 38, 51, 56, 64, 83, 105, 126, 130, 133, 143, 145, 151, 155–6, 193, 209, 210, 216, 217, 222, 225 Ervin-Tripp, S. M. 1, 2, 5, 8, 11, 216 experience 2, 57, 58, 68, 72, 125, 131, 139, 140–1, 145–7, 153, 155, 184, 192 shared 125, 130–1, 184, 192, 206–7, 221, 223 female 14, 21, 40, 64, 74, 75, 115, 127, 141, 157, 159, 213 see also gender; women fillers 74, 79, 80, 90, 120, 140, 152, 157 footing 51, 89, 93, 101, 104, 105, 112, 217, 220, 228 formal see style Furo, H. 16, 51, 126 gender 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, 15, 21, 22, 36, 138, 158, 159, 216 gossip 45, 125, 127, 228 Greatbatch, D. L. 2, 5, 49, 50, 52, 104 guest 36, 38, 42–4, 46, 52, 54–9, 60–9, 70–88, 91, 93, 98, 106, 107, 218, 220, 222, 227 see also interviewee harmony 16, 41, 115, 126, 141 Hayashi, M. 2, 4, 11, 19, 22, 23, 26, 28, 38, 56, 126, 133, 159, 217, 225

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Heritage, J. 4, 5, 7, 32, 49, 50–2, 67, 69, 79, 82, 85, 87, 88, 104, 130, 139, 155, 163, 219, 220 Hinds, J. 8, 11, 16, 17, 19, 22, 26, 28, 40, 41, 43, 44, 66, 88, 150, 217, 219 honorifics 27, 43, 65, 71, 93, 96, 99, 101, 115, 200, 216 see also style host 7, 29, 33, 36, 38, 39, 40–6, 52, 54, 56–8, 60–8, 70–5, 77, 79, 80–3, 86–9, 90–6, 98, 99, 101–8, 110, 112, 115, 117–19, 120, 123–4, 194, 218–20, 221, 227 see also interviewer Hutchby, I. 5, 52, 90, 91, 93, 220

Masuoka, T. 11, 19, 38, 64, 105, 115 Maynard, D. 5, 49 Maynard, S. 3, 16, 17, 19, 21, 33, 35, 86, 113, 115, 126, 128–31, 141, 226 membership categorization 165, 176, 177, 184, 197, 198, 213 men 7, 13, 21, 36, 137, 138, 144 see gender; male mollifiers 38, 66, 68, 79, 81, 88, 120, 142, 163

informal see style in-group 75, 137, 144 interlocutors 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 18, 21, 22, 24–5, 36, 47, 52, 56, 64, 89, 95, 101–2, 105, 125, 162, 165–70, 173,176–9, 183, 186, 190–1, 193–4, 197, 202, 204–5, 213, 215, 217–18, 220, 222–4, 226–8 interviewee 7, 18, 40, 41, 45, 49, 50–2, 67–9, 72–4, 77, 79, 81–5, 86–8, 92, 118, 163, 218, 219, 222 see also guest interviewer 6, 7, 18, 20, 29, 43, 45, 49, 50–2, 54, 66–7, 69, 70, 71–2, 75, 77–9, 81–8, 91, 218–20, 222 see host invitation 1, 2, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 32, 79, 155, 187, 189, 213

oh 83, 102, 130, 139, 155 overlap 16, 17, 20, 29, 45, 56, 57, 63, 64, 68, 75, 109, 134, 142, 146, 147, 156, 173, 206–8 overlapping 8, 68, 136

knowledge 2, 4, 8, 10–11, 18, 20, 23, 41–2, 56, 75, 77, 81, 88, 91, 105, 125, 131–4, 141–2, 151, 157, 165–6, 169, 183–4, 205, 215, 218, 227 shared 10, 11, 18, 41, 88, 105, 115, 125, 131–4, 141, 143, 145, 147, 151, 154, 162, 166, 169, 184, 189, 200, 204, 205, 208, 212, 217, 218, 221, 227 Kuno, S. 8, 11, 19, 33, 41, 115, 141, 226 laughter 61, 82, 134, 153, 160, 178, 191, 206 McGloin, N. H. 41, 115, 141, 142, 220 male 21, 36, 40, 45, 127, 138, 159, 216

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Nakada, S. 3, 11, 19, 20, 21, 35, 36, 38, 56, 105, 145, 217, 218, 226 Nitta, Y. 4, 11, 19, 20–1, 32, 38–9, 77, 79, 105, 147,163, 204, 218, 222, 228

particles, conjunctive 126 final 16, 23, 25, 35, 42–3, 52, 82, 92, 101, 118, 126, 128, 152, 159 pause 57, 61, 68, 70, 75, 80, 81, 98, 116, 121, 130, 137, 188, 191, 192, 202, 208 politeness 1, 4, 14, 15, 22, 39, 41, 51, 68, 72, 88, 90, 95, 101, 104, 115, 117, 131, 136, 145, 170, 177, 210, 212–13, 222–5, 228 see also style power 5, 18, 90, 163, 216, 226, 228 pronoun, personal 96, 98, 99, 108, 118, 121, 143 radio 45, 47, 127, 220, 222, 226 counselling 9, 221, 227, 228 interviews 6 phone-in 17, 18, 28, 29, 33, 39, 64, 87, 89–93, 102, 104, 105, 115, 117, 123, 215, 218–20, 222, 227 rapport 66, 79, 102, 103, 115, 117, 123, 128, 156, 204, 219, 220, 223, 226 request 2, 6, 9, 21, 35–8, 46, 75, 77, 93, 95, 117, 119, 209 Roth, A. 4, 7, 49, 50, 64, 82, 219

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Index shifts, politeness 22 style 25, 101, 102, 104, 123–5, 169, 177, 221 see also formal; informal situation 25, 33, 41, 64, 82, 90, 101, 105, 108, 117, 126, 163, 220 society 7, 16, 17, 46, 70, 72, 77, 88, 95, 126, 134 stance 20, 21, 24, 27, 28, 41–3, 65, 88, 93, 95, 103–5, 106, 109, 110, 113, 116, 118–20, 128, 133, 145, 147, 159, 161, 162, 163, 169, 189, 193, 196–7, 204, 210–11, 213–19, 221, 223, 226–7 agressive 196 collaborative/cooperative 88, 109, 133, 189, 193, 204, 228 consultative 4, 93, 108, 111, 115, 145, 147, 159, 163, 210, 211, 215, 217–18, 219, 223–4, 228 polite 41, 145, 169 status 2, 7, 10, 14, 21, 24, 25, 29, 31, 36, 41, 52, 88, 91–3, 95, 96, 98, 99, 101, 102, 104, 121, 123, 166, 176, 177, 220, 221, 226–8 strategy 7, 16, 33, 36, 39, 51, 54, 58, 66, 68, 74, 79, 89, 90, 117, 120, 122–3, 128, 132, 145, 146, 156, 159, 165, 166, 168, 170, 187, 194, 204, 207, 210, 221, 222–4, 226–8 argumentative 51 communicative 204, 210 cooperative 223, 227 politeness 39, 51, 68, 145, 170, 212, 224 style 102, 104 formal 12, 29, 64, 101–4, 221, 224 informal 14, 18, 21, 23, 41, 95–6, 101–4, 125, 138, 140–1, 162, 177, 206, 218, 221, 224

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shifts 25, 64, 95, 101, 102, 103, 104, 123, 124, 126, 131, 169, 177, 204, 216, 221 Suzuki, R. 26, 34 Suzuki, S. 33, 86, 226 Takubo, Y. 64, 115 Tanaka, H. 3, 8, 16, 23, 35, 36, 38, 56, 105, 126, 128, 218, 226 Tanaka, L. 2, 14, 16–17, 19, 22, 25–6, 35, 44, 47, 51, 52, 57, 64, 66, 68, 71, 88, 90, 91, 102, 105–6, 117, 126, 177, 194, 218, 219 Tanaka, N. 52 television 22, 47, 64, 66, 123, 128, 187 interviews 6, 7, 16–18, 22, 28, 33, 36, 42, 44, 46–7, 49, 51–4, 61, 64, 69, 77, 79, 81, 85, 87–8, 90–1, 215, 217–19, 220, 222–3, 226–7 topic marker 61, 93, 99, 206 topic shift 204 university student 17, 125, 127, 134, 165, 168–70, 177, 183, 204, 210, 213 women 7, 13, 21, 29, 36, 43, 95, 107, 119, 128, 157, 168, 178, 190, 206, 210 see also female; gender Wooffitt, R. 52 Yokota, M. 3, 5, 11, 14, 19, 22, 24, 36, 49, 51, 52, 64, 66, 76, 82, 88 youth language 127, 140, 162, 163, 170, 210, 224 Zimmerman, D. 165–8, 170, 173, 176–8, 180, 181, 184–7, 189, 223

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