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Shifting contexts: The sociolinguistic significance of nominalization in Japanese television news

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

Senko K. Maynard
Senko K. Maynard
Affiliation:
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, [email protected]
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Abstract

This article examines nominalization in Japanese television news programs with the aim of identifying its sociolinguistic meaning as it relates to context. Given that such programs create shifting contexts available for observation, approximately five hours of news programs (aired in Tokyo in 1992) are examined. The study finds that the use of nominalization varies between two related but different speech contexts identified as “TV Talk” and “TV Announcements.” The significance for the use of nominalization in Japanese is explored, adopting an interdisciplinary approach, by appealing to the critical socio-cultural concepts of uchi ‘inside’ and soto ‘outside’. (Context, Japanese, nominalization, media discourse, sociocultural concepts)

Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , September 1997 , pp. 381 - 399
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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