DE GRUYTER MOUTON
56
Mie Hiramoto
3 Japanese data
3.1 First person pronouns
Japanese is known to have gender exclusive expressions, and the features of
JWL, including interactional particles, pronouns, lexical items, and discourse
styles have been studied extensively (e.g., Ide 1982; Reynolds 1985; Shibamoto
1985; McGloin 1990; Okamoto 1995). Regarding 1PPs, the generic form watashi
is considered gender-neutral, while ore or boku are masculine and atashi or
atakushi are feminine. Additionally, within the gender-exclusive categories, dif-
ferent pronouns carry different connotations; for example, the male forms ore
and boku index different degrees/types of masculinity. However, generally, the
gender ideology attached to personal pronouns is not as rigid as might be
believed from the description above. Scholars have pointed out regional, social,
or age differences with regard to deviations from idealized forms (e.g., Reynolds
1985; Sunaoshi 2004). In scripted speech, both conformity as well as deviation
from the norm are taken into account when constructing or developing an imag-
inary character’s identity.
In the Japanese transcription of CB, the following 1PPs were codified for
analysis – the masculine forms boku (casual), ore (rough) and washi (elderly);
the neutral forms watakushi (formal) and watashi (neutral); the feminine forms
atakushi (formal) and
atashi (casual). The results from the female group show
that Faye predominantly preferred the casual form atashi (84 percent), the guest
protagonists used both the neutral watashi (59 percent) and the casual atashi
(41 percent), and the side characters used atashi exclusively. Ed and the female
villain did not use any 1PPs throughout the entire data. The male group yielded
more interesting findings, due to the fact that more variations in 1PP use were
observed. The main characters, Spike and Jet, used only the rough masculine
form ore (100 percent). Both the guest protagonists and the side characters
showed a wide range of 1PP use. While within each of these groups, in them-
selves, characters showed markedly different usage of the 1PPs, taking into
account the personality of each character, we see a more uniform usage across
another boundary, which I will call the ‘toughness’ boundary. Dividing both
the protagonists and the side characters into soft-spoken (those who used no
expletives or strong imperatives) and rough (those who used expletives or
strong imperatives), we see that soft-spoken characters use the more casual
form boku almost exclusively, while the rough characters preferred ore. The
neutral watashi was used mainly by wealthy or very public characters such as
news anchors. The villains used the neutral watashi the most often (54 percent),
followed by ore (37 perecent) and boku (9 percent).
Authenticated | ellmh@nus.edu.sg author's copy
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DE GRUYTER MOUTON
Gendered expressions in a popular anime
57
None of the female characters, including the gender-ambiguous main char-
acter, Ed, used the masculine forms, and none of the masculine characters used
the feminine forms. There was little flexibility within the assignment of the
pronouns for both male and female speakers except in a few cases. Faye used
a casual form when speaking to in-group members, but used a neutral form
with strangers. This alternation was seen in the male group as well, when a
character projected multiple personae. The villain from Episode 23 (Brain
Scratch), Londes, initially appears as an older cult leader, and as fitting his
position, uses watashi exclusively. However, when it becomes known that
Londes is actually a 15-year-old boy impersonating a cult leader, he switches to
boku.
(1)
Londes’s pronoun alternations (Episode 23:
Brain Scratch)
[as cult leader]
Watashi no nani o shitteru to yuun da?
[What makes you think that you know anything about me?]
[as a teenager]
Bo, boku ga nani o shitatte yuun da? Fu, fukoohee dayo! Dooshite boku
dake ga? Soo, minna boku to onaji karada ni nareba yokattan da. Iya
dayo, boku wa kietaku nai yo.
[What!? What did I do!? No! This isn’t fair! Why do I have to be like this!
Everyone … should have the same body … as … I have. Everyone. No, I
don’t …. I don’t want to disappear!]
3.2 Second person pronouns
As with the 1PPs, 2PPs are considered highly gender-specific. While there are
male-specific 2PPs, there are no overt female-specific 2PPs. While some scholars
would argue over the femininity of anata, I have used this 2PP as the casual
neutral standard. The following tokens were observed in this study – the mascu-
line forms kimi (casual), omae/omee (rough), kisama (vulgar), and temee (vul-
gar); and the neutral forms anata (formal) and anta (casual). As noted by Abe
(2004: 215), in everyday practice ‘actual uses of second-person pronouns do not
necessarily conform to these gender classifications.’ However, as the corpus for
this study is idealized, scripted speech, the above categorizations seem valid
for the analysis of the data. It must be noted that, generally, personal pronouns
are not obligatory components of Japanese speech, and indeed are often omit-
ted. Therefore, like the 1PPs, 2PPs were often dropped and some characters do
not use these tokens at all.
Authenticated | ellmh@nus.edu.sg author's copy
Download Date | 2/13/13 12:05 AM