2010 Volume 13 Issue 1 Pages 136-150
The purposes of this paper are to describe and analyze the usage of "tashikani" in synchronic spoken Tokyo Japanese based on an analysis of everyday conversation among university students, and to consider the linguistic change of "tashikani" by looking at usage from a diachronic perspective. Synchronic analysis revealed that 214 out of a total of 239 "tashikani" uses appeared at turn-beginning, and that 191 out of 239 were uttered in independent ways, such as "tashikani" constructing a turn by itself. It was also found that there were three types of activities implemented by sequences of utterance units including "tashikani": (1) requesting confirmation (of whether one remembers correctly) → confirming, (2) raising a question → sharing the question, and (3) expressing a thought → accepting the thought. Furthermore, two hypotheses of "tashikani" usage change were formed and explained. The results of the study suggest the possibility that they are explainable in terms of concepts like pragmatic strengthening and increasing efficiency in communication.
