Analysis of Speech Level in Japanese: Power and Rank of Imposition on Request, Invitation, and Apology between Close Participants

Abstract

The aim of this study is to verify quantitatively how speech level is used in Japanese depending on power and rank of imposition between close interlocutors. We analyzed closed role-play conversation data from twenty Japanese language speakers classified under the categories of request, invitation and apology. More specifically, we categorized main request/invitation utterance (Head-act) and other utterances in case of requests and invitations, and apologetic formulaic expressions (IFID) and other utterances in the case of apologies. We also set sub-speech levels under three main speech levels, and analyzed the data in each of the six levels. The findings were: (1) the speech level base was determined by power regardless of the type of speech act, (2) rank of imposition was expressed in differences in the sub-speech level, (3) the speech level of the main request/invitation utterance (Head-act) was higher than that of other utterances, while a higher proportion of sub-speech level was observed in other utterances. Until now little attention has been paid to sub-speech levels in studies of speech level. The results of this study, however, revealed that the classification of speech level including sub-speech levels complements studies of politeness in Japanese.