Register Variation in Technical Japanese across Expert Communities and the General Public

A Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Scientific and Technical Academic Journals and the Note Platform

Abstract

Technical Japanese has been predominantly examined within the context of expert communities. However, its use in communication with the general public remains underexplored. This study aims to clarify the language patterns of technical Japanese in these two distinct contexts. Specifically, the study considers Japanese texts from scientific and technical academic journals as representative of expert communities, while texts from note (a Japanese blog platform) are regarded as representative of writing for the general public. After collecting both types of texts, a multi-dimensional analysis was conducted to examine their language patterns. As a result, the findings indicate that academic journals tend to contain more abstract expressions, as well as kanji expressions. In contrast, the language usage on note is more likely to exhibit interactive and subjective expressions, narrative expressions, and plain and polite expressions.