A Contrastive Study of Topic Exchange in Japanese and Chinese First-encounter Conversations: Focusing on Politeness in Dyadic Interaction

Abstract

This study examines how native Japanese speakers (JN) and native Chinese speakers (CN) structure discourse in first-encounter conversations, focusing on interaction at the discourse level through the lens of politeness. The analysis revealed two main findings. First, JN tended to introduce “other-oriented” topic floors, showing a listener-oriented tendency, while CN more frequently introduced “self-oriented” topic floors, reflecting a speaker-oriented style. Second, five topic exchange patterns were extracted, and statistically significant differences were found in their distribution. These differences are attributable to the contrasting perceptions of interpersonal distance between the two groups.