The study on "style" in Japanese is one of the major research topics in sociolinguistic science, which studies the relationship between language and society. However, since the fields, purposes, and data used in studies on "style" are varied and numerous studies in related fields have been carried out, it is important to clarify the meaning of the specific terms and concepts which have been used. By doing so, we can place each study in it's appropriate position, determine the important discussion topics, and evaluate the significance of research in the filed. In this paper, I begin by reviewing studies in which the term "style" is used or the similar phenomena of "speech style shift" in Japanese. Following this, I discuss "speech-level shift" in Japanese conversational discourse in the field of discourse studies and Japanese language education studies. I also discuss the difference between terms such as "speech level", "honorific level", "taigu (treatment) level", and "speech style". Finally, I discuss the significance of studies which deal with "speech-level shift" in Japanese conversation from the viewpoint of "discourse politeness theory", and present perspectives from the viewpoints of pragmatics and interpersonal communication.
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