Bhutan is a multilingual society with 19 languages. Undergoing rapid modernization, many migrants are flowing from ethnic districts across the country to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. The percentage of migrants is approaching 85%. In downtown markets in Thimphu, ethnic languages are used at a high rate, instead of Dzongkha, the language of the host community. This study investigated the use of ethnic languages in a downtown market called the Hong Kong Market, based on the regional characteristics of the market and the relationship between merchants and customers, as well as the language socialization of migrants in Thimphu and their accompanying migration. As a result, firstly, in Thimphu, it was revealed that host merchants acquired their customers’ ethnic language. However, it was a widely used ethnic language (lingua franca), which was not the first language for many migrants from minority language ethnic groups. Secondly, the characteristic language situation in different markets of Thimphu, including Hong Kong Market, was seen to reflect the stage of language socialization of the migrants who gathered in the market. It was also revealed that the language perceptions of merchants and customers within a market community are embodied in such language usage.

This paper defines the semiotic process of the term jiko-sekinin (self-responsibility) being circulated in Japanese society as self-responsibility discourse. It analyzes a blog article which criticized the Japanese hostages taken by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) in an incident that took place from January to February of 2015. In the article and associated comments, the terms jiko-sekinin (self-responsibility) and meiwaku (nuisance) appeared prominently. In this paper, I argue that the semiotic ideology of self-responsibility discourse is generated by the participants through poetic sequences in the blog article and its comments. The analysis focuses on the series of cognitive frames involved in the criticisms of the hostage subjects: individual, socio-cultural group, and human being. I demonstrate that social position and role, as cultural norms, have influenced the historical circumstances which reproduce these self-responsibility discourses in Japan.

Language endangerment has been vigorously studied in linguistics since the 1990s, and related studies such as language documentation and revitalization have also flourished. This paper argues that the typical academic discourse on endangered languages has been oversimplified and that language endangerment should be understood as multi-faceted and complex social phenomena. To illustrate the point, this study describes the vitality and the extinction process of Arta, a severely endangered language spoken in the Philippines. It was found that the Arta community is incorporated into a larger group speaking another tribal language, due to their shared cultural identity as hunter-gatherers. It was also shown that Arta speakers strategically choose their language shifts to flexibly cope with the surrounding majority. These findings imply that pessimistic attitudes towards endangered languages by researchers should be relativized.

This paper examines the occurrence positions of backchannels, based on clause boundaries. Results of the analysis reveal that in conversations in Tokyo backchannels tend to appear after sentence end expressions that indicate an absolute boundary, while in Osaka they appear after conjunctive expressions that show a clause boundary. Moreover, the analysis of backchannels occurring at positions other than clause boundaries also showed differences between Tokyo and Osaka. These results indicate that the use of backchannels in conversations in the two regions are distinct as follows. In Osaka, speakers tend to carry the conversations forward to allow both participants to enjoy their interaction by creating a situation where the listeners can easily get involved in the conversation or by having listeners guess what follows next in the conversation. Backchannels seem to occur according the tone of the speaker, which we can call speaker-centered backchannels. In contrast, conversations in Tokyo tend to be speaker-centered with speakers maintaining the right to speak or conveying uncertain elements of information within conversations. Backchannels seem to occur after the listener has comprehended what the speaker has said, which we can call listener-centered backchannels.

It is expected that the number of nursing students using Japanese as a second language (JSL) will increase in the future and as a result the number of students who have difficult in writing nursing practice records will increase. This paper first looks at some domestic surveys and literature reviews in English-speaking countries and points out the necessity of assisting students with writing. Because there are few studies on the linguistic aspects of nursing practice records and it is difficult to apply these studies, our first step was to analyze the vocabulary used in nursing practice records. We collected books on how to write nursing practice records which include model records for different fields of nursing such as pediatric nursing and adult nursing. Models for writing assessments, nursing care plans, implementation and evaluation reports, and summaries were analyzed, and aspects of vocabulary contained in these four types of records were investigated using frequency and characteristics based on the log-likelihood ratio as indices. The results showed that the distribution of parts of speech differed according to the type of record and the items to be filled in. In some items, nouns were used frequently, while in other items, nouns, postpositional particles, verbs, and auxiliary verbs were used evenly. We also found that typically used words differed according to the type of record and the item.

This paper introduces the a dictionary of Japanese loanwords in Palauan developed by the author and discusses its quality as a study in welfare linguistics. Since the concept of welfare linguistics is more ideological than practical, discussion on what welfare linguistics is and sharing the practices of welfare linguistic studies are greatly needed to further establish this area of study. This paper explains the content of the Japanese loanword dictionary in Palauan and how the dictionary is intended to help language education in Palau. It also explores the process of achieving social contribution through sociolinguistic fieldwork and the interplay of linguistic study and social contribution. It emphasizes the importance of “building rapport with the community,” “collaboration with local institutes,” and the “output of research” necessary for achieving social contribution.