Employing the matched-guise technique, this research investigated the effects of the use of the Nagoya dialect on a listener's evaluation of the speaker. In Experiment 1 a male speaker was evaluated as more intelligent, more active, and better in appearance when using standard Japanese than when using the Nagoya dialect, while he was seen as more sociable in the latter case. A female speaker received better evaluations in most respects when using standard Japanese. In Experiment 2 participants were explicity instructed that the male speaker was born in Nagoya. In the dialect condition he was evaluated more favorably in activity and appearance, while in the standard condition he was seen as superior in intelligence and his manner of speaking.

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In spoken Japanese, we often employ sentences ending with the conjunction kedo. As several studies have pointed out, these expressions have a politeness effect. This paper suggests that they have discourse functions in addition to a politeness effect. Examining the discourse development, this paper suggests the following functions; namely, (1) sentences ending with kedo indicate that the speaker wants the proposition introduced by kedo to be the topic in later discourse development, and (2) sentences ending with kedo indicate that the speaker wants the hearer to control the later discourse development.

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This study geographically describes the greeting expressions and behavior in Japan, which vary according to dialects. The questionnaire consisted of 11 parts with 88 questions about Japanese daily greeting expressions. Fieldwork was done in each Japanese prefecture from 1994 to 2000, followed by a postal survey from 1997 to 2000 using the same questionnaire. A sample result showed that when family members in urban areas speak to each other after getting up in the morning, they use the expression Ohayo-gozaimasu. However, this expression is not heard in rural locations. The use of this expression depended on the use of separate rooms in the urban areas. However, old houses in rural areas have rooms divided simply by paper screens with wood frames called Shoji or Karakami. This makes it natural for family members not to use courtesy expressions during their first meeting every morning. After the 1960s, however, changes occured. In conclusion, the author believes that the interpretation of the greeting expressions, related to changes in social life, becomes increasingly important. Also a dynamic view and sense should connect the atlas with changes in human life.

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This paper analyzes how Japanese native speakers interact with listeners in a seminar discourse. Since a seminar held in Japanese is the most demanding setting for non-native speakers, it is important to know how Japanese native speakers interact in order to encourage non-native speakers' participation. The results show that native speakers use kyowa (collaborative dialogue) most of the time but that there are specific instances that call for the use of taiwa (non-collaborative dialogue). Close analysis of the few taiwa examples shows that native speakers only use taiwa when speaking about something unknown to the listener; and, when expressing an opinion; idea or belief; and when claiming that the opinion they express is their own. If all these situations are not met simultaneously, taiwa is not used.

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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the accent patterns, by generation, actually observed in speakers from the western area of the Higashi-Uwa district in Ehime Prefecture. The target groups have been divided into older, middle-aged and younger speakers. First, we can observe three types of inflection in older speakers: (a) those who are truly conscious of their traditional dialectal accent and who are able to distinguish between word inflections, (b) those in which the traditional dialectal accent appears, yet who are not conscious of the differences in inflection and cannot make a distinction, (c) those who speak without inflection. These three types occur in geographic and diachronic succession; the area where type (a) occurs is adjacent to that of type (b); type(c) appears in older speakers than type (b), and so forth. Next, we will see how the three types of inflection patterns change in the accents of each generation, indicating that, while the hallmark of change observed between older and middle aged speakers is the degree to which they speak without inflection, the differences observed between middle-aged and younger speakers related to the degree in which there is standardization. That is to say, the younger the speaker, the more likely they are to speak Standard Japanese. We find that the degree of lack of inflection in middle-aged speakers tends to become more acute with some parts of speech, where in the same instances contrasts in inflection can rarely be observed in older speakers. Further more,standardization in younger speakers tends not to occur in parts of speech, whereas there is no contrast in the same instances in the inflection of middle-aged speakers. In younger speakers, standardization can be clearly observed in tone, but they are not consciously aware of this. In conclusion, consciousness toward tone first disappears and then a true eclipse occurs. On the other hand, in the process of acquiring tone distinction, the ability to actually distinguish between tones can be acquired before they are consciously pe

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This paper introduces Chinese sociolinguistics in two parts. The first summarizes three main trends relating to the studies of language and society since the 1980s --- sociolinguistics, cultural linguistics, and the study of minority languages --- and introduces the formation of the three trends and their related publications. The second part discusses concrete research themes related to sociolinguistics. These are divided into four categories: (1) bilingualism and language contact, (2) language variation and language attitude, (3) language norms and language policy , (4) naming and politeness. The paper concludes with a discussion of the four characteristics of Chinese sociolinguistics, namely that (1) the study of minority languages and bilingualism yielded good results, (2) the angle of study bias is towards history and culture, (3) the methods tend to be descriptive and qualitative rather than empirical and quantitative, and (4) the study of dying languages needs improvement.

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