Japanese Communication: Language and Thought in Context

✍ Scribed by Senko K. Maynard

• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 268
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In an accessible and original study of the Japanese language in relation to Japanese society and culture, Senko Maynard characterizes the ways of communicating in Japanese and explores Japanese language-associated modes of thinking and feeling.

Japanese Communication: Language and Thought in Context opens with a comparison of basic American and Japanese values via cultural icons--the cowboy and the samurai--before leading the reader to the key concept in her study: rationality.

Writing for those who have a basic knowledge of Japanese language and culture, Maynard examines topics such as masculine and feminine speech, swearing, expressions of ridicule and conflict, adverbs of emotional attitude and the eloquence of silence. Maynard provides a refreshing and entertaining perspective for interpreting contemporary Japan, sometimes in contrast to the United States.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
Note on Romanization
Introduction: Japanese Communication
1. The Context of Japanese Communication
1. Cultural Myth, Self, and Society
2. Relationality and Communication
3. Competing Orientations within Relationality
4. Relationality Cues in the Sociocultural Context of Japan
5. Relationality and the Concept of Self
2. Japanese Language in Context
6. Styles and Varieties of the Japanese Language: Responding to Social Needs
7. Japanese Phrases: Expressing Emotion and Speaker’s Attitude
8. Japanese Sentence Structure: Grammar in Context
9. Japanese Communication Strategies: Collaboration toward Persuasion
3. Japanese Thought in Context
10. Relationality and Language-Associated Thought
11. Centrality of Scene: The World as a Relational Place
12. Nonagent Orientation: The World as “Becoming
13. More than Words: A World beyond Description
14. Echoing “Voices from the Heart”: A World of Things and Emotions
15. Manipulation of Textual Voices: A World of Shifting Points of View
16. Speaking as Self-Narrative: The World as a Subjective and Interpersonal Place
4. Japanese Communication in Global Context
17. Japanese Text and Talk in Contrast
18. Japan–U.S. Intercultural Communication
19. Misinformation and Media in Global Context
20. Toward a New Awareness
Appendix
References
Author Index
Subject Index