Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-bcq64 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-23T23:20:48.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Are “powerless” communication strategies the Japanese norm?1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Patricia J. Wetzel
Patricia J. Wetzel
Affiliation:
Department of Foreign LanguagesPortland State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Parallels between female communication strategies in the West and Japanese communication strategies are striking. Power figures prominently in descriptions of male-female behavior in the West and, by implication, in descriptions of Japanese linguistic behavior. Similarities between Western female and Japanese communication styles are taken not as an indication that Japanese linguistic behavior is feminine, but as indicative of the problems inherent in analyzing linguistic behavior in culturally bound-terms such as power. (Japanese sociolinguistics, language and the sexes, inter-cultural communication)

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , December 1988 , pp. 555 - 564
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Business Japanese, vols. I and II. (1985). Tokyo: Nissan Motor Company.Google Scholar
Christopher, R. C. (1983). The Japanese mind: The goliath explained. New York: Linden Press/Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Fishman, P. M. (1978). Interaction: The work women do. Social Problems 25(4):397–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galbraith, J. K. (1983). The anatomy of power. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Goodwin, M. (1980a). Directive-response speech sequences in girls' and boys' task activities. In S. McConnell-Ginet et al. (1980). 157–73.Google Scholar
Goodwin, M. (1980b). He-said-she-said: Formal cultural procedures for the construction of a gossip dispute activity. American Ethnologist 7(4):674–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, P. (1979). Lesbians, gay men, and their “languages.” In Cheesbro, J. W. (ed.), Gayspeak: Gay male and lesbian communication. New York: Pilgrim. 28–42.Google Scholar
Hengeveld, E. C. (1984). The lexicographic representation of power vocabulary in Japanese. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.Google Scholar
Henley, N. M. (1975). Power, sex, and nonverbal communication. In B. Thorne & N. Henley (1975). 184–203.Google Scholar
Henley, N. (1977). Body politics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Hirschman, L. (1973). Female-male differences in conversational interaction. Paper presented at Linguistic Society of America, San Diego.Google Scholar
Janeway, E. (1981). Powers of the weak. New York: Morrow Quill.Google Scholar
Korda, M. (1975). Power: How to get it, how to use it. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Koschman, J. V. (ed.) (1978). Authority and the individual in Japan. Tokyo: Tokyo University Press.Google Scholar
Kramarae, C. (1980). Proprieters of language. In S. McConnell-Ginet et al. (1980). 58–68.Google Scholar
Kraus, E. S., Roblen, T. P., & Steinhoff, P. G. (eds.) (1984). Conflict in Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and woman's place. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Lebra, T. S. (1976). Japanese patterns of behavior. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lebra, T. S. (1984). Nonconfrontational strategies for management of interpersonal conflicts. In E. S. Kraus et al. (1984). 41–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maltz, D. N., & Borker, R. A. (1982). A cultural approach to male-female miscommunication. In Gumperz, J. J. (ed.), Language and social identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 196–216.Google Scholar
Maruyama, M. (1964). Some problems of political power [translation of Sihai to hukuzyuu, 1953, Sisson, D., trans. In Morris, I. (ed.), Thought and behavior in modern Japanese politics. London: Oxford University Press. 268–89.Google Scholar
Matsushita, K. (1978). Citizen participation in historical perspective. In J. V. Koschman (1978). 171–88.Google Scholar
Matsuzawa, H. (1978). “Theory” and “organization” in the Japanese communist party. In J. V. Koschman (1978). 108–27.Google Scholar
McClelland, D. C. (1975). Power: The inner experience. New York: Irvington.Google Scholar
McConnell-Ginet, S., Borker, R., & Furman, N. (eds.) (1980). Women and language in literature and society. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Mizutani, O. (1981). Japanese: The spoken language in Japanese life. Tokyo: The Japan Times.Google Scholar
Nakane, C. (1970). Japanese society. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
O'Barr, W. M., & Atkins, B. K. (1980). “Women's language” or “powerless language”? In S. McConnell-Ginet et al. (1980). 93–110.Google Scholar
Shibamoto, J. (1985). Japanese women's language. Orlando, Fla. Academic.Google Scholar
Stevenson, H., Azuma, H., & Hakuta, K. (eds.) (1986). Child development in Japan. New York: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Strodbeck, F. L., & Mann, R. D. (1956). Sex role differentiation injury deliberations. Sociometry 19:3–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorne, B., & Henley, N. (eds.) (1975). Language and sex: Difference and dominance. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Treichler, P. A., & Kramarae, C. (1983). Women's talk in the ivory tower. Communication Quarterly 31(2):118–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, C., & Zimmerman, D. H., (1977). Women's place in everyday talk: Reflections on parentchild interaction. Social Problems 24(5):521–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, M. I., & Levine, R. A. (1986). What is an ii ko (good child)? In H. Stevenson et al. (1986). 55–62.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, D. H., & West, C. (1975). Sex roles, interruptions, and silences in conversations. In B. Thorne & N. Henley (1975). 105–29.Google Scholar