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Painful to playful: Quotidian frames in the conversational discourse of older Japanese women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2011

Yoshiko Matsumoto
Yoshiko Matsumoto
Affiliation:
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford UniversityBuilding 250, Main Quad, Stanford, CA 94305-2000, USAyoshikom@stanford.edu
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Abstract

Conversations about serious life changes in old age may be expected to sound painful, but data of conversational narratives by elderly Japanese women even on topics related to illnesses or the death of a husband show highly engaging, lively exchanges, frequently accompanied by humor and laughter among the participants. The common feature in the conversations recounting psychologically intense experiences is a shift to detailed depictions of specific scenes from the quotidian perspective. This phenomenon, which I call quotidian reframing, is signaled by linguistic and paralinguistic quotidian framing cues. Quotidian reframing can function as a useful discourse strategy to relieve tension and let the participants regain the feeling or stance of quotidian self, the identity that they consider “normal.” A detailed account of the quotidian frame draws on such ideas as frame, footing, lamination, and positioning. (Discourse analysis, frame, identity, humor and laughter, older Japanese women)*

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Articles
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Language in Society , Volume 40 , Issue 5 , November 2011 , pp. 591 - 616
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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