Hedges in Japanese spoken discourse: A comparison between younger and older speakers

In the present study, hedges are defined as expressions of uncertainty, possibility, tentativeness or approximation which convey a sense of vagueness. For example, I examine hedges such as toka 'or something', kana 'I wonder', omou 'I think', nanka 'like', tabun 'probably' and teyuuka 'or rather'. A speaker uses these types of hedges to mitigate his/her utterances, to show a non-committal or self-protective attitude, or to show solidarity among conversation participants. In general, the use of hedges is motivated not only by information demands (lack of knowledge), but also by sociolinguistic factors. The goal of this study is to investigate the effect of major social variables (age, sex and style) on the use of hedges in Japanese conversation so that we can understand how and why people speak vaguely using hedges.; I posited three hypotheses: (1) hedges are used more often by younger speakers than by older speakers; (2) hedges are used more often by female speakers than by male speakers; (3) hedges are used more often in casual speech than in formal speech. To test these hypotheses, conversation data of 20 single sex dyads were collected from two age groups (younger and older) and from both sexes in two styles of conversation (interview and chatting with a friend). All participants are native speakers of Japanese.; The data supported hypotheses (1) and (2), but not (3). This means that the younger groups and female groups used hedges more often than the counter-part groups. Hedges appeared as often in interviews as in chats. There was also an interaction of age and sex: the younger female speakers used hedges the most.; By closely examining toka 'or something' and teyuuka 'or rather' in context, it was found that these hedges were used differently depending on the speaker's age and the speech genre. The younger groups used affection-oriented hedges more often than the older groups. The younger groups also showed variations in the usage, and sometimes expressed playfulness, embarrassment or solidarity in the use of hedges when talking to their friends.; According to the questionnaire results, the younger female speakers have a different attitude regarding the use of hedges. For example, they consider hedges a normal way of talking, fun and easy to say, whereas the older speakers show negative views, considering hedges corrupt and inappropriate or unpleasant.; The present study confirmed that social factors do play important roles in the use of hedges in Japanese spoken discourse. Younger speakers exploit hedges often, and create new forms and functions of hedges when they are talking among themselves.