A critical discourse analysis: Ideology of language and gender in Japanese

In this study, the perspective of critical discourse analysis (CDA) is used to examine the common sense assumptions about gender that underlie the use of language in Japanese society. CDA recognizes that common sense assumptions allow human beings to interpret language and make sense of the social world, at the same time these assumptions are also permeated with ideologies that contribute to the construction and revalidation of unequal power relations. This study, then, as a part of highlighting the saliency of gender as a social category in Japanese society, illuminates inequalities in the assumptions about women and men that are embedded in the linguistic practices of Japanese people.; The analysis occurs at four levels: a lexical analysis of certain words and expressions, a text analysis of book titles, a phonetic analysis of voice pitch levels used in interaction that occurs in workplaces, and a discourse analysis of a TV advice-giving program. By focusing on these different domains, the analysis indicates that embedded within Japanese society are the underlying assumptions and expectations that women should aspire in life to make themselves physically appealing and likable and that men should focus their lives on building careers and making professional advancement. Furthermore, the analysis emphasizes the degree to which these assumptions about gender hinder women's attempts to pursue professional careers.; As one of the first comprehensive attempts to apply the framework of CDA to Japanese, this study demonstrates its utility as an analytic framework. It argues that CDA can be used to both expand on previous research that has focused on the relationship between gender and language in Japanese and, at the same time, incorporate the perspectives of Japanese feminist scholars into research on language. In addition, this study suggests that CDA has the potential to expose common sense assumptions concerning not only gender but also other aspects of Japanese society such as discrimination and prejudice based on ethnicity and social status as well.