日本語とジェンダー 第4号 （2004）

Gender Related Ex12ressions
Musashino University
Prof.

MizueSasaki(2003年ワルシャワ大学で開催されたEAJS(the 10th EAJS Conference inWarsaw (Poland) in August 2003)．大会で発表した原稿です）

1. The Theoretical Background to Differences between Men's and Women'sSpeech (R. Lakoff and A. Jugaku)

VVhat differences are there in the way that men and women speak? R.
Lakoff①

gives the following examples of distinctive features ofwomen's speech:
1.

When will dinner be ready?

2.

Oh... around s込：o'clock…?

According to Lakoff, if a woman were asked a question such as (1) she willvery oft.en answer in a manner (2), suggesting that if the other person agrees,
she would like to do so. In other words, the nuance is that she is prepared to go
along with the other person's feelings. Lakoff also found a distinctive use of tag
question forms such as,
3.

The way prices are rising is horrendous, isn't it?

In order to find out whether this form was indeed peculiar to women's
speech, Siegler, D. and Siegler, R. (1976)②asked a number of students to readsixteen sentences, four of which contained the above tag question pattern, andto choose which sentences they thought had been said by a woman. Almost allof the students said that they thought the four sentences with tag questions
were spoken by a woman.
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日本語とジェンダー 第4号 （2004）

This and the examples below are all taken仕om "Stereotypes of males'andfemales'speech", in "Psychological Pl.€ports", 39 (p.167- 170).

Of comse, thestudents were only guessing, what they were saying in fact was, if there was a tagquestion, it was probably a woman speaking, and the reasoning behind theseguesses was that when women speak, they do so without conviction in what theyare sa直ng. It can be said, I feel, that tag questions are not peculiar to women's
speech, but to anybody, male or female who is not confident in what they are saying
01、 who does not wish to assert his or her opinion in front of a particular person.

However, the Sieglers' research shows that many of the students felt that, "women
do not have co叫idence in then- own opinions". Tl海rese 紅ch is only possible,
however, because of the fact that the tag question is a grammatical form which is
employed in the language of both men and women.
In contrast to the English language, the Japanese language employs
particles at the end of the sentence which show clearly whether the speaker ismale or female. For example, although some meri use the particles ~zo and ~ze,women almost never do, and on the other hand, although some women
frequently employ the particles ~wa and ~da wa at the end of a sentence it isvery rare in male speech. In Japanese, therefore, if you look at the end of asentence, it is immediately clear whether the speaker is a man or a woman.
Shuujoshi ('sentence final particles') are added at the end of
conversation· in Japanese to fulfill a number of different functions—toexpress one's intention or decisiveness, to soften an expression or to offer
an invitation.
function.

The addition of a single syllable can perform a significant

Of the various particles, the function of the particle ~ wa, used

exclusively by women, correlates closely to Lakoff's discussion of 'tagquestions'.

Sentence final particles· are considered to be unique toJapanese, however, as regards their function, (at least , with respect tothe particle ~ wa), the phenomenon of'tag questions'is common to both
Japanese and English.

English and Japanese do differ, however, in that ,17Copyright © 2004 The Society for Gender Studies in Japanese All rights reserved.

日本語とジェンダー 第4号 （2004）

in English, you cannot go so far as to say that tag questions'are used bywomen', to the extent that they are in.Japanese.
In his study, Shinpuro Nihongo Kenkyuuhan 2 (The National JapaneseLanguage Research Institute", 1999) I{iyomitsu Ozaki③further cl 紅lfied this.

Japanese final particles which indicate a female speaker:'ameyo''a1nene''fizru wayo''ameda wa'
Japanese final particles which indicate a male speaker:'ame dayo''amedane''furu yo''amedazo''amedaze'

The results of h誌study showed that the use of feminine forms was extremely
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日本語とジェンダー 第4号 （2004）

かequent in women aged 50 and over, but women in their 20s used them hardly atall. Masculine forms were used the least by men over 50 and the most by those in
their 20s. According to this survey, almost no women at all used masculine forms.
If we consider these results from the standpoint of the period of higheconomic growth, the following points become clear:1.

The use of feminine forms peaked with the Dankai no Sedai (after WorldWar II, it was the twenty million members of the'baby-boomer generation'
who were responsible for rebuilding the Japanese nation.)and has since

gradually decreased. It is possible that these forms may disappear in thefuture.
2. There is a tendency for men in their 20s to use the masculine forms morethan those in their 50s.
What grammatical forms, therefore, do women use when speaking to people
with whom they are intimate? Compared to those who use feminine forms, thenumber of women who use masculine forms is on the increase.

As might be expected, the masculine forms da zo and daze, which areused to express an opinion very forcibly and sound ve1-y rough, are not used byfemales in any age group. Other expressions, however, which were formerly
purely masculine forms, are now being used by more than 80% of women in
their 20s. In short, as far as final particles are concerned the· differences
between male and female language, in Jap 皿ese at least, is disappearing.
In contrast to this, there are almost no males in any age group that use
feminine forms. If a man uses feminine forms, he is in fact saying,'I want to befeminine'and trying to communicate this feeling to his listeners and hislanguage is carrying a special message, There is a type of song where thistechnique is used intentionally when a male singer is tryin:g to express awoman's feelings. The fact that this technique exists shows how fu·mly the idea
of'women's language'is entrenched. If the use of feminine forms continues to19
Copyright © 2004 The Society for Gender Studies in Japanese All rights reserved.

日本語とジェンダー 第4号 （2004）

decrease at the present rate, it is possible that they will cease to exist except in
the world of literature, cinema and song.
When conducting an analysis of female speech, it is usually possible to tell
the age of the speakers from their use of final particles.
It can be seen from the strategy termed'the avoidance of polite language'that this is commonly achieved by the judicial use of final particles.
For example, if the expression Ashita mata kimasu ('I'll come backtomorrow') is used it is impossible to convey friendliness and familiarity. To doso, the polite form must be avoided and Ashita kuru ne used instead, whichsounds more intimate and affectionate. On the other hand, the form,紐hitakuru zo sounds like someone is being threatened by a debt collector!

The Japanese language is in a constant and rapid state of change., both
men's and women's language is changing. As Akiko Jugaku (1979)④·says in
Nihongo to Onna ('Women and the Japanese Language'),‘'O�ie of the facets of language is that it can 1·egulate human behaviow:
JiVhen used in this manner, people can be rest丘cted and frapped into a set ofbehaviours and the existence of such language can result in the formation of acertain type ofperson with a certain type ofideas. Fo1· example the existence of
the word'sabi'allows a Japanese person to admit that the concept of'sabi'exists too.
When Akiko Jyugaku published the above book, the period of higheconomic growth had ended and Japanese society had entered a period ofstability and the status of women had risen. Marriage had become just one of
the life choices that women could make and the number of women working
outside the home had increased. In 1965, women accounted for 8,510,000 of thetotal number of employees, and by 1975 this had increased to 11,370,000.

*These figures on employees were obtained from a study on labour carried

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日本語とジェンダー 第4号 （2004）

out by the Prime Minister's Office, Bureau of Statistics. The figures do notinclude those working in agriculture or forestry.
Nevertheless, women are still mainly to be found working in the 、clerical,
sales and manufacturing fields, those who have the opportunity to enter
managerial positions still number less than 10 per cent. (For a comparison゜

between Japan and other countries see the graph on page 111,'Women's
ccupations in Differept Countries.')· This, then, was the sort of background against which the book Nihongo toOnna was written. Women and their activities were limited by words'femininity'and'womanliness'and the use of linguistic strategies such as'Sasshi-yoohoo', an utterance started but not finished, suggesting that thespeaker is not able to make a decision alone but requires the listener to decideinstead. Akiko Jugaku also makes this point (p. 29) by the following examples,
Hanabira ga harah紅a to chirikakatte...
Kore wa ano hito no...
Soko ni kare ga...
which show how the sentence is left unfinished leaving the reader (listener) toimagine what has been left unsaid. This is another example of J.V Neustupny's⑤(2000)'Avoidance of ·politeness' strategies. In Nihon no Josei · no Gengo
Kankyoo on p.102 there are a number of headings showing expressions which
are only used towards women. In Japanese, there are not only expressions onlyused towards women but also those used only towards men. Akiko Jugaku
analyses examples of the former phenomena but not the latter, and this could
be said to be a form of reverse discrimination. A complete analysis should beinclusive of both forms.
2. Fourteen Points For Analysing gendered expressions in Japanese(M．Sasa.ki's View)
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日本語とジェンダー 第4号 （2004）

The following 14 points examine vocabulary taken from novels, magazines,
journals, · newspapers, commercials, books, the Japanese classics and othermaterials in order to analyse gendered expressions as used towards both menand women(M. Sasaki 2000⑥)．In the past, studies of language and gender
have, for the most part, only looked at the topic仕om the point of view ofdiscrimination against women. In this study I intend to show the importance ofanalysing both forms.
1.

Expressions in which the meaning differs between men andwomen.

2.

Women and children and expected personality traits.

3.

Men and expected personality traits.

4.

Expressions peculiar to a patriarchal society and the vestiges of
the ie system6.
a.

Those expressions which have an historical base.

b.

Expressions connected with marriage and the malepoint of view.

c.

The vestiges of the ie system.

Within the system, males took precedence over females who were theirinferiors in law, the concept upon which the'ie system is based.
"All persons must be members of an'ie and must be obedient to thewishes of the head of the family." "The head of the family is to be succeeded byh誌oldest son."
The head of the family was always a man so this meant that women could
own no property and their status was low.

6Note: The system of the ie or'household'is evident in the system of family registration madepa1t of the civil law by proclamation in 1898. The law stated that the head of the household mustregister all births, marriages deaths and any other matters related with the local government. In thisway, the state attempted to unify and standardise information about the population.
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日本語とジェンダー 第4号 （2004）

5.

The division of labour according to sex and the resulting terminology.

6.

The sexual division of roles and the implications for the employment ofwomen.

7.

Naming and forms of address:
m womenmmen

8. i.:-Expressions used by men to evaluate women on physical attributes.

9.

Terms used to imply a masculine connotation when attached tocertain words, e.g.~ kan, ~ man.

10.

The figurative use of male or female images when referring to.
animals.

11.

Expressions which have arisen from cultural differences.

12.

Expressions which show changes in women's status and roles.

13.

Words which have become obsolete as a result of changes in the way
society views men and women.

14.

Other points.

The above groupings differ from previous studies of the Japanese
Language and Gender in the following ways. Until now, research tended to beconducted from a feminist standpoint and concentrated on the search fordiscriminating terms. However, as can be seen from the above 14 classifications,
it is my intention to list* the gendered terms which are still so clearly in use in• A Bibliography of Studies on the Japanese Language and Gender.
Kotoba to Onna o Kangaeru Kai,（、The Women and Words StudyGroup') Kokugo jiten ni mirareru josei sabetsu ('Discrinlination against
women as se.en in Japanese dictionaries') Sanichi Shobo
1987 Kittr edge, Cherry.'What Japanese Words Say About Women',
Kodru1sba International
1992 Endo, Orie. Josei no Yobikata Dai Kenkyu: gyaru kara obasan made ('Ways ofAddressing Women: The big study from "chicks" to the "missus"') Sanseido
1993 Ueno, Chizuko. Kitto 1位erareu Sei Sabetsu Go ('Sexually Discriminating
Language: It can be changed') Sanseido
1994 Ide, Sachiko. Kotoba ni M江u Josei: Chotto matte, sono'kotoba'. ('Women23
1985

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日本語とジェンダー 第4号 （2004）

the language today and use this for further research.

'It is only natural that the feminist movement whenworking forconsciousness raising should concentrate on language … thanks to the Women�Movement, the importance of the l'Ole that wo1·ds have 1i1 moulding andma1nta1i11i1g societys awareness of sexual discrimination has become clear.'(Momoko Nakamura, 1995. ⑦Kotoba to Feminizumu (Nakamura's work andthe other five publications mentioned are particularly good examples in thefield of the Japanese language and gender studies, but I still feel that it isnecessa1y to consider language that discriminates against men. The above
studies were published against a background of a Japanese society which had
in some areas started to recognise that sexual discrimination in language wasunnatural and no longer reflected the situation in present day Japan. The
discriminatory terms that the above studies deal with are quite ordinary words
in normal use. If the Women's Movement had not brought it to our attention
they would, no doubt, still be in use today.
However, discriminatory language is used towards men too. For as we
can see, the equivalent of obasan('auntie') is ojisan('uncle') and recently this too
has become quite a common derogatory term. As a result of the high economic
growth, working women (kyaria uuman) are beginning to deride men.
In particular men, who have· found that after the period of high economic
growth they are being derided by expressions such as'large·sized garbage'referring to large unwanted articles such as old washing machines and air
conditioners which the garbage collectors won't take unless you pay them.
Sometimes they are called'wet fallen-leaves', which stick to the pavement inautumn after rainfall and are extremely difficult to sweep away. These
expressions refer to men who after they have retired, hang about the house andReflected in Language: Stop and think about that''.word"') Crayon House.
The above five publications on women and discriminating language came out between 1985 and1998 after the period of high economic growth and show how the status of women had changed.
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Copyright © 2004 The Society for Gender Studies in Japanese All rights reserved.

日本語とジェンダー 第4号 （2004）

get in the way of the housework.

What are such expressions if notdiscriminatory?
Nowadays I think it is more appropriate to consider Japanese not only interms of expressions that discriminate against women but from the point ofview of both sexes; that is, the Japanese language and gender stereot.Y})es.
Nevertheless, there is also a place for reconsidering much of the women'slanguage dealt with by the above five books. It is also pertinent, I feel, toconsider the newer expressions such as tasogare zoku and oyaji gyaru to whicha changing society has given birth. These too, can be considered'gendered'expressions.

Notes①R. Lakoff (1975: 17) gives the examples of distinctive features of women'sspeech.
②Siegler, D. and Siegler, R. (1976). "Stereotypes of males'and females'speech", in"Psychological Reports", 39 (p.167· 170).
③Kiyomitsu Ozaki, Shinpuro Nihongo Kenlryuuhan 2 (The National Japanese
Language Research Institute", 1999)④Akiko Jugaku (1979) Nihongo to Onna ('Women and the Japanese Language')⑤J.V Neustupny's (2000) Nihon no Josei no Gengo Kankyoo⑥MizueSasaki (2000)0nna

p.102

to Otokio no Nihongo Jiten(Tokyodo syuppan)⑦Momoko Nakamura, 1995. Kotoba to Feminizumu ('Language and Feminism')
Keiso Shobo. pp.3 ~ 9.

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