Embedded soliloquy and affective stances in Japanese

要旨

This article discusses strategies to express intimacy with and exaltation of the addressee ― affective stances morphologically incompatible in the Japanese honorific system, wherein addressees are marked as either psychologically distant and exalted, honored, shown respect or intimate and not exalted. To resolve this dilemma, speakers commonly embed soliloquy in dialogic discourse, a strategy distinct from normal speech style shifts. To account for this, recognition of the distinction between public expression (presupposing an addressee and fulfilling the communicative function of language) and private expression (not presupposing an addressee and satisfying the thought-expressing function) is essential. By employing soliloquy to reveal one’s private thoughts, the speaker can index psychological closeness to the addressee without switching to the canonical plain speech style.

主題