Discursive Construction of the Ideology of “Women's Language" : “Schoolgirl Language" in the Meiji Period(1868-1912)

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The sex-differentiation of sentence-final particles in the Meiji era (1868-1912) is often interpreted as proof that women and men had actually begun to use different sentence-final particles. I refute this view, showing rather that it indicates the establishment of an ideological association between particular sentence-final particles and femininity or masculinity. As data, I analyze the construction of “schoolgirl language," which is characterized by the use of sentence-final particles such as teyo, dawa and noyo. Female students at that time were using a variety of languages, including the use of these particles as a resistance to the good-wife-wise-mother education. The novel writers, on the other hand, chose teyo, dawa, and noyo as symbols of young women. As a result, the use of these particles was transformed into “schoolgirl language," a linguistic symbol of feminine sexuality. The same particles, which were originally invented for a subversive purpose, were re-defined as the symbol of female sex. My analysis shows that both the notion of "schoolgirl language" and the association of teyo, dawa, and noyo with feminine sexuality are discursively constructed language ideologies, rather than a natural outcome of actual language use by female students. Language ideologies in the Meiji era, therefore, were sex-differentiated on the three levels of language use, students' language use, and sentence-final particles.

Journal

  • 自然人間社会

    自然人間社会 36 43-80, 2004-01

    関東学院大学経済学部教養学会||カントウ ガクイン ダイガク ケイザイ ガクブ キョウヨウ ガッカイ||The Society of Liberal Arts Kanto Gakuin University

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