著者

関口 秋香

出版者

東京女子大学言語文化研究会

雑誌

言語文化研究 = Studies in language and culture (ISSN:09187766)

巻号頁・発行日

no.25, pp.32-46, 2016-11

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The aim of this paper is to contrast stereotypical utterances ("yakuwari-go") of characters in Japanese and American animated films. It focuses on so-called women's language and its frequency in Disney movies which feature princesses and Ghibli movies whose main characters are girls. It attempts to answer three questions. (1) What are the differences between the stereotypical utterances in Disney and Studio Ghibli movies? (2) What historical changes are there in the frequency of use of women's language? (3) What can be said about these changes, considering the fact that stereotypical utterances reflect social stereotypes? To answer the first question, linguistic features of the words used by the characters in the Disney movies and Ghibli movies were examined. To answer the second question, the frequencies of occurrence of women's language in heroines' utterances were found, and to answer the third question, the\r historical changes in the use of women's language in the movies are examined against the social background of the U. S. A. and Japan. The results show that Disney movies make use of differences between General American and British pronunciation, as well as very colloquial or non-standard forms (such as -in' for -ing) and slang to distinguish characters. On the other hand, Japanese stereotypical utterances mainly employ different personal pronouns, and characteristic sentence endings. The frequency of women's language used by the heroines dropped sharply after 1989 in Disney movies and after 1997 in Ghibli movies. The use of women's language in the movies suggests that changes in the stereotypical image of women started earlier in Disney\r movies than in Ghibli movies.