著者

山中 靖子

雑誌

東京女子大学言語文化研究 (ISSN:09187766)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.17, pp.87-100, 2008-10-31

---

In comparison with other languages,the Japanese language has clear sexual distinction in its words.Sexual distinction is especially outstanding in personal pronouns,such as boku and atashi, and in the end of a sentence, such as ze, zo and wa In recent years, sexual distinction in words has decreased. This is partly because women's language has changed a lot. In this thesis, by using questionnaires, I researched the actual conditions and awareness of college students in order to investigate the decrease in sexual distinction in women's language. As a result, we can see there is clear sexual distinction in the first personal pronouns, but in the second personal pronouns we can see women intentionally use men's language. In addition, in the end of a sentence, women also use men's language and the usage rate exceeds 50% in some words.This research showed that women use those words knowing they are men's language. Therefore, among the young people, the decrease in sexual distinction of language has emerged. It is because women have come to think that men's language is friendly and active. The images of ideal women have changed. Nowadays,women are not slaves of convention which forces them to be careful in their choice of words such as women's language and men's language,but they can select effective words according to circumstances.