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Faculty – Yoshiko Matsumoto

Professor, Japanese Language and Linguistics
Coordinator of the Japanese Language Program
yoshikom@stanford.edu

Research Areas

  • Pragmatics
  • Construction grammar, Frame semantics
  • Discourse analysis, Interactional sociolinguistics

Based on in-depth analyses of Japanese, my research focuses on issues that emphasize the importance of context in understanding the structure, meaning and use of language. I have worked on pragmatics of linguistic constructions (e.g. frame semantics of noun-modifying construction, reference, honorifics, discourse markers) and sociocultural aspects of discourse (e.g. politeness theories, speech acts, bilingualism, relation among language, gender and age, ideology, and identity reflected in Japanese as a second language). Topics of my current research center around conversational narratives (especially of older women), integration of pragmatic factors in construction grammar, and typology of noun-modifying constructions.


Selected Publications (For a more complete publication list, please see PUBLICATIONS.)

Book:

  • Noun-Modifying Constructions in Japanese: A Frame Semantic Approach. Studies in Language Companion Series 35. John Benjamins. 1997.

Edited Book:

  • Faces of Aging: The Lived Experiences of the Elderly in Japan. Stanford University Press. 2011.
  • Diversity and Universals in Language: The Consequences of Variation, co-editor with D. Oshima, O. Robinson and P. Sells. CSLI Publications. 2007.

Journal Special Issue:

  • Journal of Pragmatics 28:6. (Invited Editor) A special issue on Japanese pragmatics. December, 1997.

Articles and Book Chapters (since 2001):

  • To appear – “Painful to Playful: Quotidian frames in the conversational discourse of older Japanese speakers,” Language in Society 40:5. (November, 2011)
  • 2011 – “Reframing to regain identity with humor: What conversations with friends suggest for communication in elderly care,” in Communication in Elderly Care: Cross-Cultural Approaches, (ed.) Backhaus, Peter. Continuum.
  • 2011 – “Introduction,” Faces of Aging: The Lived Experiences of the Elderly in Japan, (ed.) Yoshiko Matsumoto. Stanford University Press.
  • 2010 – “Interactional frame and grammatical descriptions: The case of Japanese noun-modifying constructions,” Constructions and Frames 2:2. 136-157.
  • 2009 – “Beyond Stereotypes of Old Age: Discourse of Elderly Japanese Women,” International Journal of the Sociology of Language. Special Issue on ‘Language and Social Ageing’. 129-151. [modified version appeared in Faces of Aging: The Lived Experiences of the Elderly in Japan, (ed.) Yoshiko Matsumoto. Stanford University Press.]
  • 2009 – “Dealing with Changes – Humorous Self-Disclosure by Elderly Japanese Women,” Ageing & Society 29, 6. Special issue edited by Justine Coupland. 929-952.
  • 2009 – “Pragmatics of Performative Honorifics in Subordinate Clauses”, in Language in Life, and a Life in Language: Jacob Mey, A Festschrift, (Studies in Pragmatics v. 6) (eds.) Ken turner and Bruce Fraser. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
  • 2009 – “Forward”, Face Communication and Social Interaction, (eds.) Bargiela-Chiappini, Francesca and Michael Haugh. London: Equinox Publishing Ltd. xi-xii.
  • 2008 – “Tuning Styles and Personae”, in Japanese Speech Style Shift (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 180) (eds.) Kimberly Jones and Tsuyoshi Ono. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 213-228.
  • 2008 – “Discourse of the elderly from the speaker’s point of view”, Japanese Applied Linguistics: Discourse and Social Perspectives (eds.) Mori, Junko and Amy S. Ohta. Continuum International Publishing Group. 188-210. 2008b.
  • 2008 – “Young Women in the Meiji Period as Linguistic Trendsetters” (co-authored with Mariko Bohn), Journal of Language and Gender Vol. 2 (1). 9-42.
  • 2008 – “Variations in Japanese honorification – deviations or a change in the making?,” Constructional Re-organization (Constructional Approaches to Language Series 5), (ed.) Jaakko Leino. John Benjamins. 89-104. 2008a.
  • 2007 – “Interaction of Multiple Factors in Relative Clause Construal and Acquisition.” Commentary. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 29. 367-374.
  • 2007 – “Dealing with changes – Discourse of elderly Japanese women”, Japanese/Korean Linguistics 15, (eds.) Naomi H. McGloin, et al. CSLI Publication. 93-107. 2007c.
  • 2007 – “Integrating frames: Complex noun phrase constructions in Japanese,” Aspects of Linguistics: In Honor of Noriko Akatsuka (Gengogaku no Syosoo: Akatsuka Noriko Kyoozyu Kinen Ronbunsyuu), (eds.) Susumu Kuno, Seiichi Makino and Susan Strauss. Tokyo: Kurosio Publishers. 131-154. 2007b.
  • 2007 – “Kaiwa no naka no iwayuru joseigo (Use of so-called women’s language in conversation),” Gengo (Language): Vol. 36 No.3. 62-69.
  • 2005 – “‘We’ll be dead by then!’ – comical self-disclosure by elderly Japanese women." The Proceedings of the 30th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. (eds.) M. Ettlinger, N. Fleisher, M. Park-Doob. Berkeley Linguistics Society. 268-297.
  • 2004 – “Alternative Femininity and the Presentation of Self in Japanese,” in Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, (Studies in Language and Gender Series) (eds.) Shigeko Okamoto and Janet (Shibamoto) Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 240-255. 2004c.
  • 2004 – “The new (and improved?) language and place of women in Japan,” in Language and Woman’s Place: Text and Commentaries, by Robin T. Lakoff. Revised and expanded edition (Studies in Language and Gender Series), (ed.) Mary Bucholtz and. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 244-251. 2004b.
  • 2004 – “Kizuki to sentaku: Shakai-gengogakuteki nooryoku no yoosei o mezasu nihongo-kyooiku no igi” (Awareness and Choice: Implications of Japanese language instruction aiming to cultivate learners’ sociolinguistic competence) (with T. Shimizu, H. Okano Lipton, and M. Okubo Lowdermilk). Gengogaku to Nihongo Kyooiku – Jitsuyooteki Gengo Kenkyuu no Koochiku o Mezashite 3 (Linguistics and Japanese Language Education: Toward Practical Linguistics Research), (ed.) Masahiko Minami. Tokyo: Kurosio Syuppan. 41-58. 2004a.
  • 2003 – “Reply to Pizziconi," Journal of Pragmatics 35. 1515-1521. 2003b.
  • 2003 – “The Construction of the Japanese Language and Culture in Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language.” (co-authored with Shigeko Okamoto). Japanese Language and Literature. Vol. 37, Number 1. 27-48. 2003a.
  • 2002 – “Gender Identity and the Presentation of Self in Japanese,” 2002. Gendered Practices in Language, (eds.) S. Benor, M. Rose, D. Sharma, J. Sweetland, Q. Zhang. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications. 339-354. 2002.
  • 2001 – “Extending Frame Semantics: Flexibility of Complex Noun Phrase Constructions in Japanese,” Cognition in Language Use: Selected Papers from the 7th International Pragmatics Conference, Vol. 1. Edited by Eniko Nemeth. Antwerp: Belgium. 256-266. 2001b.
  • 2001 – “Tyotto: Speech act qualification in Japanese,” in Japanese Language and Literature Vol. 35:1 (formerly Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese). 1-16. 2001a.

Courses

  • JAPANGEN 71N: Language and Gender in Japan: Myths and Reality (Freshman Seminar)
  • JAPANGEN 82N: Joys and Pains of Growing Up and Older: The Secret Lives of Old People in Japan (Freshman Seminar)
  • JAPANLIT 157: Points in Japanese Grammar
  • JAPANLIT 117/217: The Structure of Japanese
  • JAPANLNG 211-213: Advanced Modern Japanese
  • JAPANLIT 235, 236: Academic Readings in Japanese I, II
  • JAPANLIT 281: Japanese Pragmatics
  • JAPANLIT 289: Diversity in Japanese Language: Regional Dialects and their Images
  • JAPANLIT 291:Readings in Japanese Linguistics
  • JAPANLIT 377: Seminar in the Structure of Japanese
  • JAPANLIT 381: Topics in Japanese Discourse and Pragmatics
  • JAPANLNG 211-213: Advanced Modern Japanese

Current Funded Project

  • Presidential Funding for Innovation in the Humanities : Noun-Modifying Constructions in Languages of Eurasia: Reshaping theoretical and geographical boundaries
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