EXAMINING FACE-THREATENING ACT OF JAPANESE ADVERB YATTO

Abstract In intercultural communications, we can anticipate the occurrence of unintended face-threatening acts (FTA) which leads to miscommunication. This study discusses the possible FTA by the speaker who does not intend to threaten the interlocutor’s positive and negative face by using one of the Japanese temporal adverbs, yatto. This adverb expresses the speaker’s evaluative meaning, is achieved through various obstacles and the effect takes a long time to achieve. In addition, the word yatto also implies an achievement that is attained by either barely sufficient abilities or because of an immediate deadline. Therefore, when being used to talk about the interlocutor's or the other person’s action, it can threaten his/her face. It is necessary to clarify the possibility of threatening other people's positive and negative faces even though it is unintentional because Japanese teachers and learners are mostly unaware of it. Many of them associate the word yatto as akhirnya in Bahasa Indonesia or finally in English, which does not contain the speaker’s evaluative meaning. Accordingly, the subject of this study is to clarify the conditions of use when the word yatto becomes an FTA. To clarify the problem, this study uses descriptive and qualitative methods and employs the theory of politeness, especially the theory of face-threatening acts (FTA) by Brown and Levinson (1987). Inspired by Kamio (1990)’s notion of the territory of information, there are three types of the territory of information for the yatto adverb; (a) the information that falls to the territory of the speaker, (b) to both of the speaker’s and the interlocutor’s or the other person’s, and (c) to the interlocutor. As the main finding of the research, the factor causing FTA for positive and negative faces, namely FTA which occurs when the speaker talks about the action, falls to (c) the third territory. In the case of the benefactive -tekureru or -temorau forms used together, the meaning appreciating the actions of the interlocutor or the third person, it works as positive politeness to them as an agent. On the contrary, expressing thanks threaten the speaker's negative face

EXAMINING FACE-THREATENING ACT OF JAPANESE ADVERB YATTO

Abstract In intercultural communications, we can anticipate the occurrence of unintended face-threatening acts (FTA) which leads to miscommunication. This study discusses the possible FTA by the speaker who does not intend to threaten the interlocutor’s positive and negative face by using one of the Japanese temporal adverbs, yatto. This adverb expresses the speaker’s evaluative meaning, is achieved through various obstacles and the effect takes a long time to achieve. In addition, the word yatto also implies an achievement that is attained by either barely sufficient abilities or because of an immediate deadline. Therefore, when being used to talk about the interlocutor's or the other person’s action, it can threaten his/her face. It is necessary to clarify the possibility of threatening other people's positive and negative faces even though it is unintentional because Japanese teachers and learners are mostly unaware of it. Many of them associate the word yatto as akhirnya in Bahasa Indonesia or finally in English, which does not contain the speaker’s evaluative meaning. Accordingly, the subject of this study is to clarify the conditions of use when the word yatto becomes an FTA. To clarify the problem, this study uses descriptive and qualitative methods and employs the theory of politeness, especially the theory of face-threatening acts (FTA) by Brown and Levinson (1987). Inspired by Kamio (1990)’s notion of the territory of information, there are three types of the territory of information for the yatto adverb; (a) the information that falls to the territory of the speaker, (b) to both of the speaker’s and the interlocutor’s or the other person’s, and (c) to the interlocutor. As the main finding of the research, the factor causing FTA for positive and negative faces, namely FTA which occurs when the speaker talks about the action, falls to (c) the third territory. In the case of the benefactive -tekureru or -temorau forms used together, the meaning appreciating the actions of the interlocutor or the third person, it works as positive politeness to them as an agent. On the contrary, expressing thanks threaten the speaker's negative face

「テイル」形と「タ」形の派生アスペクト「パーフェクト性」と インドネシア語の機能語SUDAHとTELAH (Derivative Aspectual Meanings of Perfect on -teiru and -ta Forms in Japanese and Meanings of Function Words ‘Sudah’ and ‘Telah’ in Indonesian Language)

The basic meaning of the morphological aspect of Japanese is the opposition between the form -ru/-tawhich expresses perfective, and -teiru/-teitawhich expresses imperfective. Also there are perfect meanings which derivate from the basic meaning of -taand -teiru/-teitaforms. They refer to the fact that a certain result or effect of previous activity remain at a certain point of time. In Indonesian function wordssudahand telah, which are generally considered as perfective markers, can often be the equivalent of perfect meanings in Japanese. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the differences between perfect aspect meanings in both languages mainly regarding the use of words sudahandtelah. This paper aims to explain perfect meanings in Japanese and Indonesian through the use of -ta, -teiru, -teitaforms and function words sudahand telah by contrastive analysis. The analysis showed that the perfect meanings cannot be fully matched with the use of sudahandtelah. They are not interchangeable because of differences in aspectual, modal, and contextual meanings. Some of them are expressed without using sudahor telah at all. Sudahmeans ingressive aspect, and refers to the result or effect of previous activities. As modal meanings, sudah indicates two things, that the speaker possesses predictions about a future event and the speaker’s attitude to provide the hearer information. Telah means completive aspect. It does not refer to the meaning of the effect of a previous activity, therefore it can not function as taxis on future perfect aspect

JAPANESE SEMIASPECTUAL FORMS -TESHIMAU AND -TEOKU AS DISCOURSE MARKERS

This paper discusses the Japanese semi aspectual forms -teshimau and -teoku function as discourse markers which serve as speaker’s intentions of utterances for rapport management. In general, the semantic function of the morphological semi aspectual forms such as -teshimau and -teoku are explained as expressions of feelings of remorse or regret as well as preparatory actions, respectively. Both of them derived from the explanation of “completion” as a core meaning. The meanings mentioned above are also learned in elementary and pre-intermediate levels of Japanese language learning as a second language. However, the results of this research, which derived from analysis using I-JAS corpus dialogue data, indicate that in interpersonal discourse, these aspectual forms are used to show self-deprecating and modest attitudes, sentimental mood, or inevitable and difficult situations. Additionally, as a discourse marker, they are used to express utterance intentions such as showing speaker’s responsible recognition for the situation occurred, respecting the opinion of the interlocutor, and avoiding current topic to be continued. They also function as act of politeness due to the effects of “down graders” and “upgraders” in Spencer-Oatey's theory of rapport management, while in this research indicates that improperly use of -teoku might sound impolite depending on the utterance situations. Furthermore, it was found that they work as discourse markers for rounding up dialogs or shifting topics, and there are differences between -teshimau and -teoku in whether it is the interlocutor’s topic or the speaker’s topic that was being rounded up. For these reasons, second language acquisition requires learning about indicative meanings of these forms that function in the contexts and utterance situations, and the findings of this research will also contribute to the research of Japanese language teaching materials