Abstract
This study explores the multimodal and interactional practices of female-to-male (FtM) transgender individuals in Japanese, focusing on their identity construction. Most previous studies on transgender identity in Japanese contexts examine male-to-female (MtF) transgender individuals’ linguistic practices, particularly the use of so-called Japanese women’s language. In contrast, this study explores how FtM individuals use not only linguistic but also other semiotic resources to construct and negotiate their gender and sexual identities. The study utilizes empirical data such as YouTube videos and draws on multimodal conversation analysis (CA) and membership categorization analysis (MCA) to analyze the participants’ accomplishment of social actions. The findings demonstrate the use of various resources for identity construction and how the participants challenge and/or conform to hegemonic gender ideologies. The study also unveils both the diversity among FtM transgender people (inter-individual variation) and the fluidity and complexity of identities that can exist within one person (intra-individual variation).
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the two reviewers, Gavin Furukawa, Ayumi Miyazaki, Lynn Lethin, Sean Forte, Laurie Durand, and participants in the CA data sessions at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa for their invaluable comments, advice, and assistance. Any remaining errors or misinterpretations are entirely my own.
Transcription conventions:
- [Wo]rd
-
Overlapping talk
- Wo::rd
-
Phonological lengthening (each colon is approx. 0.1 s)
- Wo-
-
Sound cutoff
- Word
-
Emphatic stress
- ((bows))
-
Non-verbal actions and comments
- (h)
-
Breath within a word
- (1.2)
-
Silence in seconds and tenths of a second
- (.)
-
Micro-pause (less than 0.2 s)
- .
-
Falling intonation
- ,
-
Continuing intonation
- ?
-
Rising intonation
- ( )
-
Inaudible sound, word, or phrase
- °Word°
-
Reduced volume (double circles indicate greater reduced volume)
- > word <
-
Faster than the speaker’s surrounding speech
Interlineal gloss abbreviations:
- Cop
-
Copula
- EMP
-
Emphatic marker
- FIL
-
Filler
- INT
-
Interjection
- IP
-
Interactional particle
- LK
-
Linking marker
- Nom
-
Nominalizer
- O
-
Object marker
- PM
-
Pragmatic marker
- Q
-
Question marker
- QT
-
Quotative marker
- S
-
Subject marker
- Tag
-
Tag question
- Top
-
Topic marker
- →
-
Point of analysis
Embodied conduct notation in transcripts:
- + +
-
Descriptions of embodied movement are delimited between two identical symbols.
- * *
- +->
-
The action described continues across subsequent lines until the same symbol is
- ->+
-
reached.
- ---
-
Full extension of the movement is reached and maintained.
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© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial
- Articles
- Violations of the basic Japanese referential system in reintroductions
- Characteristics of the X ie imperative expression: three criteria for the classification of imperatives
- Female-to-male (FtM) transgender individuals’ multimodal and interactional practices in Japanese
- An experimental investigation of the Deep Double-o Constraint in Japanese causative constructions
- Book Reviews
- Asahi, Yoshiyuki, Mayumi Usami, and Fumio Inoue: Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics
- Anna Bugaeva: Handbook of the Ainu Language
- Hajime Hoji, Daniel Plesniak, and Yukinori Takubo: The Theory and Practice of Language Faculty Science
- Review of “Virtual Japanese: Enigmas of Role Language,” “Baacharu Nihongo: Yakuwarigo No Nazo,” and “Koremo Nihongo aru ka: Ijin no kotoba ga umareru toki” by Satoshi Kinsui
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial
- Articles
- Violations of the basic Japanese referential system in reintroductions
- Characteristics of the X ie imperative expression: three criteria for the classification of imperatives
- Female-to-male (FtM) transgender individuals’ multimodal and interactional practices in Japanese
- An experimental investigation of the Deep Double-o Constraint in Japanese causative constructions
- Book Reviews
- Asahi, Yoshiyuki, Mayumi Usami, and Fumio Inoue: Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics
- Anna Bugaeva: Handbook of the Ainu Language
- Hajime Hoji, Daniel Plesniak, and Yukinori Takubo: The Theory and Practice of Language Faculty Science
- Review of “Virtual Japanese: Enigmas of Role Language,” “Baacharu Nihongo: Yakuwarigo No Nazo,” and “Koremo Nihongo aru ka: Ijin no kotoba ga umareru toki” by Satoshi Kinsui