Japanese BBS Websites as Online Communities: (Im)politeness Perspectives
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Abstract
This article combines two approaches to analysing linguistic features in online communities that are argued to complement one another: computer-mediated discourse analysis (Herring, 2004) and wakimae, or discernment (Ide, 1989). A structural analysis was conducted of four threads on two open-access Japanese bulletin board system (BBS) websites in terms of politeness, or honorifics, and possible determinants of particular linguistic characteristics were explored. The study finds that discussion topics are relevant to choices of politeness levels and that overall linguistic styles are linked to the norms of each community. On one of the BBS, linguistic features reveal widespread impoliteness, yet participants seem to share a strong sense of community. Watts' (2003) concept of contextually appropriate "politic" behaviour is invoked to reconcile the puzzling coexistence of impoliteness and sense of community.
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