Evaluative Language of Japanese-English Bilingual Women on Facebook

Abstract

The main purpose of this thesis is to research the interactional behavior of transnational Japanese-English bilingual women on Facebook (FB) through photo- initiated Status Updates (SUs) in terms of the use of evaluative language in Discursive Moves and their impact on the co-construction of their multiple identities. This was accomplished by following a group of Japanese- English bilingual women, or Primary Contributors (PCs) on FB from January 2012 to March 2017. As expected, most of their SUs were photo-initiated SUs as cues for conversation. The most prominent topics were selected for further multimodal interactional analysis: 1) Japanese food and restaurant experiences in the United States, 2) babies and motherhood, and 3) manicures/pedicures. The thesis is organized into 3 studies: Study 1 focuses on the interactional sets of Japanese food and restaurants in the United States, and how food is discursively used by the participants to evoke authoritative positioning as Japanese transnationals or as foodies. Study 2 examines the co-construction of identities of these bilingual women dealing with the topic of babies and motherhood and how they evoke linguistic, racial, and gendered identities. Study 3 focuses on how interactional sets dealing with the topic of manicures/ nails co-construct gendered identities such as fashionista women. A total number of 33 Primary Contributors, 596 responders, and 447 interactional sets were obtained. Interactional sets include: the photo-initiated SU, the Responses to the Status Updates (RSUs), and responses by the PCs to the RSUs. Each of these interactional sets were coded for possible linguistic and orthographic choices, multimodal features, such as emoticon use and "Likes", and translations were provided when the chosen language was Japanese.

In order to describe the interactional behavior of the participants, each study analyzes the interactional behavior following Bernhoff's (2010) participation roles, which classifies participant profiles according to engagement and activity. Furthermore, in Study 1, 9 types of Discursive Moves (DMs) following Miller & Gergen, (1998), Locher, (2006), and Morrow (2012) are identified. Their frequencies are calculated and their sequentiality in the interactional sets is analyzed. Results show that the most frequent Move type was Evaluation (34.10%), used by the participants to position themselves as authoritative Japanese or innovative foodies. Language choices and verbal and non-verbal features of Evaluation Moves are discussed with regards to how these features contribute to relational work and identity co-construction among interactants. Study 2 analyzes in 200 interactional sets the complimenting behavior directed towards Japanese-English bilingual mothers, with regards to who is doing the complimenting (gender and parental status), and who is being complimented (baby, mother, or father). Results show that the adjectives used for compliments ratify traditional family roles among this bilingual community; however, the mothers also stress non-traditional identities such as multiethnic and multilingual through features of photos and language choices. Study 3 examines 219 interactional sets for patterns of compliments and Compliment Responses (CRs) following Holmes (1986), and Placencia and Lower (2013). Compliment topic and direct or indirect formulations were identified and related to language backgrounds and gender. Results are aligned with previous work on compliments online (Placencia and Lower, 2013) in this Japanese-English bilingual community: women produce more compliments than men, and women do so in direct formulations. The production of these compliments reproduces dominant

and traditional gender roles of women being more associated with topics of fashion. With regards to Compliment Responses, results indicate that Acceptance is the most frequently used CR strategy among this group. The three studies in this thesis contribute to an understanding of how identity and relational work were co-constructed and managed by using Evaluation Moves and compliments on FB among Japanese-English bilingual women.

El propòsit principal d’aquesta tesi és investigar el comportament interaccional de les dones transnacionals bilingues en japonès i anglès a Facebook (FB) a través de Status Updates (SUs) iniciats per fotos pel que fa a l’ús del llenguatge evaluatiu en "Discursive Moves" i el seu impacte en la co-construcció de les seves múltiples identitats. Això s’aconseguí seguint un grup de dones bilingües en japonès i anglès, o "Primary Contributors" (PCs) a FB des del gener del 2012 fins al març de 2017. Tal com s’esperava, la majoria dels seus SUs eren SUs iniciats per fotos com a iniciadors de converses. Els temes més destacats foren escollits per fer-ne una anàlisi multimodal interaccional addicional: 1) el menjar japonès i experiències en restaurants als Estats Units, 2) els nadons i la maternitat, i 3) les manicures/pedicures.

La tesi està organitzada en 3 estudis: l’Estudi 1 es centra en els "sets" interaccionals de menjar japonès i els restaurants als Estats Units, i com el menjar és discursivament utilitzat per part dels participants per evocar un posicionament d’autoritat com a transnacionals del Japó o com a "gourmets". L’estudi 2 examina la co-construcció d’identitats d’aquestes dones bilingues tractant el tema dels nadons i la maternitat i com aquests evoquen identitats lingüístiques, racials i de gènere. L’estudi 3 es centra en com els "sets" interaccionals que tracten el tema de les manicures/ungles co- construeix identitats de gènere tals com les dones amants de la moda.