A perception study of mediatized Osaka dialect: Variation, indexicality, and enregisterment
This perception study investigates the social indexicality of Osaka dialect, a highly recognizable variation of the Japanese language. In the 2013 film Soshite Chichi ni Naru (Like Father, Like Son), Osaka dialect appears to resignify a new style of affective and hands-on fatherhood as opposed to the hegemonic masculinity model of a salaryman that is often absent in child-rearing (SturtzSreetharan, 2017a, 2017b). With a mixed-method approach, this study advances the previous research by addressing the following questions: (1) whether the audience associates the targeted indices of fatherhood and masculinity with Osaka dialect in this mediatized context as previously argued, and (2) if so, to what extent; and (3) what other social meanings Osaka dialect indexes, such as social class, affect, and/or personality. The results revealed graded effects of Osaka dialect indexing affective fatherhood and masculinity, and further consolidated the role of mediatization in the social indexicality of Osaka dialect.
References SturtzSreetharan, C. (2017a). Language and masculinity: the role of Osaka dialect in contemporary ideals of fatherhood. Gender and Language, 11(4). SturtzSreetharan, C. (2017b). Resignifying the Japanese father: Mediatization, commodification, and dialect. Language & Communication, 53, 45-58.
