Study on Speech Level Control during Conversation among two participants

为了考察言语水平控制在两个被试对话中的实际情况和话语功能，作者用视频和音频记录了两个同性大学生15分钟的日语对话。本研究从基本言语水平、各言语水平出现的频率、言语水平转换三个方面对所有数据进行了转录、整理和分析，主要发现：（1）大多数被试在获得同伴的年级信息之前，都选择了正式风格作为初步的基本言语水平。在高年级和低年级学生对基本言语水平的选择中，低年级学生对基本言语水平的选择存在性别差异：男生选择平实语体的比例为30%，女生选择正式语体的比例为100%。(2)受试者通过控制言语水平来实现识别中选择的形式和言语风格，表现出积极、动态地运用各种话语策略进行交际。(3)无论是母语者还是非母语者，与母语者之间相比，他们都经常以正式的形式结束句子，而不添加任何助词。这一发现可以解释为母语者作为外国人说话的调整。

To examine the actual condition and discourse functions of Speech Level Control during conversations among two participants, the author video and audio recorded several kinds of 15 minutes conversations among two university students of same sex using Japanese. All the data were transcribed, data-based, and analyzed from the following three aspects, (1) basic speech level (2) frequency of each speech level (3) speech level shift.The main findings are,(1) Formal style was chosen by most of the participants as a tentative basic speech level before getting the information about the grade of their partners. Among pairs of higher graders and lower graders, the selection of the basic speech level by the lower graders showed difference by gender : 30 % of male selected plain style while 100 % of female selected formal style. (2) Participants demonstrated communicating actively and dynamically making use of various kinds of discourse strategies by controlling speech level to fulfill the formal forms and speech styles chosen from discernment. (3) Both native speakers and non-native speakers of Japanese frequently end sentences with formal style without any particles added when compared with pairs of native speakers. This finding may be explained by adjustment by the native speakers as a foreigner talk.