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In:Emancipatory Pragmatics: Innovative approaches to pragmatics incorporating the concept of “ba”
Edited by Yoko Fujii, William F. Hanks, Sachiko Ide, Scott Saft and Kishiko Ueno
[Culture and Language Use 24] 2025
► pp. 228–248

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Who is telling the story?

A ba based analysis of a Japanese children’s picture book

 | Toyo University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 2 December 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.24.09nar
Abstract
This chapter demonstrates the manner of unfolding a story in a Japanese children’s picture book. The study observes the following characteristics: (i) viewpoint shifts occur frequently between the narrator and characters during the progression of the story; (ii) the direct speech is represented without quotative markers or indication of attributed speakers; (iii) some lines are ambiguous regarding whose viewpoint is taken. These characteristics in the picture book are discussed within the frame of ba theory, specifically employing the concepts of “internal perspective” and “non-separation” among participants in the shared ba. Finally, the study demonstrates that the way of telling a story in Japanese picture books can be a part of language socialization, shaping preferred ways of interaction.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Ba theory and story viewpoint
  • 3.Analysis of a Japanese children’s picture book
    • 3.1Joint construction of the story in the picture book
    • 3.2Speech representation in the picture book
    • 3.3Ambiguous viewpoint in the picture book
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (32)
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