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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. 347–380

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Situating self and others in task-based interaction

A cross-linguistic study through ba theory

 | Japan Women’s University
 | Hanyang University, ERICA
 | Chulalongkorn University
 | Chulalongkorn University
 | Matsuyama University
 | Dokkyo University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

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Published online: 2 December 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.24.14fuj
Abstract
This study proposes the concept of “ba-oriented language”, which is rooted in ba theory, by empirically analyzing how participants in interactions situate the self and others. The data consists of cross-linguistic video recordings from the “Mister O Corpus”, encompassing interactions in Japanese, Korean, English, Thai, Chinese, and German. The interactions in English, Chinese, and German illustrate an independent self-construal, where the self is conceptualized as being autonomous and distinct. In contrast, the interactions in Japanese, Korean, and Thai participants exemplify an interdependent self-construal, where the self and others are perceived as being non-separated. This interdependent self-construal reflects a ba-based perspective, which diverges from traditional Euro-American pragmatics. Hence, we present ba theory as a new and more comprehensive principle for the diverse interaction.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data
    • 2.1The Mister O Corpus
    • 2.2Data description in this study
  • 3.Verbal behavior in task-based interaction
    • 3.1Proposing ideas and opinions across languages
      • 3.1.1Declarative statements
      • 3.1.2Declarative statements with mitigating expressions
      • 3.1.3Declarative questions
      • 3.1.4Question forms
      • 3.1.5Results: Presenting ideas and opinions
    • 3.2Co-construction of storylines
      • 3.2.1Co-construction of a clause
      • 3.2.2Relaying utterances
      • 3.2.3Repetition
      • 3.2.4Overlapping repetition
      • 3.2.5Result: Verbal behaviors in storyline co-construction
  • 4.Characteristics of verbal behaviors across languages
  • 5.“Ba-oriented language use” and “agent-oriented language use”
    • 5.1“Agent-oriented” self-construal and language use
    • 5.2“Ba-oriented” self-construal and language use
    • 5.3Ba theory as a new paradigm of pragmatics
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (47)
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