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Article published In: Identity and Communication in Asian Contexts
Edited by Asmah Haji Omar and Michael Dimitrios Hadzantonis
[Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 32:1] 2022
► pp. 83–107

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Chinese and Japanese ‘laughter’ onomatopoeia

A contrastive analysis

 | Guangzhou College of Technology and Business
Published online: 4 August 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.00085.yih
Abstract
This study documents onomatopoeia of laughter in Chinese comics and their Japanese translations, by comparing the translation of Chinese laughter onomatopoeia into Japanese laughter onomatopoeia and then by observing and analyzing the sentence-ending particle. The study ultimately seeks to examine the similarities and differences between two languages as their laughter onomatopoeia discourse markers. The results indicate that the onomatopoeia of laughter appears in both languages to describe social and aggressive laughter through discourse markers that advance the flow of conversation. In Chinese face threatening contexts, speakers generally use the onomatopoeia of laughter, where in the Japanese context, speakers largely resort to using a sentence-ending particle, and in the process to alleviate embarrassment.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Context
    • 2.1Chinese and Japanese LO and transcription
    • 2.2Chinese and Japanese LO as discourse markers
  • 3.Methodical framework
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussing the data
    • 5.1Adjacency pairs
    • 5.2Altering texts in Japanese comics
      • 5.2.1Face threatening acts
      • 5.2.2LOs as comedy or mockery
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
References (46)
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