In:Bonding through Context: Language and interactional alignment in Japanese situated discourse
Edited by Risako Ide and Kaori Hata
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 314] 2020
► pp. 17–38
Chapter 1Shifting bonds in suspect
interrogations
A focus on person-reference and modality
Published online: 3 December 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.314.01kat
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.314.01kat
Abstract
In this paper I will
examine a series of police interrogations in which
various “bonding” strategies – typically
linguistic “modality” and “person reference” in
Japanese – are employed. The prosecution process
in Japan is notorious for unduly allowing the
police to extend the detention period while
various types of ploys and threats can be
attempted to make a suspect to confess to the
accused crime. Although such “bonding” between a
suspect and the police may sound like a misleading
characterization, one can expect to find
comparable features to what we typically observe
in “bonded” relationships. I will examine how the
bond between a suspect and interrogators,
established in an inhumane environment called
daiyō-kangoku ‘police detention
cell,’ can be modified in the interrogation
process.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Previous research
- 3.Data and object of analysis
- 3.1Data in focus
- 3.2Linguistic items in focus
- 4.Analysis
- 4.1Distribution of the particle and interjective use of ne, yo, and na
- 4.2Distribution of ninshōshi ‘person-reference
terms’
- 4.2.1Substitution of jishōshi ‘first person/self-reference terms’
- 4.2.2Substitution of taishōshi ‘second-person-reference terms’
- 5.Conclusion
Acknowledgements Notes References
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