From the Standpoint of the Metapragmatic Discourse Analysis of “joshiryoku”

This research analyzes “gender expressions” in Japanese through a metapragmatic discourse of the term “joshiryoku”. An analysis of how the general public evaluates “joshiryoku” on the internet has been carried out and a definition of what “joshiryoku” is given, based on the Japanese “Asahi Shimbun Digital: Forum”. KH Coder was utilized to statistically examine the text-type data and the co-occurrence network as an output of KH Coder, which provides an overview of the data. This research also utilizes appraisal theory to analyze metapragmatic evaluation for the term “joshiryoku”.

Finally,“femininity” was found to be a part of “joshiryoku”, and the process of gender construction by the metapragmatic evaluation for “joshiryoku” was studied. From the metapragmatic evaluation of “joshiryoku” it can be concluded that 1）the “femininity” and its representation is commonly associated with terms such as “youngness” ,” cuteness” ,“neatness”, “attentiveness”, “high cooking and housework skills”, 2) “joshiryoku” is a disfavored expression through negative connotations associated with terms such as “discomfort”, “don't want to use”, “discrimination” and “hate”. Furthermore, we can see a disturbance in the traditional concept of “femininity” and “masculinity” through the usage of expressions “‘joshiryoku’= independent women” and “high joshiryoku in boys”. It is thought that such metapragmatic analysis for gender expression will lead to the elucidation of language and gender, pragmatics and gender construction, and its transformation.