Pragmatic Use of Aizuchi in Japanese Discourse : A Comparison with English Backchannels

Listener\u27s verbal or non-verbal signals are known as backchannel expressions. They are translated "Aizuchi" in Japanese, which are understood as the same as English backchannel expressions in general. It is however, Maynard (1989), Mizutani (1983), and LoCastro (1999) explained that Aizuchi and English backchannels have several differences in frequency, occurrences, and their meanings. In this study, we will focus on the basic structural level of Japanese Aizuchi and backchannels in American English. The data for this paper are obtained from natural conversations between English and Japanese university students. There are two findings that will be explained and discussed. First, we found that Japanese Aizuchi has much more variety than English backchannel. Second, it is found that one of the basic types of Japanese Aizuchi "sou" has flexible forms, which are connected by sentence final particles (SFPs). As regards thinking about the performance level of Japanese Aizuchi, we saw several pragmatic style-shifts to make listener\u27s creative meanings in Japanese conversations. Such Japanese behaviors might be the result of emphasizing pragmatic and functional aspects than Americans in the use of listeners\u27 utterances