Construction of “Men\u27s National Language< in Japan (1868-1926)

This paper demonstrates that the notion of “national language (standard Japanese),< established in the early twentieth century in Japan, was, in fact, “men\u27s national language.< The first chapter analyzes the arguments for the unification of spoken and written languages. It shows that the notion of “national language< was conceptualized as “men\u27s national language,< which could be established by unifying (middle-class) men\u27s spoken and written languages. The second chapter analyzes how school readers and grammar books incorporated feminine and masculine linguistic features in their descriptions of standard Japanese. The analysis indicates that masculine features were vigorously adopted as standard Japanese, while feminine features were excluded. When feminine features were referred to, they were presented as inappropriate to standard Japanese. In conclusion, I will argue that the notion of “national language< was a gendered ideology constructed by academic metapragmatics