Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language: a handbook for Supervisors

Appendix
A sample research proposal

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Appendix
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Purpose of the research
The purpose of the research is to clarify the function of gender-related sen-
tence final expressions, including particles, copulas and morphemes attached
to verbs. Instead of describing the normative use of these expressions, the pro-
posed study intends to observe how they are actually used by whom and in
which context. Then the study will discuss how these expressions are used to
construct stereotypes of women and men.
Relevant background literature
Japanese women’s language attracted people’s attention when Akiko Jugaku
published Onna to Nihongo (Women and Japanese) in 1979. Since then, simi-
lar to the development of research on women’s language in English, both a
‘difference’ approach and a ‘dominance’ approach has been taken.
Sachiko Ide is playing the leading role in the ‘difference’ approach and
argues that language difference between men and women comes from gender
role difference rather than the result of men’s dominance. Her interpretation
is that women tend to spend more time on socializing with other women,
which requires polite forms, while men spend more time at work where they
need an efficient language. She also claims that women use women’s language
in order to keep their identity. Not only polite expressions but women’s
whole language function as equipment to create identity as an woman. Ide’s
position is that women are labelling themselves as women by choosing this
feminine language.
The ‘Dominance’ approach is most obvious in Katsue Akiba Reynolds’
(1991) work. She claims that the difference between women’s and men’s lan-
guage today reflects the Japanese society of the feudal era in which women
were viewed as second-class citizens. Although the social structure has
changed, the culture which considers that women should be submissive and
should talk accordingly has not changed. Keiko Abe (1990) focused on
politeness differences and discovered that women’s greetings are regarded as
less polite when a man and a woman use the same greeting at work. In other
words, women are expected to be more polite than men.
As for sentence final particles (SFP), two methods have been taken. One is an
attempt to clarify their function and the reasons why women can use a certain
set of particles and men cannot and vice versa. Researchers involved in this task
claim that particles used by men are assertive and imply that the speaker takes
full responsibility for the statement (McGloin 1991). On the other hand, parti-
cles used by women are seen as a tool to avoid being assertive (Ide 1991;
McGloin 1991) According to these researchers, women’s lower status and men’s
dominance in society are responsible for the different language use. As the
younger and the inferior are not allowed to talk in an assertive manner to their
counterparts, women are not allowed to talk assertively.

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Appendix
The other approach is to observe the frequency of these particles in real
conversation. Researchers engaged in this task record conversations of several
people and count how many particles are used. Recent studies have all shown
that particles strongly suggesting femininity are becoming less and less pop-
ular and that even some particles suggesting masculinity are being used by
women (Okamoto 1995).
Research question/s
The aim of this project is to investigate the functions of Japanese sentence final