This chapter summarizes the main points presented in the book, briefly discusses contributions of the study, and proposes directions for future research.

Summary of the Main Points

This book has explored how Japanese host families express their identity through the use of the so-called 'addressee honorific' masu form and how JFL learners are socialized through its use. This book distinguishes itself from other investigations of the masu form in its theoretical perspective and in its focus on informal social contexts, specifically conversation between learners of Japanese and their host families. Taking an indexical approach, this study has challenged the view that the masu form has a one-to-one relation with social meaning. Rather, adopting Ochs' (1996) two-step indexical model, it argued that the masu form has multiple social meanings. Because the masu form directly indexes an affective stance of self-presentation (i.e. shisei o tadasu 'to hold oneself up'), it evokes various social identities, politeness and/or formality in different social contexts. In this way, the indexical model can account for the fluidity of social meanings of the masu form. As an index, the social meaning of the masu form depends in part on the social context in which it occurs. Therefore, in the uchi ('in-group/inside') context, the masu form foregrounds various social identities. In contrast, in the soto ('out-group/outside') context, it indexes politeness because politeness is socially expected in this context.

The book also drew on a language socialization perspective (Ochs, 1988, 1990, 1996; Ochs & Schieffelin, 1995; Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986, 1996) to argue that in conversation with the host families, learners are socialized into the norms of masu form usage. They are socialized both explicitly to use language and implicitly through the use of language (Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986). Socialization to use language can be seen in the host families' explicit instructions on how to speak to different categories of people outside the home (Chapter 6).