Linguists and language teachers have, for years, relied on overly simplistic and misleading explanations of the way in which Japanese speakers use masu (often identified as a formal, out-group or polite speech marker) versus plain verb endings. For learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL), figuring out how to choose between these two forms can be especially vexing. In this study, Cook combines indexical theory and language socialization methodologies in an effort to clarify not only how these forms are used by native speakers but also how JFL learners can be socialized through implicit as well as explicit language practices to use these forms appropriately.
For her language socialization methodology, Cook focuses on microanalysis of how masu versus plain forms are used by nine JFL learners and their host families during a total of 25 recorded homestay dinner table conversations. For her indexical theory, Cook relies primarily on a version of what she identifies as a two-step model of indexical relations (see Ochs, Reference Ochs, Stigler, Shweder and Herdt1990). Based on her adaptation of this analytical method, Cook posits the theory that the choice of masu versus plain forms indexes social identities among nonnative as well as native speakers during talk-in-interaction and thus also contributes to the way in which this language mediates, socializes, and coconstructs these identities.
For ease of explication, Cook’s volume can be divided into three sections. In the first section, which includes chapters 1–3, Cook offers what is, overall, a clear and concise overview of her theoretical and analytical approach, her data collection, and her focus on the use of masu versus plain forms during dinnertime conversation. It is in chapters 4 and 5 that Cook presents the core of her indexical analysis of the use of these forms in her dinnertime recordings. In the third section, chapters 6–8, she addresses issues of most direct interest to teachers and learners of JFL: the role of explicit versus implicit language socialization practices and the implications of this study for future studies of second language pragmatics and pedagogy.
Although Cook’s analysis of the dinnertime conversation data is rich and compelling, I do have questions concerning Cook’s application of her two-step approach to indexical analysis. Although Ochs (Reference Ochs, Stigler, Shweder and Herdt1990) used Japanese sentence-final particles as examples of how some language forms may first convey one direct meaning and then index several indirect meanings, the masu versus plain form system exemplifies more of what Ochs might describe as complex, collocational indexicality and what Silverstein (Reference Silverstein2003) might identify as multiple layers of indexicality. Cook’s idea that self-presentational stance is the direct indexical meaning of masu, with all other indexical meanings as secondary, is somewhat simplistic. At the same time, Cook’s analysis of how masu versus plain forms are used as contextualization cues for changes in speech genre or activity type is just as, or even more, convincing in explaining how and why speakers switch between these forms during informal as well as formal conversational activities.
Although I agree with Cook’s discussion of the pedagogical problems associated with the way in which most textbooks and curricula highlight the soto-uchi (outside-inside) explanation for choosing between masu versus plain forms and with her plea to create alternative materials, I would also like to have seen a more pointed discussion of the influence of Japanese language ideology on this maintenance of this misleading approach.
The problems with the indexical portions of Cook’s analysis notwithstanding, her discussion of the importance of JFL learners’ participation in real-life, naturally occurring social interactions is convincing and of great import for all interested in second language pedagogy. Much of her indexical approach to analyzing the use of masu versus plain forms in Japanese is a step forward, and I anticipate continuing discussions on the language socialization of Japanese in general and further use of indexical theory for enhancing our overall understanding of SLA.
