This master’s thesis examines the reasons for and the circumstances under which Japanese social media users choose to use formal language in the otherwise informal setting of social media. In digital environments, there is less pressure to adhere to linguistic norms than in face-to-face conversation, which is due to the possibility to remain anonymous, as well as social norms and digital language culture. Digital communication is often fast-paced, fragmented, public, and directed to a broad, heterogeneous audience, challenging established ways of expressing politeness and the function of formal predicate style. The study is based on an analysis of speech acts according to J. Searle’s classification and an analysis of formal linguistic markers in comments by Japanese social media users. The analysis shows that formal predicate style is most frequently used when the user is expressing opinions, evaluations, or personal experiences, as well as making suggestions and requests to the addressee. Analyzing the relationship between politeness markers and speech acts reveals that politeness markers are not distributed randomly; rather, each category of speech act in the comments has its own pattern of politeness markers that support the function of the comment. This master thesis demonstrates a relatively established language culture in regards to expressing politeness in the means of formal predicate style use, that has emerged in comments on Japanese social media platforms, which is not particularly dependent on the type of platform or the field or industry or business sector of the company in question. An analysis of the frequency of speech acts and politeness markers across platforms reveals minimal differences between them.
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