Form and function of emotive pictorial signs in casual letter writing

Author: Kataoka, K.

Source: Written Language & Literacy, Volume 6, Number 1, 2003 , pp. 1-29(29)

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

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Abstract:

Young Japanese women effectively construct and manipulate their emotive stances through the use of special pictorial signs and their graph(em)ic modifications in casual letter-writing among friends. To achieve this, the writers use a para-/metalinguistic and indexical means of “contextualization“ for the socio-cultural mediation of affect and textual awareness. At the same time, they heavily rely on such cognitive mechanisms as “schematization“ and “semantic reduction“ — phenomena widely observed in grammaticalization processes. I propose that these devices not only provide the basis for mutual appreciation of the emotive (con)text, but also suggest a mode of literacy aimed primarily at emotive, phatic, and poetic communication.*

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/wll.6.1.02kat

Affiliations: 1: Aichi University

Publication date: 2003-01-01