A New French-Based Register in Japan? An Analysis of Commercial Naming in Public Space in Japan
This paper focuses on the influence of French language on the naming of shops and commercial products that are found in public spaces in Japan. The contemporary urban environment promotes linguistic signs, which themselves designate the names of shops or products on storefronts and packages and constitute the ‘text’ of an urban space. As Barthes (1970) observed, Japanese modern life is a remarkable source generating a multiplicity of signs. However, in the current globalization, such a process gives rise to a massive presence of foreign languages in public space, such as French in Japan. Data collected through fieldwork is analysed to show features specific to Japanese society and/or language (e.g. word coinages, affection of Japanese words, a primary form of creolization). Although these linguistic signs contain regularities and variations as a device of ‘hypocorrection,’ the paper argues that French is becoming a specific register in Japan, and that people have begun to assimilate its formal part, in enriching their lexicon with a certain epilinguistic dimension. The motivation and identity of stakeholders behind such a process will be also discussed.