ABSTRACT
This paper examines the stimulus-response in Japanese conversation and how it relates to Japanese culture. It focuses on how Japanese linguistic features in the stimulus used in conversation requests correspond to a form of culture known as wakimae. Hence, the understanding of wakimae surrounding the stimulus will bring the proper responses. Taking a qualitative method, this research uses 30 video-taped Japanese talk shows as data. The analysis covers the lexical, morphosyntactic, or prosodic features and the cultural context, norms, or values used in the forms of request as the stimulus. The results reveal two types of stimuli, specifically (i) syntactically finished utterances and (ii) syntactically unfinished utterances. In syntactically finished utterances, there were five types of request patterns for information, namely (i) Q-word type, (ii) declarative form, (iii) polar type with the question particle ka marker, (iv) polar type with final particle ne marker and (v) tag-question type. In syntactically unfinished utterances, there are four types of request patterns for information. They are (i) unfinished utterances marked by the topic particle wa, (ii) unfinished utterances marked by the nominative particle ga, (iii) unfinished utterances marked by the conjunctive form, (iv) unfinished utterances marked by the quotative particle tte. These characteristics of stimulus are not only ruled by the speaker’s intention but also by cultural values. These cultural values become an important consideration for the speaker when choosing utterances, both stimulus and response. Therefore, the notion of wakimae can explain the utterance choice from the perspective of cultural context.
