A study on the Acquisition of Speech Styles by Domestic Learners in China.

This study employs an empirical research method to examine dialogues in initial online interactions between native Japanese speakers and Chinese learners of Japanese. It focuses on analyzing speech styles in online contact situations, particularly exploring the characteristics of speech style acquisition by Chinese learners of Japanese. The findings indicate that in Sino-Japanese online interactions, the speech style predominantly employed is the polite form. While the most frequently used sentence-ending form in these online interactions is the "desu/masu" form in conclusive-clause utterances. When downshifting from the polite to the non-polite style, both Chinese and Japanese speakers tend to use conclusive-clause utterances in the "da" form. The reasons and effects of this downshifting to the non-polite style were analyzed. Native speakers typically downshift to manage psychological distance and facilitate interaction, whereas learners do so to enhance language output and information transmission. As a result, downshifting by native speakers yields positive politeness effects, while it has neutral effects when performed by learners.