The Use of English Loanwords in Question-Answer Sequences of Question Time in the Japanese Parliament

Abstract

This paper analyzes the use of English loanwords in question-answer sequences of Question Time (QT) in the Japanese Parliament. Research on English loanwords has been done in several areas, however, none has been conducted in political settings. QT is a dyadic political debate between prime ministers and other Parliament members in the Diet of Japan. I will describe how their lexical choices of English loanwords orient towards certain institutional goals, and how the choices are aligned with dimensions of questioning and answering. Through this analysis, I conclude that English loanwords can function as not only the part of political questions in a formal and professional way to elicit a clear answer but also a technical term to construct a question and highlight a political argument in the process of questioning. In addition, they are also used to diminish negative images of political claims, and also form more favorable grounds in order to display political arguments in the process of answering. It can be said that lexical choices of English loanwords in a question sequence and following answer sequence are deeply interrelated to each other.