Female Villain Language: Gendered Patterns Explored Through a Corpus-based Approach to Role Language Research
(2026) SPVR01 20252Master's Programme: Language and Linguistics
Japanese Studies
- Abstract
- This study examines the linguistic characteristics of the speech of female villains in Japanese fictional dialogue, with the aim of determining whether female villains employ a distinct role language or yakuwarigo, that is, a distinct speech style that indexes characterization based on social stereotypes. An original, small-scale corpus was constructed consisting of dialogue from female villains, male villains, and female protagonists (heroines). Each group contains three characters drawn from films and television series with approximately 70-80 utterances per character. The corpus was manually annotated for linguistic features commonly associated with role language, including first- and second-person pronouns, verb conjugation,... (More)
- This study examines the linguistic characteristics of the speech of female villains in Japanese fictional dialogue, with the aim of determining whether female villains employ a distinct role language or yakuwarigo, that is, a distinct speech style that indexes characterization based on social stereotypes. An original, small-scale corpus was constructed consisting of dialogue from female villains, male villains, and female protagonists (heroines). Each group contains three characters drawn from films and television series with approximately 70-80 utterances per character. The corpus was manually annotated for linguistic features commonly associated with role language, including first- and second-person pronouns, verb conjugation, sentence-final elements, and gender-coded forms. Quantitative comparison of feature distributions across groups was complemented by qualitative analysis of marked forms.
The results indicate that female villains do not exhibit a fixed speech style comparable to established role languages. Instead, female villain speech displays considerable intra-group variation and is characterized by a strategic combination of feminine-coded and masculine-coded forms. In particular, female villains avoid masculine forms in self-reference but adopt them frequently for second-person reference and occasionally for imperatives and negations. In contrast, male villains and heroines show more internally consistent patterns.
These findings suggest that female villains do not constitute a distinct role language in the traditional sense but rather make flexible use of socially typified linguistic forms for characterization. On this basis, the study argues for a refinement of the conceptual framework of role language and proposes an approach that emphasizes dynamic indexicality and contextual interpretation of static form-category links, as inspired by gendered language research. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9221112
- author
- Sjöberg, Jahnesta LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SPVR01 20252
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- role language, yakuwarigo, corpus-based
- language
- English
- id
- 9221112
- date added to LUP
- 2026-01-27 16:45:22
- date last changed
- 2026-01-27 16:45:22
@misc{9221112,
abstract = {{This study examines the linguistic characteristics of the speech of female villains in Japanese fictional dialogue, with the aim of determining whether female villains employ a distinct role language or yakuwarigo, that is, a distinct speech style that indexes characterization based on social stereotypes. An original, small-scale corpus was constructed consisting of dialogue from female villains, male villains, and female protagonists (heroines). Each group contains three characters drawn from films and television series with approximately 70-80 utterances per character. The corpus was manually annotated for linguistic features commonly associated with role language, including first- and second-person pronouns, verb conjugation, sentence-final elements, and gender-coded forms. Quantitative comparison of feature distributions across groups was complemented by qualitative analysis of marked forms.
The results indicate that female villains do not exhibit a fixed speech style comparable to established role languages. Instead, female villain speech displays considerable intra-group variation and is characterized by a strategic combination of feminine-coded and masculine-coded forms. In particular, female villains avoid masculine forms in self-reference but adopt them frequently for second-person reference and occasionally for imperatives and negations. In contrast, male villains and heroines show more internally consistent patterns.
These findings suggest that female villains do not constitute a distinct role language in the traditional sense but rather make flexible use of socially typified linguistic forms for characterization. On this basis, the study argues for a refinement of the conceptual framework of role language and proposes an approach that emphasizes dynamic indexicality and contextual interpretation of static form-category links, as inspired by gendered language research.}},
author = {{Sjöberg, Jahnesta}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Female Villain Language: Gendered Patterns Explored Through a Corpus-based Approach to Role Language Research}},
year = {{2026}},
}