Japanese L2 learners’ subjective construal: an analysis of expressions of emotion and evaluation in written storytelling found in I-JAS data

Abstract Japanese is considered to be a language in which speakers tend to take a subjective stance by locating themselves within the situation they construe. Previous research indicates that in storytelling, Japanese L2 learners employ fewer expressions of viewpoint than L1 speakers do, and viewpoint tends to shift from character to character. Do Japanese L2 learners, then, typically take an objective stance, or do they use other devices to take a subjective stance? The present study compared Japanese L2 learners’ subjective construal with that of L1 speakers in two types of storytelling. The results indicated that while Japanese L1 speakers typically used passive voice to maintain a viewpoint, L2 learners employed a variety of expressions related to emotion and evaluation to subjectively describe the given events throughout each story. The study suggests the existence of interlanguage in that L2 learners use vocabulary-based devices instead of grammatical devices for subjective construal.