本硏究は、近代日本語の性差硏究の一環として性差が明らかに投影されている言語形式のうち、女性語の實態について考察したものである。とりわけ女性語に焦点を當てて、女性話者はどのような言語形式を使用しているかについて、當時の小說資料を考察してみた。考察の結果、次のようなことが言える。明治20年代から40年代は情意表現, 終助詞、感動詞、間投助詞、女性語の確立した時期であり、特定の言語形式、役割語の存在を確認することができた。その中心は若い女性, 女生徒や上層婦人や老人層の言葉における女性專用の終助詞をはじめとする敬語表現、人稱代名詞、感動詞などであったと言える。役割語という觀点から見ると、當時役割語度の高い言語表現、語彙などは明治終わりごろに衰退していくことが讀み取れる。そして男性語に比べて、女性語は情意表現などが多用されており、「女性らしさ」を强調する性差表現, 一部の役割語を含むが若い女性、上層婦人, 主婦を中心に多く用いられているのが特徵的である。

This study discusses the reality of feminine words among the language forms which project gender differences, as a part of the study revealed gender differences in modern Japanese. It focused on feminine words and examined what kind of language forms female speakers used, through novels written in the Meiji era. The results of this study are as follows. From Meiji 20`s to 40`s , from the late 1880`s to 1900`s is the time that Japanese affective expression: final particles and interjections, and feminine words were established. The presence of role words and particular language forms were confirmed. The main language forms of those are honorific expressions, personal pronouns, and interjections. The honorific expressions such as final particles were only used by females and were seen in the conversation of young women , female students, upper class women and elderly ladies. From the perspective of the role of the language, it showed that the language expressions and words which played high roles at the beginning of the Meiji era had declined by the end of Meiji era. In addition, a lot of affective expressions were used in feminine words compared to male words. It is characteristic that gender expression: including some of the role words, emphasizing "femininity" were mainly used by young women and upper class women.