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Part of
Bonding through Context: Language and interactional alignment in Japanese situated discourse
Edited by Risako Ide and Kaori Hata
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 314] 2020
► pp. 85–104

Chapter 4
Bonded but un-bonded

An ethnographic account of discordance in social relations

| Waseda University

Based on naturally-occurring conversations and interview narratives collected on Ishigaki Island in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture, this chapter presents instances of “bonded but un-bonded” experience. Drawing on the notion of discordance (Takekuro 2018), the chapter will bring unexpressed conflicts into sharp focus. Through participants’ comments that suggest that they were not as bonded as it seemed in their interaction, I will show that aspects of bonding and un-bonding (defined as a lack of or the opposites of bonding) are intertwined in social life. Exploring the resulting ambiguity of the two aspects, I attempt to emphasize the importance of ethnographic research and of incorporating the opposites of bonding in considering how bonds are created and maintained.

Keywords: bonding, un-bonding, discordance, social relations, ethnography
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discordance
  • 3.Ishigaki Island
  • 4.What happened then vs. how they commented on it later
    • 4.1Seemingly bonded at the drinking gathering
    • 4.2The participants’ comments about their temporary bonds
  • 5.Implication of this study
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 3 December 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.314.04tak
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