A workshop on Mister O Corpus was held on March 26-28, 2013 at the International House of Japan Women's University, Tokyo, Japan.

The project on Emancipatory Pragmatics obtained Thai video discourse data, termed Mister O Corpus, in February 2012. The data were transcribed and translated by graduate students at Thammasat University and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss analyzed data of the Thai version of Mister O Corpus as compared to other languages. There were three presentations by Thai scholars. We also had 10 presentations by Japanese and one presentation from Korea. The workshop turned out quite successfully due to its congenial and friendly atmosphere. Even though our communicative medium was English, I felt an 'Asian air' that I believe gave comfort to the participants. This may be because of how silence was used in interactions.

Here is the program for the event:

Saeko Machi
Repeating for rapport in conversation: Introducing the organic relation of Japanese repetition, grammar, and the concept of self
[Power Point Slides PDF](299KB)

Kaori Kobayashi
How Do Listeners Participate in Conversation? A Study of Backchannels in Japanese and English
[Power Point Slides PDF](550KB)

Kie Kudo
Topic Shifts in English and Japanese Conversation

Kishiko Ueno
Social Indexcality of Question-Asking in Teacher-Student Conversation

Yuko Nomura
Differences of narrating thoughts and emotions of the characters in English and Japanese narratives

Satomi Kawasoe
The Narrator's Viewpoint in Japanese and English: Fluidity and Consistency

Yoko Fujii
Differences of interactional styles between Japanese and English
[Power Point Slides PDF](954KB)

Sachiko Ide
How can we explain the differences between Japanese and English?
[Power Point Slides PDF](1MB)

Myung-Hee Kim
Negotiating Disagreement in conversation: Interaction between Language and Culture

Miyabi Ozawa
A Comparative Study of Occurrence and Non-Occurrence of Subject in Japanese and English from the Perspectives of Syntax, Discourse Pragmatics and Culture
[Power Point Slides PDF](149KB)

Kuniyoshi Kataoka
A cross-linguistic analysis of eye gaze in a problem-solving task: A case of Japanese and American English

Natthaporn Panpothong & Siriporn Phakdeephasook
Forming a duet: Thai ways of co-constructing a story in task-based interactions
[Power Point Slides PDF](4.5MB)

Songthama Intachakra
Understanding Thai honorifics via Japanese concepts
[Power Point Slides PDF](6.2MB)

Woraporn Chamnansilp, Wikanda Kiatmanoch, Apinya Hantrakul
Some Pragmatic Phenomena in the Thai Mr O Corpus data: proposing ideas and the uses of laughter
[Power Point Slides PDF](632KB)

Yasuhiro Katagiri
Discussing Mister O Corpus data in Japanese, American English, Libyan Arabic and Thai