Lord Language and the Influence of Archetypes

Abstract: This paper concerns the role language of lord characters in Japanese fiction. The idea of role language is defined by Satoshi Kinsui as certain speech patterns of character types in Japanese fiction. The thesis primarily investigates if lord language from six different lord characters exhibits features from other role languages. Liu (2012) notes that a language called gijikogo [pseudo-archaic language] is present in contemporary fiction with a historical setting that gives the feeling of historical times. The investigation found that lord language contains features of both gijikogo and samurai language. The thesis also investigates if Christopher Vogler’s archetypes affect the characters’ role language. Kinsui (2003) notes that depending on the characters’ archetype, the degree of role language gets affected. Westman (2010) and van Duuren (2017) conducted research concerning Shadow characters in Japanese fiction. Their results show that the Shadow archetype is similar to the Hero. However, the present study could not demonstrate a connection between the archetype of a character and their use of lord language.