An overview of the three-tier model of language use

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the three-tier model of language use as a theory that can provide an explanatory basis for grammatico-pragmatic phenomena in Japanese and English. Based on Hirose’s (1995, 2000, etc.) concepts of public and private self as two aspects of the speaker, the model states that language use consists of three tiers called situation construal, situation report, and interpersonal relationship, and that languages differ as to how the three tiers are combined, according to whether their basic egocentricity lies in the public self, as in English, or the private self, as in Japanese. Not only does the paper provide arguments for this theory, but it also shows that grammatico-pragmatic differences between Japanese and English stem from the difference in the way the three tiers are linked in each language.