247 The Many Faces of Lelouch Lamperouge: A Corpus Approach to Uses of First Person Pronouns in Anime Kelvin K. H. Lee The University of Sydney School of Language and Cultures, Brennan MacCallum Building (A18), University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia kelvin.k.lee@sydney.edu.au Abstract Japanese animation, or anime, has been growing in popularity and has been integrated into popular culture internationally. As a growing phenomenon, anime has received a substantial amount of scholarly interest in a number of areas. However, there are still limited examinations of the discourses in anime and other Japanese telecinematic texts (e.g. television dramas, feature films). 1 Corpus linguistic studies of telecinematic texts have so far been limited to English-language texts (e.g. Bednarek, 2015; Quaglio, 2009). In this paper, a newly constructed corpus of the science fiction anime series, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (2006–2007) is used to examine the discursive construction of the character, Lelouch Lamperouge. The case study focuses on how social meanings indexed by first person pronouns in the real world are recontextualised in the anime to construct and convey different aspects of character identity. Combining corpus linguistics with sociocultural linguistics (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), this study shows that first person pronouns in the target character’s established linguistic repertoire index, in addition to gender, salient aspects of identity such as his leadership attributes and his ability to appeal to the masses. More broadly, the study highlights that corpus linguistics can be used effectively to examine characterisation and contributes to the still under-represented areas of Japanese telecinematic discourse studies and Japanese corpus linguistic research. Keywords: colligation, collocation, first person pronoun, indexicality, Japanese, language and identity, television dialogue 1. Introduction As explicit expressions of self, how we choose to refer to ourselves can reveal how we choose to present ourselves to those around us. This is also relevant to fictional characters, despite them being figments of their creator’s imagination. It is through engangement with the language attributed to the characters that we, the viewer, can determine who they are as ‘people’. This study examines how different aspects of a fictional character’s identity can be expressed through their choice of terms of self-reference. More specifically, this study examines the construction of an anime character. Although a number of definitions for anime exists, in the context of this study, the term refers exclusively to animated audiovisual media (e.g. television series, movies) produced in Japan, primarily for Japanese audiences. In Japanese, there are number of ways one can refer to oneself. This study focuses on self-reference through first person pronouns (henceforth, 1PPs). A range of 1PPs are available to speakers of the language, and a number of associated norms that govern which 1PPs can be used by whom, and in which context 1PPs can or cannot be used. Despite the many social meanings that can be indexed by 1PPs, previous research on Japanese 1PPs has mainly framed the discussion around the construction of gendered identity (e.g. Brown and Cheek, 2017; Hiramoto, 2013). Hiramoto (2013), draws on Kinsui’s (2000, 2003) notion of yakuwarigo ( 役割語, ‘role language’) to examine how pronouns and sentence-final particles are used to construct the imagined identities of the female characters in the anime series, Cowboy Bebop. Although these studies offer valuable insights into how first person pronouns can help express the gender identification 1 ‘Telecinematic’ discourse (or texts), is a term which is coined by Piazza et al. (2011) as an umbrella term for the type of discourse found in films and television series (i.e. fictional, scripted discourse). of given individuals, the focus on gender can be limiting since gender is but one aspect of their identity. It is certainly true that language can be used to index socio-demographic traits such as age and gender. However, language can also reveal (and be shaped by) intangible traits such as the speaker’s personality traits, stances and affiliation, their social roles and personae. This study demonstrates that the character in question uses certain 1PPs when he is speaking in a particular persona and when he is acting out particular social roles (e.g. leader). Collocation analysis is used to determine the context associated with the use of each 1PP. This study is organised as follows. Section 2 briefly introduces the anime series and the character being examined. Section 3 outlines the methodology used, including the collocation parameters and measures, as well as how collocation is used to help determine the social context of 1PP use. Section 4 describes the concept of indexicality. Section 5 provides a brief overview of Japanese personal pronouns with a focus on commonly used 1PPs and the associated ‘rules’ said to govern their use. Section 6 discusses the main findings of this study. At this point, readers should be warned that subsequent sections in this paper contains spoilers about the plot of the anime series. 2. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion The data for this study consists of the dialogue from all 25 episodes of the science-fiction anime series, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (Japanese: コードギアス：反逆 のルルーシュ, Kōdo Giasu: Hangyaku no Rurūshu). The series was directed by Taniguchi Gōro (谷口 悟朗) and written by Ōkouchi Ichirō (大河内 一楼). 2 It was first aired in Japan on MBS (Mainichi Broadcasting System) between 2 Japanese names are shown with surname first and then given name(s).