This study explores speaker's use of register-switch in face-to-face interaction during an audio-tape recording session. Through the analysis of naturally occurring conversation between two male speakers of Japanese, I argue that the speakers proactively incorporate various registers into their speech (Schilling-Estes 1998:54) for two primary purposes. First, they define the addressed and/or ratified audience (cf. Goffman 1981) and the "participant structures" (Philips 1983:79). Second, they position themselves in the social hierarchy in relation to that audience. In other words, register-switching is used to reproduce social asymmetries. The registers examined in this study include both institutional types and formal- informal types, namely workplace register, radio talk show register, honorific register, and informal register. I follow Schelling-Estes's view on register, defined as "the convergence of a number of stylistic variables into one recognizable speech variety" (1998:67-68). I consider the use of register as a social practice, following Agfa (2000).
Speaker's active construction of social asymmetries through face-to-face interaction has been investigated but limited (except Goodwin 2002). Few studies have specifically examined the roles of register-switching in this sense. This study addresses the relationship between a speaker and the audiences, the roles of register selection in building the relationships, the roles of register- switching in the making of the asymmetrical nature of social reality, and the intersection of register and style. It also analyzes the co-construction and maintenance of a "registered" talk. For instance, the conversational context shifts when the researcher leaves the two conversationalists alone in the room. They utilize the situation that they are the only participants present but their conversation is recorded and will be listened to by the researcher and others. They start creating imaginable audiences, positioning themselves in relation to them, and reproduce the asymmetrical relationships in social reality by switching registers. A more elaborated analysis will be presented.