The use of the Japanese epistemic markers ne, kamo and kana with emoticons in an online female Japanese blogging community

In this paper the functions of the Japanese epistemic markers ne, kamo and kana combined with emoticons were analyzed from a corpus of online personal blog comments. These combinations were divided into how they emphasized solidarity markers or hedges within the blog comments. Results showed that these devices allowed writers to maintain close and interpersonal relationships in a community of practice where mutual interests bring people together and it is argued that this sense of group harmony is a reflection of Japanese culture.