Politeness, the Japanese style : an investigation into the use of honorific forms and people's attitudes towards such use
The main purpose of the thesis is to explore the characteristics of politeness which are conveyed by the use of Japanese honorific forms (i.e honorific politeness). The perspective of the research is as follows: 1) the concept of politeness is regarded as being wider in scope than in major past studies of linguistic politeness in the West (e.g Leech 1983); 2) unlike many past studies of politeness related to Japanese honorific fonns, the research attempts to study the social effect of the use of an honorific form rather than the grammatical or semantic properties of such forms; 3) the analysis of honorific politeness is based on the findings about the mechanism by which honorific politeness mitigates discomfitlrre, and on the metalinguistic evaluations of honorific forms made by native speakers. Results from a questionnaire, which investigated the types of discomfiture which result from various kinds of inappropriate linguistic behaviom, suggested that the lise of an honorific form can mitigate two main types of discomfitme, which differ in degree of seriousness, depending on the social features of the situation in which the use occms. It is pointed out that the mitigation of either type of discomfiture should
Tsuruta, Yoko
Q182 Japanese Linguistics ; Japanese ; linguistics ; politeness ; honorifics
Politeness, the Japanese style : an investigation into the use of honorific forms and people's attitudes towards such use. The main purpose of the thesis is to explore the characteristics of politeness which are conveyed by the use of Japanese honorific forms (i.e honorific politeness). The perspective of the research is as follows: 1) the concept of politeness is regarded as being wider in scope than in major past studies of linguistic politeness in the West (e.g Leech 1983); 2) unlike many past studies of politeness related to Japanese honorific fonns, the research attempts to study the social effect of the use of an honorific form rather than the grammatical or semantic properties of such forms; 3) the analysis of honorific politeness is based on the findings about the mechanism by which honorific politeness mitigates discomfitlrre, and on the metalinguistic evaluations of honorific forms made by native speakers. Results from a questionnaire, which investigated the types of discomfiture which result from various kinds of inappropriate linguistic behaviom, suggested that the lise of an honorific form can mitigate two main types of discomfitme, which differ in degree of seriousness, depending on the social features of the situation in which the use occms. It is pointed out that the mitigation of either type of discomfiture should
politeness japanese style investigation use honorific form people attitude_towards use main_purpose explore characteristic politeness convey use japanese honorific form honorific politeness perspective follow concept politeness regard wide scope major past study linguistic_politeness west leech unlike_many past study politeness relate japanese honorific fonns attempt study social effect use honorific form rather grammatical semantic_property form analysis honorific politeness base_finding mechanism honorific politeness mitigate metalinguistic evaluation honorific form make native_speaker questionnaire investigate type various_kind inappropriate linguistic suggest honorific form mitigate two_main type differ degree depend social feature situation use point either type