Exploring the Not-So-Honorific Faces of Honorific Prefix Particle
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2013
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Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
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Thesis (B.A.)
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Abstract
Politeness is a central tenet of Japan's culture and language. There are three forms of
honorifics used to indicate politeness: sonkeigo, which elevates the status of the listener(s);
kenjogo, which humbles the speaker's own position and actions; and teineigo, which makes the
general tone of conversation more polite. An example of teineigo is the honorific prefix particle,
},), 0, which adds polite connotations. For instance, the word j(;~, genki 'healthy,' becomes
honorific when preceded by the particle.
However, while sonkeigo and kenjogo mainly occur between people of different social
status, there are several cases where people of similar status use the teineigo prefix is. A person
can talk to a close friend about the price, o-nedan, of a jacket. Or a mother can tell her son to use
his o-hashi, 'chopsticks.' In all of these situations, the speaker is not necessarily showing respect
to the other person.
I argue that the speaker uses},) to relate to the listener(s) on a more familiar level, as if
the listener(s) is within the speaker's in-group. I investigate the casual and familiar functions of
the prefix },) by analyzing its use in Japanese blogs and then categorizing each instance of the
prefix by its role in the sentence. The categories follow a gradient from most standard, polite use
of the prefix to most familiar usage. This will show that the prefix },) serves not only to indicate
the speaker's polite intentions, but also to portray different emotional states, thereby engaging
others.