15 - The acquisition of linguistic politeness in Japanese

Summary

Introduction

Japanese is well known for its elaborate system of linguistic politeness, or keigo. For non-native speakers, keigo can be extremely difficult to master. However, Japanese children seem to acquire many features of verbal politeness effortlessly, at a relatively early age. How does this happen?

Japanese linguistic politeness has conventionally been divided into three basic categories (see Martin, 1975 or Hayashi & Minami, 1973, for a full description of the keigo system):

1. (1) Sonkeigo “honorific language” (subject honorifics). Honorific forms are used by increasing the vertical distance between the speaker and referent by “elevating” the referent. They are used to refer to the referent, his/her actions, or belongings.

2. (2) Kenjoogo “humble language” (nonsubject honorifics). Humble forms are used by increasing the vertical distance between the speaker and referent by “lowering” the speaker. They are used to refer to the speaker or an in-group member, his/her actions, or belongings.

3. (3) Teineigo “formal style” (addressee honorifics). Sentences ending with desu/masu predicates are formal, while those ending in da/ru style are informal. Nominal and adjectival forms also change according to formality. Many factors, such as age, status, and degree of familiarity, influence formal style usage.

In addition, two more categories have been proposed, namely bikago “beautification honorifics” which make language sound more refined (e.g. polite prefixes o- and go-, as in o-sushi for “sushi”) and teichoo-go “courteous language” or linguistic behavior which elevates the referent (e.g. polite adverbial expressions, lexical choices, such as shooshoo for sukoshi “a little”) (e.g. Sakamoto, 2002).