No description available.

This examination of several languages permits the identification of universal characteristics of honorific forms, as well as possible explanations for those universals. The Japanese honorific system is described in some detail and contrasted with the honorific systems of ten other languages which are more briefly described: Javanese, Madurese, Thai, Korean, Dzongkha, Tibetan, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, and Guugu Yimidhirr. Data from those eleven languages explains how honorifics appear and spread through languages. An examination of Japanese indicates certain restrictions governing which parts of the vocabulary are elaborated as honorifics. Those restrictions are primarily semantic, although a few lexical and phonological factors must also be considered. Certain regularities in the appearance of honorifics could be observed in all of the languages. The honorific forms are always marked compared to the ordinary forms. Reference type honorifics always appear in a language prior to the addressee type. Reference honorifics appear first in the semantic domains related to humans; and the elaboration of honorific forms occurs in a certain implicational order. Naming (e.g. with titles) occurs first, followed by the elaboration of pronouns, verbs, nouns, and other parts of speech. All languages containing reference honorifics appear to elaborate parts of speech in that order. Among reference honorifics, the presence of non-actor forms always indicated the presence of actor forms. These synchronic implicational statements about honorifics have diachronic significance. In accounting for universal honorific forms, a limited set of explanations are necessary. These include general cognitive processes such as marking and degree of salience and common cultural behavior. For example, the concepts of power and solidarity can be used to describe a cultural universal of personal relations both linguistically and non-linguistically. The degree of elaboration of honorifics in different languages is also explained. The presence of honorifics in non-kinship based societies depends on a vertically organized social structure and ideology. In addition, the internal structure of the language may also affect the extent of honorific elaboration. If reference honorifics in a given language function to disambiguate NPs in discourse, they are elaborated to a greater extent than in languages where they only index social relationships.

Japanese honorifics (JH) are challenging for learners of Japanese language to acquire due to their complex grammatical formulas. Textbooks tend to assume that the explanation of grammatical rules and drill exercises focusing on the rules are sufficient for learners to be competent in JH. However, functional issues related to honorifics such as how to use honorifics in socioculturally appropriate ways or how to deal with non-linguistic aspects of honorifics are likely to be ignored. The present study questioned the assumptions entailed in the traditional formoriented approach to teaching language, and examined an oral interview activity carried out by 24 students in a Japanese language course at a Canadian university. In this activity, the students interviewed Japanese professors using JH, and several types of data (i.e., the researcher observations and interviews with the participants and student written reflections on the interviews) were analyzed in order to find out students' practice (i.e., what students did) of and theory (i.e., how students perceived) about JH and oral interviews. The findings of the study present a very complex picture of students' practice and theory; they were engaged not only in the formation of the rules of JH but also in the functional areas such as non-verbal behaviour and conversation management. The data also revealed that students were very much concerned with functional areas during the interviews. From these findings, the study emphasizes the importance offunctions embedded in JH, and suggests that the Japanese teacher help learners acquire the functional competence dealing with JH as well as the linguistic competence.

Japanese honorifics (JH) are challenging for learners of Japanese language to acquire due to their complex grammatical formulas. Textbooks tend to assume that the explanation of grammatical rules and drill exercises focusing on the rules are sufficient for learners to be competent in JH. However, functional issues related to honorifics such as how to use honorifics in socioculturally appropriate ways or how to deal with non-linguistic aspects of honorifics are likely to be ignored. The present study questioned the assumptions entailed in the traditional formoriented approach to teaching language, and examined an oral interview activity carried out by 24 students in a Japanese language course at a Canadian university. In this activity, the students interviewed Japanese professors using JH, and several types of data (i.e., the researcher observations and interviews with the participants and student written reflections on the interviews) were analyzed in order to find out students' practice (i.e., what students did) of and theory (i.e., how students perceived) about JH and oral interviews. The findings of the study present a very complex picture of students' practice and theory; they were engaged not only in the formation of the rules of JH but also in the functional areas such as non-verbal behaviour and conversation management. The data also revealed that students were very much concerned with functional areas during the interviews. From these findings, the study emphasizes the importance offunctions embedded in JH, and suggests that the Japanese teacher help learners acquire the functional competence dealing with JH as well as the linguistic competence. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

This thesis purports to introduce a cost and benefit theory of politeness which sheds light upon the politeness system in Japanese. This involves the assumption that a communicative act is a rational act, executed for a communicative goal. Given so, politeness-bearing language use is strategic in nature. This implies that using a certain strategy appropriate in a given communicative situation is a consequence of rationalization. With effective utilization of the cost and benefit concept, broadly defined, linguistic politeness is viewed as a negotiation between the speaker and the hearer on the basis of the speaker's assessment of cost and/or benefit. In order to achieve a characterization of negotiation, the underlying principle, referred to as "Politeness Negotiation Principles," is proposed. The primary task in this thesis is to analyze the use of sentence particles within a framework of the cost and benefit theory. While the majority of studies of politeness phenomena in Japanese have centered around honorifics, which is widely known for its highly developed system, sentence particles have received little attention. In this regard, this study of sentence particles shows a much broader vista of politeness phenomena in Japanese than hitherto assumed. The application of the cost and benefit concept goes beyond the sphere of politeness phenomena. By identifying a cost and/or a benefit involved in a context where the modality item desyoo/daroo and the anaphoric demonstratives sono and ano are employed, the uses of these elements, which reveal interesting dynamics of interaction between the speaker and the hearer, can be explained.

This descriptive study focuses on expressions of politeness in the Japanese language and their relevance to social structure and intercultural communication. The study is designed to help students of the Japanese language learn rules of politeness which fall outside the domain of grammatical rules.