An Empirical Study Of Variation In The Use Of Honorific Forms In Japanese: An Analysis Of Forms Produced By A Group Of Women In An Urban Setting.

Abstract

This is an empirical study of variation in the actual use of Japanese honorific speech forms by a network of female speakers in Setagaya ward, a middle to upper-middle class residential area of Tokyo. To the best of my knowledge, it is the first study of Japanese honorifics to offer a quantitative delineation of the relative importance of the social variables as factors which govern choice. The Cedergren-Sankoff variable rule program was used in the analysis of the data to find the relative constraining effect of age, status, role, sex, and solidarity on the choice of the respect forms; and to provide evidence of an apparent functional shift in the use of the nominal respect form kata. The present study examines honorific forms in a corpus of recorded speech. The subject sample was self-recruited, and was composed of six speakers, who belong to the same socioeconomic class, and age group (i.e., all but one in their mid-forties). The data were collected over a five-month period and consist of 19 45-minute lunch conversations and one 90-minute tea-time conversation. Two token samples were analyzed; one sample contains the neutral and respect alternatives of selected verbs (iru/irassharu 'to be,' iu/ossharu 'to say,' suru/nasaru 'to do,' V-te iru/irassharu resultative, repetitive, or continuative action); and the other the neutral and respect alternatives of a selected nominal form (hito/kata 'person, people'). All five social variables: solidarity, role, status, sex, and relative age, are found to be significant, and ranked in that order of importance as constraints governing the use of respect forms. The results provide quantitative support for the heretofore impressionistic observation, made by scholars, of the rising importance of solidarity as a factor governing choice of honorific form, and the concomitant decline in the importance of social status. In addition, the reduction in the number of social variables governing the use of the nominal respect form kata, and the contrasting patterns observed in the use of the respect and neutral forms of the verbs with that of the respect and neutral nominal forms kata and hito, provide empirical evidence in support of the notion that kata is losing its function as a respect form and is in the process of assuming the function of a beautificative (bikago) form.