The Japanese deferential prefix o: A natural history.

Abstract

The Japanese prefix <italic>o</italic>, together with its allomorph <italic> go</italic>, has often been mentioned in linguists' discussions of the honorific system as well as in Japanese language textbooks. It has been discussed under the terms 'deferential prefix' (Miller 1967), 'honorific particle' (Martin 1964, Seward 1967, Goldstein and Tamura 1975), and 'honorific prefix' (Ide 1982, Shibatani 1990). However, the elusive and polysemic characteristics of <italic>o</italic> have also resulted in a lack of systematic discussion of its overall usage and function. It is often confusing to Japanese speakers themselves, let alone second language learners to try to determine which words should be prefixed with <italic>o</italic> by which speakers in which situations. This dissertation attempts to give a more systematic overview of the usage and function of <italic>o</italic> by investigating the semantic and sociolinguistic factors determining which words take <italic>o</italic> in which situations. Gender is central to this; women's roles, especially the traditional roles as cook, server, and caretaker, turn out to have deeply affected the set of factors which determine the words which most commonly take <italic>o</italic>, and it is shown that such a relationship between <italic> o</italic> usage and gender roles can be traced back at least to the 15<super> th</super> century. I also report the results of a study which found that small and older children show apparent age grading which is, affected by gender, adolescent girls increase their usage in a transitional process from children's <italic> o</italic> to women's and mother's <italic>o</italic>, while adolescent boys drop the children's usage of <italic>o</italic> without adopting adult usages. Finally, I analyze several contexts such as newspapers, popular songs, cartoons, films, and TV shows and I argue that political changes bought about by the government we powerful enough to have affected the usage of <italic>o</italic> in the mass media. A comparative analysis of <italic>o</italic> in documents from pre-World War II, post-World War II, and the present day shows the semantic transformation of <italic>o</italic> from a deferential prefix that marks power difference to a multi-functional prefix that describes a variety of psychological situations or interpersonal relationships.