A social change seems to cause a change of language, and this change seems to be expressed not in written language but in spoken language. It is said that Japanese is more confused than any other languages, and this phenomenon is more distinctive in s...
A social change seems to cause a change of language, and this change seems to be expressed not in written language but in spoken language. It is said that Japanese is more confused than any other languages, and this phenomenon is more distinctive in spoken language than written language. However, this is not an exclusive phenomenon of Japanese but a generalized feature of all the languages. It is because that a voice―a means of delivering spoken language―disappears as soon as its coming out of mouth and that its reliability is inferior to written language.
One historical background that must not be overlooked in the discussion of Japanese is that Japanese people highly relied upon letters, and their intellectual activities and authority-related language uses centered on written language in the past.
On the other hand, this misuse or confused use of Japanese can be frequently found in honorifics. As is Korean, Japanese is distinctive in developing honorifics. In case of Korean, an honorific is used in every occasion in which one converses with a senior person, regardless of the elationship with a listener or the third party. In this sense, a Korean honorific is an absolute one. However, Japanese people use an honorific not for relatives but for a stranger in general. In this sense, Japanese honorific is a relative one.
The aim of this study was to examine the misuse and ambiguous expressions of Japanese spoken language and the misuse and confusing expressions of Japanese honorifics, via looking into preceding literatures and detailed examples of usage. Study findings are as follows:
1. The features of Japanese spoken language.
First, it is difficult to view that Japanese spoken language is refined gradually, though its shapes are ossified. It is because Japanese people have the tendency of relying upon letters.
Second, Japanese people nervously response to letters. However, they are nearly not interested in a voice.
Third, different from Western people, most of Japanese people speak less, dislike to come out forth, and behave passively, rather than speaking out.
Fourth, different from Western languages, there are many expressions that are considerate of others in Japanese.
2. The ambiguous expressions of Japanese
First, the imitativeness of Japanese people, which has been demonstrated in the primary industry of agriculture and in the secondary industries of electric product manufacturing businesses, seems to be closely related to the imitativeness of Japanese language. It is certainly because that mankind's acquisition of language has centered on imitating things and items after his or her coming into existence.
Second, in the Japanese vocabularies of everyday life, there are many loan words of which meaning is different from originals. This is because that once a loan word is introduced in Japan, Japanese people are interested in its better usage.
Third, there are exceptionally many misspellings, mispronunciations or vocabulary omissions in the signboard, being interpreted equivocally.
3. Honorifics and Japanese people
Among all the languages worldwide, Japanese is especially distinctive with its use of the most complicated honorifics. Study findings on Japanese honorifics are as follows:
(1) As for the cause of development of honorifics, there is a social statusbased rigid order that dominate interpersonal activities, in addition to the age-based order. In the progress of history, a social status-based order that has been classified and prescribed in detail seems to make the system of honorifics more complex.
(2) That actually decides the use of honorifics is not limited in the social factor of superior and inferior, such as positions and ages. There are other factors that have much influence upon the use of honorifics, such as giving and receiving interests, the relative degree of intimacy, and the composer, characteristic, and topic of a scene. A speaker could choose a proper expression in rough consideration of these factors.
(3) Comparing to the traditional use of honorifics, the modern use of
honorifics has gradually changed from the personal relations of superior and inferior of which character is heavily objective to the giving priority to the relative degree of intimacy of which character is heavily subjective.
(4) In case of younger ages, honorifics are used not as a token of respect but as a token of distinction, being recognized as a token of differentiating the inside (uchi) from the outside (soto).
(5) Both the Contents Term of Respect and the Function Term of Respect by Doctor Tokieda have had much influence upon the theory of Tsujimura .
(6) Although it is generally recognized that in order to express honorifics nouns and verbs must be frequently used but adjectives and adverbs are not, its relationship with the pronunciation change of serial sounds or the evaluative adjectives can not be detected in nouns or verbs, requiring a careful attention in its practical use.
(7) That we can catch what is the subject of a sentence when there is no such thing in a conversation is because honorifics are used in the conversation.
(8) In case of routine sentences, it is desirable to use properly suppressed honorifics that are simple and natural, rather than using heavily polite expressions.
(9) Reverent words are used when a relationship of superior and inferior is established between two persons who are engaging in a topic of reverent words. It reveals the fact that there is no relationship of superior and inferior between a speaker and the person in the topic, and that a speaker does not care who the listener is.
(10) An honorific, established in the relationship of superior and inferior, such as ages or social statuses, or in the relationship of giving and receiving favors or power, attempts to fill the gap of personal relations in a scene. By this, the balance of the relationship of mutual understanding between a speaker and a listener can be maintained.
On the other hand, according to the conservation law of dynamic energy, the potential energy of a ball that is falling down from a pendulum diminishes, but the kinetic energy increases. Therefore, the dynamic energy is fixed regardless of a ball's position. The attempt to maintain a balance of interests in honorifics seems to be profoundly related this phenomenon.
4. The misuse of honorifics
First, the main body of honorific behavior or state is always human beings. An honorific is not for an animal. However, there is sometimes such a person who uses an honorific for an animal.
Second, the vocabularies and slang expressions that are related to the ill feeling of robberies originally have nothing to do with an honorific. However, there is sometimes such a person who uses an honorific for such an occasion.
Third, by using just as it is, an idiom or an idiomatic word can be preserved its flavor and aftertaste. However, there is someone who makes such an expression an honorific to the extent of dissipating its inherent strength and unique taste.
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