A Study of Linguistic Politeness in Japanese

Abstract

This paper reexamines theories of linguistic politeness in Japanese, and holds that linguistic politeness is a very complicated issue influenced by multiple factors in different layers including general face wants of participants, the participants' societal positions and social relationships, social norm that the interactants share, the interactants' discernment or interpretation of the social rules, immediate context of the interaction, and possible strategies for the interactants to choose under the constrains of the other simultaneously functioning factors. Based on the data collected from recent Japanese TV dramas, this study maintains that, as a general principle, Brown and Levinson's (1978, 1987) theory of face does apply to Japanese language and culture and forms the base of politeness. Similarly as in any other culture, facework in successful communication in Japanese is a result of choice by an interlocutor in accordance with normative polite practices. What makes linguistic politeness in Japanese unique is not that Japanese speakers need to act appropriately according to their social norm, but that their discernment (wakimae) and recognition of the social position and relationship (tachiba) of the participants, which form the second layer of the determining factors of politeness, make speakers of Japanese always attend to and try to fulfil the other participant's face want including both positive and negative face, and, at the same time, maintain their own positive face but rarely claim their own negative face especially when an interactant has less power and in a lower social position in an interaction. The data also suggest a model of face-redressing strategies co-occurring with face threatening acts (FTA) in Japanese.

Direct Negation in Enrekang People Culture

“…Moreover, he used the title puang 'sir', to show respect to the speaker (S) as a nobleman. It is similar with the Japanese culture of hierarchy or seniority system of their discernment (wakimae) and recognition of the social position and relationship (tachiba) of the participants, (Kyama, 2012) and (Liu and Allen, 2014).…”

“…The results show that the NT normally redress their politeness strategy and less often realize the strategy non-linguistically, but the NE often aggravate the politeness strategy in subsequent turns and realize their strategy non-linguistically, through the use of head shaking and facial expressions. Liu and Allen (2014) conducted their research in Japan to re-examine theories of linguistic politeness. The result shows that the factor making linguistic politeness in Japanese unique is that Japanese speakers do not need to act appropriately according to their social norm, but that their discernment (wakimae) and recognition of the social position and relationship (tachiba) of the participants form the second layer in the determination of factors of politeness.…”

Culpeper's Impoliteness Strategies in Selected British Actors' Interviews: A pragmatic Analysis

“…However, politeness can be regarded as a set of social skills whose purpose is to make every person avoid conflict and have a pleasant communication in social interaction. Liu and Allen (2014), state that to define politeness is not an easy task and it is ongoing debate. In spite of the fact that there are different definitions of politeness, yet, it is very difficult to pin it down and give a precise definition.…”

The Use of Politeness in Tourism Communication: Research on Japanese Language Interaction During Tour Trip

“…Besides that, they tend to use the explicit form and vocabularies, which are inappropriate when interacting with Japanese tourists [4]. This situation contradicts with Japanese culture where it is intolerable that less formal language is used when speaking to superior [5]. Thus, this study is carried out to determine Japanese tourists' perception of the use of politeness by Japanese speaking Malaysian tour guide.…”