Politeness in Japan

Haugh, Michael; Obana, Yasuko

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511977886.009

Cited by 26 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…They define the term tachiba as "the contextually contingent and discursively enacted social roles and positions of participants" and Haugh (2007: p. 660) explains that tachiba encompasses "the interactional achievement of one's public persona or social standing as distinct from others, including one's position or role (ichi, yakuwari), status (mibun, chi'i) and current state or circumstances (jōkyō)". Haugh and Obana (2011) further claim that no matter how desirable the addressee's wants are perceived to be, the speaker's tachiba places constraints on their linguistic realisation.…”

Section: Previous Studies Of Politeness In Japanesementioning

confidence: 97%

“…Assistant: 申し訳ございません… excuse(POL)-have-POL-NEG "I am very sorry." According to Haugh & Obana (2011), this is an interaction between an assistant at a museum in Tokyo and a visitor who is about to start eating something in the museum. The current study views this interaction as a good example of face-redressing strategy.…”

Section: Fta and Face-redressing Acts In Japanesementioning

confidence: 99%

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A Study of Linguistic Politeness in Japanese

Liu

Allen

2014

OJML

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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.

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Section: Previous Studies Of Politeness In Japanesementioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Fta and Face-redressing Acts In Japanesementioning

confidence: 99%

A Study of Linguistic Politeness in Japanese

Liu

Allen

2014

OJML

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“…Being polite, as Holmes points out, "means getting the linguistic expression of social distance right as far as your addressee is concerned" (Holmes, 2012, p. 288). Haugh & Obana (2011) explain that the study of honorifics has a long history in Japanese academia, traditionally approached from the perspective of kokugogaku , the study of the national language, which focuses on the classification of honorifics and their function. The study of honorifics has a long history from before the concept of 'politeness' was even considered in linguistics (Pizziconi, 2011) and honorifics have only recently been explored in politeness studies.…”

Section: Politeness and The Honorifics System: "One's Proper Place"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nihon Goes West: Exploring the Non-Translation of Honorifics in the English Subtitles of a Japanese Video Game

Santos

Humblé

2023

Cad. Trad.

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Japan has a long tradition when it comes to graphic novels, animated series, films, and, more recently, video games. This popularity has gained international attention in recent decades, creating a market for Japanese-to-English translation. An example of such translations is the localized version of the video game Yakuza 0. Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Lawrence Venuti in his footsteps, argue that there are fundamentally two ways of translating: domestication and foreignization. However, what we find in the translation of Yakuza 0 is a hybrid way of working, which demonstrates that the issue is not as black and white. This paper focuses on the aforementioned game to draw examples and discuss the impact of honorifics on socio-cultural markers and relationship dynamics. First, an overview of the Japanese system of honorific characters is provided in order to understand why translators would choose to retain them in their subtitles. Second, we aim to discuss possible factors that lead translators and localization professionals to retain honorifics in their translation. Finally, we contribute to the broader discussion of ideological and cultural factors that influence the dynamics between source and target culture, by pointing to possible shifts in this relationship, in view of Venuti's critique of Anglo-American translation.

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“…This task-role is also recognised by all the other members of the group, who identify themselves as recipients of the organiser's task-role (another Task-based Role), and thus deliver an acceptable performance of their role. The organiser's task-role is linguistically implemented, for example, in polite imperative forms in request as long as the content of the request is within the domain of his/her tasks as the organiser (Haugh and Obana 2011;Obana 2012aObana , 2012b. Other examples of Task-based Roles are observed in duties assigned to a chairperson, a mentor and a group leader to fulfil their responsibilities in situations which foreground their task-roles.…”

Section: Subcategories Of Role-identity and Dissociative Rolesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speech level shifts in Japanese

Obana¹

2022

PRAG

Self Cite

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The present paper analyses speech level shifts in Japanese from a different perspective. By applying Symbolic InteractionistRole Theory, speech level shifts are categorised as the linguistic realisation of aninteractional role, or ‘dissociative role’ Icall in this paper. Dissociative roles are improvised identities, which occur when the speaker perceives a psychological change in relation to the other participant in the on-going interaction. Plus-level shifts (shifts from plain to polite forms,masu/desu) are triggered when the speaker experiences cautious, attentive, thoughtful and/or grateful feelings at a certaintime of interaction, which conforms to the original nature of honorifics. This prompts a dissociative role which creates a certain psychological distance between this role and the other interactant. On the other hand, minus-level shifts (shifts frommasu/desuforms to plain forms) are the implementation of the speaker’s another dissociative role, which is assimilated with the other interactant, giving rise to empathy or drawing the other into the speaker’s world. Whether plus or minus level shifts occur, the interactants’social roles, i.e.,their original roles when the situation is defined, continue to exist throughout the discourse. The interactants are fully aware of their social roles such as teacher and student, friends, family members, and senior and junior in company(= Institutional Roles in this paper). However, when an Improvised Role is created, it is forwarded to the on-going interaction and linguistically implemented as a speech level shift.This paper also clarifies that both speech level shifts and the so-called ‘conventional’honorifics are situationally determined, and that they are not separate entities but the two ends of continuum by examining the features they share from the viewpoint of ‘roles’.

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Politeness in Japan

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

A Study of Linguistic Politeness in Japanese

A Study of Linguistic Politeness in Japanese

Nihon Goes West: Exploring the Non-Translation of Honorifics in the English Subtitles of a Japanese Video Game

Speech level shifts in Japanese

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