Beyond keigo: smooth communication and the expression of respect in Japanese as a Foreign Language
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Tessa Carroll
Abstract
For foreign learners of Japanese, keigo (honorific language) is one of the most difficult aspects of the language. However, since the early 1990s, sociolinguistic research placing keigo in a much broader context of politeness and respect has been incorporated in writings on honorific language produced by official bodies such as the National Language Research Institute and the National Language Deliberative Council. The new approach takes a much broader idea of ‘‘expressions of respect’’, and emphasizes the role played by respect in ensuring that ‘‘communication progresses smoothly / harmoniously’’ (komyūnikeeshon ga enkatsu ni susumu), while deemphasizing hierarchy, relative status and power as determining factors in keigo usage. Recent research in this area has also investigated changes in honorific language usage linked to social changes. JFL teaching needs to take account of these shifts. This paper examines the treatment of honorific language in some English-language JFL textbooks against this background, and makes some suggestions for dealing with politeness and respect in JFL teaching.
Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
Articles in the same Issue
- Preface
- Changing language regimes in globalizing environments
- Sociolinguistic perspectives on emerging multilingualism in urban Europe
- Japanese language policy from the point of view of public philosophy
- Labor migration and the language barrier in contemporary Japan: the formation of a domestic language regime of a globalizing state
- Metroethnicity, language, and the principle of Cool
- Signs of multilingualism in Tokyo — a diachronic look at the linguistic landscape
- Politics, the media, and Korean language acquisition in Japan
- Econolinguistic aspects of multilingual signs in Japan
- Japan as a host country: attitudes toward migrants
- Regional dialect and cultural development in Japan and Europe
- Language ideology in JFL textbooks
- Beyond keigo: smooth communication and the expression of respect in Japanese as a Foreign Language
- Learning to read and write in Japanese (kokugo and nihongo): a barrier to multilingualism?
- Japanese language instruction and the question of ‘‘correctness’’
- Interactional expectations and lingusitic knowledge in academic expert discourse (Japanese / German)
- Foreigners and the Japanese in contact situations: evaluation of norm deviations
Articles in the same Issue
- Preface
- Changing language regimes in globalizing environments
- Sociolinguistic perspectives on emerging multilingualism in urban Europe
- Japanese language policy from the point of view of public philosophy
- Labor migration and the language barrier in contemporary Japan: the formation of a domestic language regime of a globalizing state
- Metroethnicity, language, and the principle of Cool
- Signs of multilingualism in Tokyo — a diachronic look at the linguistic landscape
- Politics, the media, and Korean language acquisition in Japan
- Econolinguistic aspects of multilingual signs in Japan
- Japan as a host country: attitudes toward migrants
- Regional dialect and cultural development in Japan and Europe
- Language ideology in JFL textbooks
- Beyond keigo: smooth communication and the expression of respect in Japanese as a Foreign Language
- Learning to read and write in Japanese (kokugo and nihongo): a barrier to multilingualism?
- Japanese language instruction and the question of ‘‘correctness’’
- Interactional expectations and lingusitic knowledge in academic expert discourse (Japanese / German)
- Foreigners and the Japanese in contact situations: evaluation of norm deviations
