An Introduction to The National Language Research Institute: A Sketch of its Achievements
Third Edition(1988)/ HTML Version(1997)

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II.1.4 Socio-Psychological Survey of Japanese Polite Forms

(Report 11, 1957. 459 pages)

Socio-psychological Survey on Japanese Polite Expression - After 20 Years from the Preceding Survey in Okazaki City, Aiti Prefecture

(Report 77, 1983. 381 pages)

[Report 11]

The honorifics, or polite language forms, are one of the characteristics of the Japanese language. The period after the war has seen many criticisms of the confusion reigning in this domain; many have asked for their simplification. Four surveys were conducted to answer the following questions; What are the facts about the confusion in the use of the honorifics? How does one language community reflect this situation? What are the causes of this confusion or of the permissible variations found in this domain? The surveys were: 1. a survey at Ueno City, Mie Prefecture, east of Osaka, 1952, 2. a survey at Okazaki City, Aiti Prefecture, southeast of Nagoya, 1953. 3. two surveys covering all 46 prefectures of Japan, in 1952 and 1953, The methods applied were first those of social surveys, then those of public opinion polls, and finally, those of psychological tests. The surveys were conducted from a great many angles at the same time in order to obtain information on a greater number of factors than in the previous surveys of the use of the standard language. The methods and results are described in detail in the present volume. Here are a few excerpts from these results. 1. People generally think about the honorifics as follows: a) a phrase with a negative expression is politer than a positive sentence; b) the longer the expression, the more polite it is considered to be; c) a dialectal expression is considered ruder than a standard language one; d) an expression with kango (Chinese borrowings) is considered more polite; e) the speakers confess a distinct preference for the use of polite expressions. 2. Facts about the use of honorifics established during the survey: a) a contrived situation presented by a surveyor does not necessarily evoke the same response as a real-life situation; b) people advocating the use of honorifics do actually use them more themselves; c) speakers trying to act politely do actually put this preference into practice in their speech; d) when the speaker finds himself in a psychologically weak position, his use of honorifics is apt to grow; e) one speaks to a stranger more politely than to an acquaintance; f) the average speaker in Japan has the use of three grades of honorifics, but speakers in the Western part of the country show a greater strictness in their use; g) women speak more politely than men, but men adapt their honorifics more properly to changing situation; h) persons with rigid personalities are not very apt at adapting their speech; i) there seems to be no uniformity in the use of honorifics in the linguistic life of any one speaker. 3. Concrete conditions influencing the use of honorifics: a) the educational background has a great influence upon the knowledge of honorifics; b) the opinion about honorifics differs greatly according to age; c) public opinion expects women, young people and inferiors to use honorifics when speaking to men, to older people and to superiors respectively; d) people think social class to be the strongest factor at work in the use of honorifics; e) people are tolerant in judging the use of honorifics by young people; f) people think that there should be no honorifics used with their own relatives; g) people seem to have a psychological block preventing them from following the rule that honorifics should not be used about their superiors when speaking to a third party.

[Report 77]

The present book reports on the results of a survey carried out in Okazaki City in 1972 under a Ministry of Education Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research entitled "Social Change and Change in Linguistic Life" (research representative, IWABUTI Etutaro~) with the goal of comparing these results with the results of the previous survey conducted 20 years earlier. The framework and contents of this report and division of labor among the writers was as follows: Chapter 1 Survey Objectives and Methods (NOMOTO, EGAWA, YONEDA): We outlined the survey objectives, methods, and survey conditions and analyzed the social attributes of the informants. We received responses from 400 people in the longitudinal survey (a comparative survey which compared overall responses from the earlier survey with responses after 20 years in the regional society), and from 185 people (42.6% of the informants from the previous survey) in a panel survey (a survey in which we located and surveyed the individuals from the previous survey 20 years later). Chapter 2 Outline of the Previous Survey (NOMOTO): We outlined the objectives, results, etc. of the previous survey. Chapter 3 Outline of the Longitudinal Survey (EGAWA): We outlined the objectives and methods, results, etc. for the longitudinal survey. Chapter 4 Outline of the Panel Survey (YONEDA): We outlined the justification and results of the panel survey. Chapter 5 Politeness Level Assignments and Results (NOMOTO): We gave the justification for and methods used in the ranking (degree of formality of utterances) of the response sentences obtained in the surveys. Chapter 6 Results of the Longitudinal Survey (1) (NOMOTO, EGAWA, YONEDA): We analyzed the data obtained by sampling for correlations between the politeness ranking scores and context, politeness consciousness, and the awareness of social aspects of life. In addition, we summarized the results of a slide survey of 585 students in junior and senior high school. Chapter 7 Results of the Longitudinal Survey (2) (EGAWA, YONEDA): We reanalyzed the correlation among several of the factors discussed in Chapter 6 using AIC (Akaike's Information Criterion) and HAYASI's Theory of Quantification), etc. Chapter 8 Results of the Panel Survey (NOMOTO, EGAWA, YONEDA): We analyzed the correlation between politeness level scores and context, politeness consciousness, awareness of the social aspects of life, etc. Chapter 9 Summary (NOMOTO): We summarized and reflected on the overall results of the surveys and made recommendations for future surveys. A table of the distribution of ranking score totals and conformity (Tekio~) points, and a list of the response sentences obtained for each context is given at the end of the volume for the reader's reference. The present survey was conducted cooperatively with the participation of a great number of researchers. The report was written by NOMOTO Kikuo, EGAWA Kiyosi and YONEDA Masato.

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