The semantic development of honorific expressions in Japanese

Honorifics in Japanese have been studied historically by Tsujimura (1968,1971), Lewin (1967,1969), and others, while honorification has been studied diachronically in Javanese by Silverstein (1979). The present paper investigates the semantic changes internal to Japanese grammar that neutral items undergo when they become honorifics. It focuses upon honorific expressions for the concepts BE, COME, GO, GIVE, and RECEIVE. For example, oide ni naru, respectful for BE, COME, and GO in NJ, consists of a form of the verb idzu (>NJ deru) "go out”; in a productive honorific formula built on the pattern “become HONORIFIC NOMINAL”;. This example reveals two important strategies for expressing deference in Japanese: the use of a particular conceptual subtype to signify the general concept, and the avoidance of the naming of actions in respectful expressions.