Expressing respect linguistically

Target audience: intermediate learners.

Two forms:

  • honorification: respect towards the referent of a noun phrase
  • politeness: respect towards the addressee of the discourse

Iconicity of expressions of respect:

to a considerable extent honorific expressions are iconic to the relevant social and psychological distances: the longer the form, the politer the expression. (shibatani1994honorifics: 1605)

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