Honorific
Honorific
Japanese has a rich and complex honorific system that is very sensitive to the distinction between one’s in-group and out-group. A person’s family members definitely belong to his in-group. Close friends and even those who work or study in the same institution may also belong to his in-group, depending on the context.
Everyone else belongs to his out-group. The Japanese honorific system employs a variety of words, prefixes, suffixes, and sentence endings that can apply to verbs, nouns, adjectives, and sentence constructions and fall under five categories:
The honorific system applies most extensively to verbs. There are some grammatical constructions and suffixes that apply to verbs, but there are also specific honorific vocabulary words. The following are very commonly used special honorific words:
Plain/Neutral Verb Respectful Verb Humble/Courteous Verb
Everyone else belongs to his out-group. The Japanese honorific system employs a variety of words, prefixes, suffixes, and sentence endings that can apply to verbs, nouns, adjectives, and sentence constructions and fall under five categories:
- Respectful language: respectfully describes the referent’s or addressee’s actions, states, belongings, and so on. For example, いらっしゃる irassharu (to go).
- Humble language: humbly describes the speaker’s or speaker’s in-group member’s actions, belongings, and so on, which are directed to the referent or addressee. For example, 伺う ukagau (to go).
- Courteous language: courteously describes the speaker’s or others’ actions, belongings, and so on. For example, 参る mairu (to go).
- Polite language: makes utterances polite with grammatical items such as です desu (to be) and ます masu (polite suffix).
- Word beautification: graciously refers to things and concepts. For example, お野菜 o-yasai (vegetables).
The honorific system applies most extensively to verbs. There are some grammatical constructions and suffixes that apply to verbs, but there are also specific honorific vocabulary words. The following are very commonly used special honorific words:
Plain/Neutral Verb Respectful Verb Humble/Courteous Verb
- いる iru (exist) いらっしゃる irassharu1 おる oru (courteous)
- 行く iku (go) いらっしゃる irassharu1 参る mairu2 (courteous)
- 伺う ukagau2 (humble)
- 来る kuru (come) いらっしゃる irassharu1 参る mairu (courteous)
- する suru (do) なさる nasaru1 致す itasu (courteous)
- 食べる taberu (eat)
- 飲む nomu (drink)
- 召し上がる meshiagaru 頂く itadaku (humble)