Languages & Cultures of East Asia

Trad 101, Sections 18-19-20-21   Fall 2000

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Lecture Outline, 9/20/00 - Hierarchy

Internet projects due Friday

Today:
     Review
     Japanese and Korean systems to express politeness (complicated!)
     Politeness in different languages and what it tells us

Review:
     Confucian relationships

          Ruler - subject
          Father - son
          Husband - wife
          Elder brother - younger brother
          Friend - friend

     Hierarchy

Japanese/Korean have grammatical systems to express politeness

     Factors:
          Age, sex, status, in/outgroupness (uchi/soto), formality..........

    Two separate dimensions:
          Speaker - addressee
          Speaker - referent

     Japanese   
          Addressee: formal/informal

          Referent: honorifics

          Combination
               otasukeninarimashita                              formal/respect

     Which forms would be used in the following situations in Japan?

          1) a salesclerk talking to a customer
                    formal

          2) you talking to your friend about what your teacher did
                    informal/respect

          3) you talking to a teacher about what another teacher did
                    formal/respect

          4) a cutomer talking to a salesclerk
                    formal or informal

          5) you talking to your boss
                    formal

          6) you talking to your neighbor about what you did to a teacher
                    formal or informal/humble

          7) you talking to a customer about what your boss did
                    formal/humble

                    customer - outgroup
                    you and your boss - ingroup

                    Korean: formal/respect

     Korean
          Addressee
                 Six levels
                      Three ingroup levels (plain, intimate, familiar)
                      Three outgroup levels (polite, authoritative, deferential)
          Referent
              Neutral and respect (no humble form)

     Of course, the use of these forms is a lot more complicated
        In/outgroupness and formality can change
   
            Inside vs. ouside of class
            To create intimacy/distance, equality/dominance....

        Language change

            Now sex and age may not be as important as before (Martin)

        What about when age, status, and sex are conflicting?

        Personality, perception, and belief play roles as well

    So are Japanese/Korean people polite?

    Depends on the situation and the person

         Karaoke bars (drinking with colleagues)
         No need to say thanks within family

    All languages have ways to be polite

        English

            Would you please....
            Will you.....
            Do you mind if...

            Ma'am, Sir, Dr. Liu, Professor Liu

            Ono gave the lecture.
            Professor Ono gave the lecture.

     But only some languages (e.g., Japanese/Korean) have
     built-in systems

     English/Chinese don't

     Languages have different obligatory categories

        Japanese/Korean
            Systems to express politeness

        English
            Singular/plural: cat vs. cats

           Japanese/Korean can make distinctions, but it's not obligatory

    Confucianism is from China, but Chinese doesn't have
    a built-in system to express politeness

       Language and culture are related,
       but the relationship is not one to one