Dual performance of an illocutionary act and a social action in Japanese
The grammaticalized honorific system in Japanese forces speakers to indicate obligatorily the salient social feature of the interaction in terms of social hierarchy and distance and (in)formality. The use of marked forms of honorifics indicates (i) the socially lower addresser and the socially higher addressee, (ii) the socially distant addresser and addressee and (iii) the formal context. On the other hand, the use of plain forms indicates (i) the socially higher/equal addresser and the socially lower/equal addressee, (ii) the socially close addresser and addressee and (iii) the informal context. Unlike (im)politeness theories based on languages in which being polite is an ad hoc practice, principle or strategy (Brown and Levinson [1978]1987; Leech 1983), the present study regards using honorifics and plain forms in Japanese as performing the social action of situating the interaction within the societal norms of seniority, affiliation, acquaintance and formality.
Japanese speakers, therefore, simultaneously perform an illocutionary act and a social action, and an interplay occurs between them. In addition to indicating her/himself, the hearer and the speech situation as the addresser, the addressee and the context of an illocutionary act type, respectively, the speaker indicates them as the addresser, the addressee and the context of a social action type. When the addresser, the addressee and the context indicated by the illocutionary act type are compatible with the addresser, the addressee and the context indicated by the social action type, stronger illocutionary and perlocutionary effects are brought about. On the other hand, when they are incompatible, weaker illocutionary and perlocutionary effects are brought about. Communicative exchanges in the genres of drama and the political discourse are analyzed to clarify the mechanism of strengthening/weakening illocutionary and perlocutionary effects as an interplay between performing an illocutionary act and performing a social action.
References
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. ([1978]1987). Politeness: Some universals in language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leech, G. N. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman.