Use of Language in Japan and Korea
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Every language has its own way of solving certain social issues that arise whenever people come together in a social setting, and the people of Japan and Korea can serve as examples of how different languages address these concerns. The use of honorifics is a social convention that can have a number of purposes ranging from identifying family relationships and marital status to showing that the speaker is adhering to the conventions of polite society. The system a society develops for handling honorifics says much about the society, the relationships valued by that society, and the expectations placed by that society on individual members. Many of the subtleties differentiating various Asian societies are lost on the Western observer, but there are very real linguistic and social distinctions to be noted between the languages of Japan and Korea respectively, as an examination of the issue will show. The honorific system in Japan is a reflection of a number of attitudes and traditions infusing Japanese culture. In recent years, the Western world has tried to learn more and more about Japan because of the importance of the Japanese economy to the rest of the world, and much of what Western observers have to say about Japanese people and their customs is couched in business terms as a consequence. Yet, another reason for this is the fact that the Japanese have shaped their culture, especially since World War II, in business terms to promote a structured and grow
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is to humble oneself and exalt the addressee, but "self" includes members of the speaker's group, while the "addressee" includes members of the addressee's group. Much of the rules of honorific speech have to do with this uchi (in-group) and yoso distinction. In general, a member of the out-group is treated in the same way as a person of higher status, except a complete stranger, who is treated with indifference (Niyekawa, 1991, 25-27).
Kinship terminology shows this in-group/out-group distinction. One always addresses family members who are one's senior with an honorific suffix, but when one refers to one;s father in speaking to someone outside the family, one uses the term chichi, a humbling term in reference to one's own father. At the same time, when referring to someone else's father, especially the father of the addressee, one must exalt him by attaching the honorific prefix o- and suffix -sama or -san. There is also a host of other nouns and verbs that have "humbling" or "exalting" meanings, just as there are grammatical devices which change neutral words to exalting or humbling equivalents (Niyekawa, 1991, 28-29).
The keigo refers to the whole system of honorific language, but in a narrower sense it refers to ind
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Tanaka-san Tanaka-kun, De Mente, Japan Korea, Confucian Dollinger, Adherence Confucian, Japanese Confucianism, Korea Japan, Western Koreans, Korea Koreans, Koreans Japanese, de mente, de mente 1988, mente 1988, niyekawa 1991, nakane 1970, da style, japan korea, korean businessmen, leppert 1987, desu/-masu style, sense collective responsibility, korean society, de mente 1989,
Approximate Word count = 3044
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)
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