Cross‐cultural patterns of honorifics and sociolinguistic sensitivity to honorific variables: Evidence from English, Japanese, and Korean

Abstract

In this paper are presented both paradigmatic and syntagmatic patterns of honorifics that compare American English, Japanese, and Korean. A set of cross‐cultural variables of power and solidarity is proposed and discussed in relation to the usages of honorific expressions. Of the three languages in comparison, American English is the least sensitive to all the power variables and group solidarity, to which Japanese and Korean are highly susceptible. In their sociolinguistic behavior, Americans appear to render the greatest relative importance to the intimacy variable, Japanese to groupness, and Koreans to age.