Reexamination of Politeness Strategies in Workplace Settings in Japan

Yuko Miyoshi, Linguistics

In this study, I will argue that Japanese speakers present politeness strategies even in workplace situations as predicted in the universal theory of politeness by Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987). To support my claim, I use some conversations from TV dramas and movies that are close to natural situations which show such politeness strategies in workplace settings.

    Brown and Levinson's theory states that human beings have two types of faces. One is negative face, the desire to be unimpeded by others, and the other is positive face, the desire to be liked by others. Speakers use politeness strategies to save these faces when their utterances are Face Threatening Acts (FTAs). In Japanese society there is an ideology that lower status persons must use polite forms to higher status persons, but not vice versa. Rather, higher status persons can talk bluntly. Given this ideology, scholars have done studies on Japanese language that deny the universality of Brown and Levinson's theory by pointing out this cultural difference (Ide 1989, Matsumoto 1988, Hori 2002, and many others). For example, Hori claims that requests or orders from a superior to a subordinate are not considered as FTAs because of the strict vertical relationships in Japanese society.

    Examining conversations between superiors and subordinates, I found that higher status speakers often use a donatory verb such as kureru meaning ‘give’ as a politeness strategy, though this strategy is usually used by lower status persons speaking to higher status hearers to show gratitude to the hearers.