Ideologies of honorific language
| Autor: | Judith T. Irvine |
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| Rok vydání: | 2022 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA). :251-262 |
| ISSN: | 2406-4238 1018-2101 |
| Popis: | All sociolinguistic systems, presumably, provide some means of expressing respect (or disrespect); but only some systems have grammaticalized honorifics. This paper compares several languages Javanese, Wolof, and Zulu, plus a glance at ChiBemba with regard to honorific expressions and the social and cultural frameworks relevant thereto.2 The main question to be explored is whether one can identiff any special cultural concomitants of linguistic systems in which the expression of respect is grammaticalized. Javanese "language levels" are a classic and well-described example of a system for the expression of respect. In the sense in which I shall define "grammaticalized honorifics," Javanese provides an apt illustration. Wolof, on the other hand, does not. Of course, Javanese is only one of several Asian languages well known for honorific constructions, while Wolof, spoken in Senegal, comes from another part of the globe. But the presence or absence of honorifics is not an area characteristic of Asian languages as opposed to African languages. As we shall see, Zulu has a system of lexical alternates bearing a certain typological resemblance to the Javanese system. Moreover, many other Bantu languages (such as ChiBemba) also have grammaticalized honorifics, but in the morphology rather than in the lexicon. Focusing on social structure instead of on geographical area, one might hypothesize that grammaticalized honorifics occur where there are royal courts (Wenger 1982) and in societies whose traditions emphasize social rank and precedence. Honorifics would be a linguistic means of expressing conventionalized differences of rank. The languages I shall compare will make it evident, however, that a hypothesis causally linking honorifics with court life or with entrenched class differences cannot be |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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