Metafā taikei to shite no keigo

Politeness is encoded in grammar. In addition to polite interjections like sir, madame, and your honor, English speakers also show their sociolinguistic deference toward superiors or foreigners by using expressions like 'if you please' and 'I would like to.' Grammatically encoded politeness is often referred to as honorifics. In Asian languages, such as Hindi, Tamil, Korean, and Japanese, the politeness-encoding in grammar is more extensive and profound than that of Western languages. Japanese is well known for the complexities of its system of honorifics. This book proposes the hypothesis that Japanese honorifics are organized by a relatively simple set of principles where a superior is metaphorized as a taboo entity.