Polite Expressions Used in Business Settings : A comparison between native Japanese and Taiwanese learners of Japanese

Abstract

本研究は、日本語母語話者と台湾人日本語学習者のビジネス関係者を対象にしたビジネス場面の会話を資料に、敬意表現の使用傾向を考察したものである。台湾人日本語学習者には狭義の敬語の習得が確認できた一方、そのバリエーションが少なく、定型表現にとどまっている。とりわけ、丁寧さにつながる「ほう」や「なる」のような間接表現の使用は有意に少ない。他方、接触場面での日本語母語話者は、比較的丁寧さの低い表現を用いる傾向が見られた。これらの表現が接触場面のやりとりを通して肯定証拠としてインプットされる可能性があり、学習者の習得に影響を及ぼす恐れがある。

This paper reports a study examining polite expressions used in business settings through Japanese spoken data. The data was collected from work experience participants that included native Japanese and Taiwanese learners of Japanese. The results indicate that the Taiwanese learners were rather familiar with typical honorific forms, but typically had a quite limited variety of expressions except for ones that are fixed. In addition, they used fewer indirect expressions like ‘hou (ほう)’ or ‘naru (なる)’. On the other hand, the native Japanese speakers used less polite expressions when interacting with Taiwanese learners. These expressions function as positive evidence and could lead to unwanted consequences in language acquisition by Taiwanese learners.