Riconsiderazione del concetto di keigo e di linguaggio onorifico: la pragmatica del discorso nello studio e nella didattica della lingua giapponese

"A reconsideration of the concept of keigo and honorific language: the pragmatics of speech in the study and teaching of the Japanese language" Honorific language is a much-studied subject in the sociolinguistic analysis of Japanese that receives particular attention in the teaching of the language as L2. However, the prescriptive aspect of keigo makes honorifics a sort of a fixed set of morpho-syntactical patterns used in stereotyped situations that do not necessarily correspond to real usage of the “relational language”. From the perspective of discourse pragmatics, these patterns of us- age lead to the identification of morpho-syntactical sets with pragmatic functions (e.g., politeness) as if there were a direct link between language forms and pragmatic effects. This paper addresses discourse pragmatics and politeness, consider- ing especially the role of intentions and interpretation of speakers and hearers. The system of relational language is reconsidered on this basis, taking examples from Japanese textbooks in order to shed light on strategies for Japanese language teaching.