Numerical model of the strategy for choosing polite expressions

Abstract

Japanese speakers often use different expressions having the same meaning but with different levels of politeness when speaking to different listeners. Brown and Levinson proposed a theory to explain how the expression to use is selected, but it is only qualitative. We propose a numerical model, constructed using the quantification-I method and multiple regression analysis, for predicting the expressions selected in various relationships such as familiarity and relative social power between speaker and listener. The politeness of each expression is quantified by the method of paired comparison. © 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.