Abstract
Abstract In this paper, we study honorification in Chinese from a diachronic perspective. Classical Chinese is found to exhibit a large number of lexical items used to elevate other in discourse. The aspects that are elevated are specific titles, positions/statuses, knowledge/expertise, age/generation, taste/appearance and addressee in general. In contemporary Chinese, we find that some of these lexemes have disappeared, some have remained, and others have become restricted in use. At the same time, new lexemes have come into being that better fit the changed (and still changing) society. As a politeness strategy – both positive and negative – and a reaction to the hierarchical social structure, honorification is very much alive, in the same way its corollary notion, self-denigration, is alive. Our study hence contributes to pragmatics by drawing researchers’ attention to an important aspect of language use that has been hitherto neglected.
Published Version
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