Abstract
This paper reports the results of the 2022 Nationwide Survey on Changes in the Japanese Language. Based on the responses regarding “considerate expressions,” the author presents the following findings.- For “oashimotono waruitokoro” (despite the poor weather, lit translation: despite the bad ground), “okagesamade” (thanks to someone/something), “otsukaresama desu (thank you for your hard work or you must be tired, working so hard) as a conversation starter” and “otsukaresama desu as an opening sentence of emails,” the overall result shows that the majority of respondents chose an answer that indicated full support for the usage, “I myself use this phrase in conversation or writing/It sounds natural.” On the contrary, no more than half of the respondents fully supported “takai tokorokara shitsurei shimasu” (excuse me for greeting you from a lectern), “tsumaranai mono desuga” (here's a little something for you), and “nanimo arimasenga” (we have nothing to offer, but...), and the responses for these three phrases were dispersed. In particular, for “nanimo arimasenga,” the proportions of those fully supporting this phrase and those fully disapproving it (“I don’t use it/It sounds strange”) are almost the same, which tells that this expression is perceived diversely in contemporary ‘Japan’.- For the following phrases, respondents were given two options and asked to choose the affable (appropriate) one. “ ‘osokunatte’ or ‘taihen omataseshite’ shimai…” (I am sorry for ‘being late’ or ‘having kept you waiting’), “ okoshi ‘itadaki’ or ‘kudasari’” (humble or respectful language when thanking someone for visiting), “ itsudemo ‘kamaimasen’ or ‘kekkoo desu’” (anytime would be ‘no problem’ or ‘fine’), “ oshiete ‘itadakitai desu’ or itadake masuka”(humble or respectful language for ‘could you tell me…’), and “ arigatoo gozai ‘masu’ or ‘mashita’” (present or past tense for ‘thank you’). Responses were dispersed for all of the above phrases except for “ ‘osokunatte’ or ‘taihen omataseshite’ shimai…” that had relatively concentrated responses with nearly half of the respondents choosing ‘osokunatte.’- The group of those aged 60 and over had relatively high proportions of supporters for “okagesamade,” “nanimo arimasenga,” “itsudemo kekkoo desu,” and “arigatoo gozai ‘mashita’” and a relatively low proportion for “otsukaresama desu (as conversation starter).” The group of those with a university degree or higher academic background had relatively high proportions of supporters for “oashimotono waruitokoro,” “okagesamade,” “otsukaresama desu (as an opening sentence of emails),” “‘osokunatte’ shimai,” “okoshi ‘itadaki’,” and “oshiete ‘itadake masuka’”- The comparison of the 2022 survey and the one conducted ten years ago observes two recent common trends across the generations: the generalization of “otsukaresama desu (as an opening sentence of emails)” and the de-generalization (declining) of “tsumaranai mono desuga.”
