日本語の「すみません」の特徴について

どのような場面で使用されるのか

抄録

The purpose of this study is to clarify the situations in which the Japanese word “sumimasen” is used and to help foreigners understand this word. From the example sentences in the corpus, I analyzed these situations and I could identify nine different cases: “a situation in which the speaker negatively influences the listener”, “a situation in which the speaker is not able to perform the expected action”, “a situation in which the speaker's behavior can be detrimental to the listener”, “a situation that is undesirable for the listener”, “a situation in which the speaker forces the listener to perform an action”, “a situation in which the speaker greets the listener formally and politely”, “a situation in which the speaker draws the listener's attention as a call to action”, “a situation in which the speaker greets the listener formally and politely”, and “a situation in which the speaker searches for words as fillers in conversations”. Thus, there is a wide range of situations in which the Japanese word “sumimasen” is used in everyday communication.