Abstract
Research up to now has shown that Treatment Expression usage rules of the Kinai (central Kinki) area dictate that the following constructions be used according to the social position of the third person topic of the sentence: haru-forms (high), aru-forms (medium) and oru-forms (low). In this paper, I demonstrate that in addition to these usage rules regarding social status, the perceptions, evaluations, emotions held by the speaker towards the third person also affect the usage of these forms. Furthermore, we note that these usage rules are applied not only towards people but towards inanimate objects such as rain as well. The author proposes that when examining the usage of Kinai area Treatment Expressions, different standards from those applied to the dialects of Eastern Japan be employed. With the rise of a capitalist economy from the Late Middle Ages on, the importance of economic might developed in urban Kinai society alongside the traditional concept of social position, and within Western Japan, the linguistic importance of this concept is especially evident in the Kinai area.
