Abstract
This article aims to clarify the semantic field of irassharu, a Japanese honorific form of iku ('go'), kuru ('come') , and iru ('exist'). To achieve the goal, a questionnaire survey was conducted to 146 grownups born and raised in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, and Saitama Prefectures. Works of fiction by 76 writers born and brought up in Tokyo were also investigated. The data collected empirically demonstrates that irassharu is now being used less and less with the meaning of 'go', while it is still widely used to mean 'come' and 'exist.' Although it has been claimed that the respectful attitude shown with irassharu neutralizes the direction in which the agent is headed, this study suggests that the main reason for this change is that the respect tends to be expressed more often when the agent's motion relates to the speaker. This speaker's preference results in irassharu expressing the agent's movement when the goal is the speaker's position (or viewpoint). Movement to goals other than the speaker, in consequence, is excluded from the semantic field of irassharu, since the relevant movement has less relation to the speaker.
