Honorific Forms of Compound Verbs in Early Middle Japanese

Abstract

Honorific forms of compound verbs in early middle Japanese take six forms: I. the honorific form of the independent verb + verb, II. verb + tamō + verb, III. verb + the honorific form of the independent verb, IV. verb + verb + tamō, V. honorific independent verb + honorific independent verb, and VI. honorific independent verb + verb + tamō. This paper examines the different shapes taken by these compound verbs according to their level of honorific speech. In general, most compound verbs used for honorific expressions take the forms I. or III., which use the honorific forms of verbs, and IV., which uses “tamō”. In addition, when a verb has two or more kinds of independent honorific verbs, forms I. and III. tend to be used, and when a verb has one or no independent honorific verb, the honorific verb or the plain verb with “tamō” is used. This is believed to reflect the need for two levels of honorific speech. In addition, for forms V. and VI., two honorific verbs are used, and create a “weak” compound, which are used with only a few verbs in early middle Japanese. They disappeared by the medieval period. Conversely, this also demonstrates how the other forms of compound verbs “strengthened” over time.