「お返事する」と「ご返事する」 - 謙譲表現としての「正用」「誤用」から見た違い -

‘お返事する(O-henji-suru)’ and ‘ご返事する(Go-henji-suru)’: Differences from the viewpoint of ‘correct use’ and ‘misuse’ in the humble form

The honorific expression form of ‘o/go-suru’ is originally a form of humble language (I) used when expressing the speaker’s actions. However, recently, ‘misuse’ of using ‘o/go-suru’ directly for the act of the listener is noticeable. It is believed that the nature of the word used with ‘o/go-’ is strongly associated with the occurrence of this ‘misuse’. On the other hand, the word ‘henji (返事: answer)’ can be used with either honorific prefix, ‘o’ or ‘go’. Taking ‘henji-suru’ as an example, this paper analyzed the trend in the use of, and the different appearance of ‘misuse’ between the two prefixes, from the perspective of ‘correct use’ and ‘misuse’ of ‘o/go-suru’. As a result, the following three facts were identified. (i) In ‘henji-suru’, both ‘o-henji-suru’ and ‘go-henji-suru’ are established, but ‘o-henji-suru’ is more widely used than ‘go-henji-suru’ in ‘NINJAL Web Japanese Corpus’. (ii) ‘O-henji-suru’ is also easily used as a beautification word, but ‘go-henji-suru’ is not very often used as a beautification word. (iii) It is possible that the tendency for ‘o-henji-suru’ to be commonly used as a beautification word is also affecting the ‘misuse’ of the respectful usage of ‘o-henji-suru’ in terms of recognition of its structure. According to the above-mentioned fact, regarding the ‘misuse’ of ‘o-henji-suru’ and ‘go-henji-suru’, the ‘misuse’ of the respectful language is not directly derived from the ‘correct use’ of the humble language (I), but is derived through the beautification use existing between the two. This suggests the possibility that ‘misuse’ of the respectful language was occurring in the overlapping part of the two.

The honorific expression form of ‘o/go-suru’ is originally a form of humble language (I) used when expressing the speaker’s actions. However, recently, ‘misuse’ of using ‘o/go-suru’ directly for the act of the listener is noticeable. It is believed that the nature of the word used with ‘o/go-’ is strongly associated with the occurrence of this ‘misuse’. On the other hand, the word ‘henji (返事: answer)’ can be used with either honorific prefix, ‘o’ or ‘go’. Taking ‘henji-suru’ as an example, this paper analyzed the trend in the use of, and the different appearance of ‘misuse’ between the two prefixes, from the perspective of ‘correct use’ and ‘misuse’ of ‘o/go-suru’. As a result, the following three facts were identified. (i) In ‘henji-suru’, both ‘o-henji-suru’ and ‘go-henji-suru’ are established, but ‘o-henji-suru’ is more widely used than ‘go-henji-suru’ in ‘NINJAL Web Japanese Corpus’. (ii) ‘O-henji-suru’ is also easily used as a beautification word, but ‘go-henji-suru’ is not very often used as a beautification word. (iii) It is possible that the tendency for ‘o-henji-suru’ to be commonly used as a beautification word is also affecting the ‘misuse’ of the respectful usage of ‘o-henji-suru’ in terms of recognition of its structure. According to the above-mentioned fact, regarding the ‘misuse’ of ‘o-henji-suru’ and ‘go-henji-suru’, the ‘misuse’ of the respectful language is not directly derived from the ‘correct use’ of the humble language (I), but is derived through the beautification use existing between the two. This suggests the possibility that ‘misuse’ of the respectful language was occurring in the overlapping part of the two.