Question

What are honorifics? Why are sociolinguists interested in their use in context? In your everyday life, do you ever use honorifics? What does their use, or lack of use, imply about your relationships to others?

Answer 1

Honirifics are the titles that are used to convey honor or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person.

Some cultures make use of honorifics in their everyday life because it is considered extremely impolite to address someone with their name only. For example, Japanese use honorifics in daily language.

Sociolinguistics are very interested in honorifics use because it studies the use of language in relation to social factors such as differences in culture, religion, class, gender difference, region, etc., and honorifics are a part of language which can tell a lot about the cultural and social aspects of the people using or not using it.

In everyday language, I use honorifics to address my elders and those being higher in rank than me. Also, i use honorifics while talking to someone and addressing someone in the third person. I do so out of respect and it sounds polite.

The use of honorifics can tell a lot about relationships of the speaker with others. It can denote a respectful and loyal relationship with the person being addressed using honorifics. It also denotes that the person is polite with others related to him or her. It can also denote that the person using honorific considers the addressed person as higher in status.

The lack of use of honorifics in one's language might denote the impoliteness and lack of seriousness towards the relationships. It can also denote that the person considers his or her relationships very casual. A person not using honorifics might also not use them because it's not taught in his or her culture, or maybe because he or she doesn't find it appropriate to use while addressing people lower than him or her in status or rank.