Mark Volpe: Honorifics, etc.

[Martha McGinnis]

Dear DM-ers,
    I would like to inquire about the status of
so-called "Expessive Derivations" (ED) (Beard,1995),
e.g., Honorifics, Diminutives, Perjoratives, etc.
Since the main focus of my research is Japanese and
its distant cousins, the status of such is crucial.
The simple fact of the matter is that any and every
finite sentence in Japanese, for example, must make a
choice on the matter.
    Some of the salient features of EDs are that they
seem to be pragmatically-based, deitic, and features
may apply recursively, e.g., so-called Subject
Honorification ('sonkei-go'), where an honorific Verb
stem ('renyoukei'), can be resubmitted to the
paradigm: "o-V-Stem-ni naru", e.g., 'o-nasari-ni naru'
('to do' Honorific).
    While Japanese has the reputation of being a polite
language, it can be as equally frank and brutal as
English is with "infixed F-ings". As an example
consider the suffix '-agaru' ('to rise'). An important
concept in Japanese levels is the direction, either up
or down. When attached to a V-Stem, the effect is "you
down there, what are you trying to do to me way up
here", e.g. "o-mae-wa nani ii-agatten da yo?" (What
the F- are you talking about?!). Here the verb stem of
'iu' ('to say') is suffixed.
    In my mind, a significant lacuna in the DM
literature is the non-response to Sells (1995), where
in he adopts "The Strong Lexicalist Hypothesis", using
the Lexicon for both inflectional and derivational
attachment prior to syntax. I've come to believe that
without an approach to EDs, there unfortunately can be
no response. Any ideas, comments, critiques
appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time.
                 Mark Volpe, Stony Brook


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