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Artighetsprefix med Gairaigo - En studie om de japanska prefixen O- och Go-

På svenska

Author

  • Christofer Huynh

Summary, in English

The honorific prefix is often mistaken for being Bikago, in fact it is not. The honorific prefixes serve two purposes, to show respect and to beautify words and Bikago is the term for the beautified words. It is hard to distinguish when the honorific prefix is used to show respect or to beautify words because it all depends on the context when used.

Normally the prefix O- and Go- cannot be used with Gairaigo “loanwords”, but there are exceptions, such as O-biiru “beer” and O-toire “toilet”. It is difficult to know which loanwords the prefix can be used with. The use of the honorific is also subjective which means one cannot judge if the use of prefix with loanword is correct or not.

The purpose of this essay is to find out more about young Japanese women’s attitudes towards the use of loanwords with the honorific prefix o- and also which loanwords tends to be used with the honorific prefix by sending out a survey.

The conclusion that can be drawn from the survey is that the positive attitude towards the use of loanwords with the honorific prefix has increased compared to previous surveys. Also the loanwords associated with household and clothes are most likely used with the honorific prefixes.

Department/s

Publishing year

2012

Language

Swedish

Document type

Student publication for Bachelor's degree

Topic

  • Languages and Literatures

Keywords

  • Bikago
  • honorific prefix
  • prefix O- and Go-
  • loanwords

Supervisor

  • Lars Larm