What is an addressee honorific?

Definition
	An addressee honorific is an honorific in a system in which a level of status of the addressee relative to the speaker is expressed through a choice made among linguistic alternants, irrespective of whether the alternants refer to the addressee.

Examples (Javanese)

In Javanese, the following alternants all mean ‘house’:

Each form in the list successively expresses a higher status of the person spoken to.

Source:

Geertz 1960 248

Generic
	An addressee honorific is a kind of
	What is a honorific?

Concept module: addressee honorific
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): A
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004