Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language

Taboo, naming and addressing 137
In examples (3), (5) and (7), the speaker acts on the normal presumption that
any individual is representative of a group, and derives social standing
accordingly. Because there is safety in numbers, the hearer-or-named is less
vulnerable as a member of a group than if s/he were alone – any threat to the
hearer-or-named may be perceived as a threat to the whole group. Thus,
the speaker will pretend to greater respect for the hearer-or-named than if
the hearer-or-named were a lone individual. We can look upon this strategy as
exaggerating the relative power of the hearer-or-named. And, as we have
shown, the vehicle for this is a plural form instead of the singular form for a
single hearer-or-named. This strategy is somewhat less impersonalizing than
the use of third person in place of second person.
The strategies we have been discussing can be ranked on an impersonalizing
scale for naming or addressing single individuals:
most personalized 2SG –2PL –3SG –3PL least personalized
But we know of no language that employs more than three of these (e.g.
Spanish and eighteenth-century German have three). Rather than conflating
the two strategies for marking deference on one personalizing scale correlating
with relative status, it is more appropriate to recognize two distinct systems
motivated by the components of social status: namely, social distance and
power. 30 We have already done this in discussion, and we sum it up as follows:
The distance strategy is used when deference to the hearer is marked by
exaggerating the social distance between the speaker and hearer, e.g. by
using third person to Hearer.
The power strategy is used when deference to the hearer-or-named can be
marked by exaggerating his/her power relative to the speaker, e.g. by using
plural number for a single referent.
Languages like Japanese 31 and Korean have respect and humility markers
in verbs, e.g.:
The conventions of a particular language severely constrain the choices
available to an individual speaker. In every language, the speaker may register
a change in attitude towards the hearer-or-named by changing the style of
naming or addressing from that which s/he has been using in prior discourse,
or which s/he normally uses.