Table of Contents
- Introduction: Why Keigo Matters to Sociology
- Understanding Keigo: A Sociolinguistic Overview
- Conformity in Sociological Theory
- Keigo as a Mechanism of Social Conformity
- Historical Trajectory of Keigo and Conformity
- Case Studies and Empirical Illustrations
- Intersecting Axes: Gender, Age, Class, and Institutional Context
- Keigo, Media, and Pop Culture
- Keigo and Social Change: Resistance and Innovation
- Pedagogical Implications for Sociologists
- Conclusion: Keigo as the Soundscape of Conformity
Introduction: Why Keigo Matters to Sociology
Japanese keigo—the tripartite system of honorific, humble, and polite speech—has long been discussed within linguistics, but its sociological significance receives less sustained attention. Language is not merely a vessel of ideas; it is a structured social practice that molds conduct. Keigo therefore operates as a cultural technology of conformity: an everyday tool through which individuals anticipate, reproduce, and occasionally resist the normative order. In examining keigo, sociologists can observe how structure and agency intertwine at the level of grammar, illustrating classic social‑theoretical problems in a vivid, accessible key.
Understanding Keigo: A Sociolinguistic Overview
Keigo is conventionally divided into three registers:
- Sonkeigo (尊敬語, honorific language): Elevates the addressee or referent, marking respect. For example, iku (to go) becomes irassharu when the subject is a superior.
- Kenjōgo (謙譲語, humble language): Lowers the speaker or in‑group, emphasizing deference. Here, iku transforms into mairu when the speaker is the actor.
- Teineigo (丁寧語, polite language): Neutral politeness typically realized through the –masu/-desu endings.
These grammatical operations carry what Michael Silverstein would call indexical meanings: they point to contextual information about relative status, desired social distance, and situational formality. Japanese speakers internalize complex combinatorial rules—knowing whether to switch registers mid‑sentence, when to add honorific prefixes (o‑, go‑), and how to navigate multiple audiences simultaneously.
Keigo competence is thus less about memorizing conjugations and more about reading interactional cues. Socialization begins in early childhood, intensifies in adolescence through school clubs that replicate senior‑junior hierarchies, and culminates in formal corporate training known as keigo kenshū. Mastery signals not only linguistic ability but moral character, aligning with Japanese ideals of junsui (purity) and majime (seriousness).
Conformity in Sociological Theory
Classic Perspectives
Émile Durkheim argued that social facts exert coercive power over individuals. Like the moral codes Durkheim described, keigo exists external to any one speaker yet guides behavior through collective expectation. Talcott Parsons, writing in mid‑century functionalism, would interpret keigo as part of the “pattern‑maintenance subsystem”—an integrative mechanism diffusing value commitments such as respect for authority.
Erving Goffman provides micro‑analytic nuance. In his dramaturgical framework, interactions are staged performances where “face work” protects the self from embarrassment. Keigo serves as a linguistic prop, signaling that the speaker acknowledges and upholds the situational definition of self and other.
Experiments in Conformity
Although most lab studies on conformity involve Western participants, insights remain relevant. Asch’s line experiments show that individuals conform even when norms contradict sensory evidence; Milgram’s obedience studies reveal the potency of authority. These findings suggest that linguistic conformity, while seemingly benign, taps the same deep inclination toward social alignment. Keigo’s acceptance illustrates the taken‑for‑granted legitimacy of hierarchy in everyday life.
Contemporary Debates
Post‑structural and interactionist theories recast conformity as performance. Judith Butler’s notion of performativity and Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of linguistic capital emphasize the agentic reproduction of structure. Speakers choose between registers, calibrating deference to accrue symbolic advantages or avoid sanctions. Conformity, then, is less robotic than strategic and variable, conditioned by gender, age, and class.
Keigo as a Mechanism of Social Conformity
Reproducing Hierarchy
Japan’s vertical collectivism differentiates uchi (in‑group) from soto (out‑group). Keigo anchors this boundary by encoding relative rank: subordinates must initiate honorific forms toward superiors, whereas reversed usage is socially jarring. In corporate life, the precision of keigo becomes a metric for performance evaluation, particularly in client‑facing roles. Subtle irregularities—using desu/masu toward a customer instead of full honorific–humble pairing—may imply incompetence or disrespect, triggering peer correction and self‑discipline. Thus, keigo transposes macro‑level hierarchy into micro‑level interactional etiquette.
Facilitating Situational Alignment
Conformity is not merely vertical but situational. During a casual lunch, workers may drop to plain style among peers but instantly pivot to honorifics when a manager joins. This rapid code‑switching enacts tatemae (public façade) and honne (private feelings), allowing the conversation to align with shifting contextual cues. Keigo thus supplies a grammar for real‑time conformity, minimizing friction and preserving group harmony (wa).
Normalizing Collective Values
Japanese society prizes enryo (self‑restraint), giri (obligation), and amae (dependence). Keigo materializes these abstract values. The humble form systematically foregrounds the other over the self, reinforcing collectivist ethics at the utterance level. By structuring speech around deference, keigo habituates individuals into relational thinking, making conformity appear natural rather than imposed.
