| dc.description.abstract | This thesis explores a rather new and somewhat colloquial style of polite language in Japanese, which will mostly be referred to as the semi-polite or nai desu form. In most grammars and textbooks we are usually taught that the negative plain form of the verb taberu eat is tabenai not eat and the negative polite form is tabemasen. For the semi-polite form we add the politeness marker desu to the negative plain form of the verb, giving us tabenai desu. The semi-polite or nai desu form is thus a grammaticalized hybrid of the plain and polite forms, where the politeness marker desu, which was originally used to make adjectives polite, has spread to verbal negatives. It is semi-polite in that it is less polite than the standard polite form used in more formal settings or between strangers, yet more polite than the plain form of speech generally used at home or with one s close friends etc. The semi-polite nai desu form seems to have been gaining popularity in the last decades. This study thus investigates the distribution of masen and nai desu forms in verbs, adjectives and copula. Previous studies and my corpus analysis show that there are some general tendencies that affect the choice of masen or nai desu forms. In written materials, masen is preferred, however in natural speech materials; nai desu forms are more used. Other general tendencies found in these studies include: nai desu is preferred with verbs when sentence final particles are used, but masen is still preferred when not followed by these particles; declarative sentences will have more nai desu forms, while interrogative sentences have more masen forms; nai desu is preferred when negation is emphasized, whereas masen is preferred with modality and other fixed expressions. Levels of formality, and possibly age, also seem to play a role, e.g. there are more nai desu forms in conversations between university students, while in circumstances with higher levels of formality, e.g. in the workplace, masen is preferred. The grammaticalization process of the polite auxiliary verb desu, which has hitherto developed into a semi-polite form of verbal negatives (e.g. tabenai desu), could theoretically spread even further and could possibly someday become a variant form for affirmatives as well (e.g. taberu desu instead of tabemasu). Thus, desu might either replace the masu/masen (affirmative/negative) polite verb endings, or become a variant form on par with masu/masen, or become an established semi-polite level of politeness between polite and plain forms. | eng |