Editing Indexicality (section)

=====Japanese honorifics=====
Japanese provides an excellent case study of [[honorifics]]. Honorifics in Japanese can be divided into two categories: addressee honorifics, which index deference to the addressee of the utterance; and referent honorifics, which index deference to the referent of the utterance. Cynthia Dunn claims that "almost every utterance in Japanese requires a choice between direct and distal forms of the predicate."<ref name=japanese>Dunn, Cynthia. "Pragmatic Functions of Humble Forms in Japanese Ceremonial Discourse. 'Journal of Linguistic Anthropology', Vol. 15, Issue 2, pp. 218–238, 2005</ref> The direct form indexes intimacy and "spontaneous self-expression" in contexts involving family and close friends. Contrarily, distal form index social contexts of a more formal, public nature such as distant acquaintances, business settings, or other formal settings.

Japanese also contains a set of humble forms (Japanese ''kenjōgo'' 謙譲語) which are employed by the speaker to index their deference to someone else. There are also [[suppletive]] forms that can be used in lieu of regular honorific endings (for example, the subject honorific form of {{Nihongo3|to eat|食べる|taberu}}: {{Nihongo|2=召し上がる|3=meshiagaru}}. Verbs that involve human subjects must choose between ''distal'' or ''direct'' forms (towards the addressee) as well as a distinguish between either no use of referent honorifics, use of subject honorific (for others), or use of humble form (for self). The Japanese model for non-referential indexicality demonstrates a very subtle and complicated system that encodes social context into almost every utterance.