6.3. SOCIAL LANGUAGE PATTERNS 303
would be experienced as highly annoying to have to listen to. This goes
for all personal pronouns; after they have been used, and while the con-
versation is focussed on the person(s) indicated with it, it is left out of the
conversation. Explicitly keeping them in is not just considered bad form,
it can even be considered an insult, as it amounts to indicating that you be-
lieve your conversational partner is unable to understand what you mean
if you leave them off.
That said, sometimes you simply need personal pronouns, and for
those occasions it serves to know which can be used in which seĴing.
First person pronoun - ”I”
- an overly formal version of ”I”. This personal pronoun is typ-
ically too formal for any situation you will be in. - the gender-neutral, formality-neutral personal pronoun for ”I’
or ”me”. - a female-only version of the formality-neutral person pronoun
- the formality-neutral personal pronoun for ”I’ or ”me” used pre-
dominantly by elders. - literally, this noun means servant. Used predominantly by men,
this personal pronouns means you humble yourself in respect to the
listener. While predominantly used by men, it can be used by women
too, and due to its meaning as noun, may actually also be used to
mean ”you” when addressing servants (although this does make the
speaker look down upon whomever is used for). - a boastful first person personal pronoun, which is used when
you are confident that sounding boastful is accepted. Predominantly
used by men, this can also be used by go-geĴing women. - a classical personal pronoun meaning ”I”. You are most likely
to hear this pronoun used in samurai drama, rather than in every day
Japanese.