本論文以台日上班族為調查對象,解析雙方對話題中人物敬語使用之情形為目的。主要結論歸納成以下四點:(1)當聽話者是一般員工時,台灣員工對話題中人物的組長、科長等上司使用敬語的情形不明顯;相對上日本員工有過半數以上會使用敬語。(2)當聽話者是組長或科長時,話題中人物比聽話者職位小或同等時,說話者對話題中人物使用敬語等同對聽話者表達出敬意之情形普及。該使用情形日本員工比台灣員工明顯。(3)上述情形之使用通常在話題中人物的位階較高或是外部門員工的情形居多。另外調查也指出該用法顯示出日本員工重視內外部門差異多過階級差異。(4)整體而言,日本員工使用第三者敬語情形比台灣員工頻繁。但話題中人物是部門的最高位階經理時,雙方高比例的敬語使用則無差異。
The present study centers its focus on Taiwanese and Japanese salary men, analyzing the practice of attributing honorifics to individuals under discussion in conversations. The following points could summarize the conclusion: 1) When the interlocutor is a fellow colleague, it is not frequent for the Taiwanese salary men to apply honorifics to superiors under discussion; while more than half of the Japanese do. 2) When the interlocutor is a superior and the individual under discussion is lower or equal in rank to him, to show respect for the interlocutor, the speaker attaches honorifics to the individual under discussion. The frequency is higher among the Japanese. 3) The above situation occurs most frequently when the individual under discussion is a superior or someone belonging to other departments. The survey also shows that the Japanese salary men place more importance on the differences between departments than on ranks. 4) On the whole, the employment rate of honorifics among the Japanese salary men is higher than their Taiwanese counterpart. However, when the individual under discussion is of top rank, both the Japanese and Taiwanese show high frequency of utilizing honorifics.