Honorific Words in Business Domain in Japanese Restaurants

Abstract

Honorific words are used by speakers to greet speech partners and third parties. This research is a qualitative study that aims to describe the forms and types of honorific words that dominantly appear in interactions between waiters and consumers in Japanese restaurants. The type of data is primary data with lingual data sources obtained from speech in the form of dialogue with various interactions that occur in Japanese restaurants. The research locations are restaurants that specifically sell Japanese food, located in three districts, including Gianyar district, considering that these three districts are tourist destinations for both local and foreign tourists, especially Japan. Observation method with data collection techniques by listening, taking notes and recording interactions without knowledge in order to obtain data naturally. Data analysis uses a contextual approach by considering the speaker, to whom, the topic of conversation, the situation, the form of language spoken, when it is spoken, where it is spoken, according to Dell Hymes’ SPEAKING concept. The results of the analysis are described using ordinary words to make it easy to be understanding. The results of the research found that there are forms of honorifics in the business domain that are part of omotenashi “hospitality”. The dominant vocabulary includes the words irasshaimase, ohayougozaimasu, konnichiwa, konbanwa, okyakusama, okyakusan, brother, mother, father. Honorifics are also spoken simultaneously with greetings in the opening structure of interaction, with the aim of creating politeness and respect for visitors as consumers which reflects the social relationship between waiters and consumers. It is hoped that the results of this research will contribute to Japanese language learners, especially in the business domain, to understand the forms and types of honorifics which are very important as part of hospitality in the Japanese business domain.