ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the former proposition and illustrates how grammars do best what speakers do most. This proposition can be reworded: grammars do best what speakers deem to be socially important. The social environment shapes language: linguistic deixis; pronoun usage; the role of honorific language and how aesthetics is used to indicate social hierarchy and status; and how social relations are represented linguistically via spatial symbolism. Honorific language in Japanese is categorized differently depending on the researcher. But in order to set some conceptual parameters, it can be divided into three types of languages that most would agree on. The first is exalting language is used to demonstrate respect to those with higher status. The second type is humble language, which is utilized to refer to oneself vis-a-vis those with more status. The last type, polite language, is used for a variety of purposes and consequently is more difficult to define.
