ABSTRACT
In Japanese, how speakers express their own feelings, sensations, and desires is distinguished from how someone else’s feelings, sensations and desires are expressed. As you can see in many entries in this chapter, one’s own emotions, desires and sensations are often expressed by adjectives (e.g. hoshii ‘want,’ ureshii ‘glad,’ kanashii ‘sad,’ etc.) or adjectival phrases (e.g. V-tai ‘want to V’). These adjectives can be used to express the speaker’s own feelings or to inquire about the addressee’s feelings, but not to state someone else’s feelings. This is because the speaker cannot directly experience someone else’s feelings or desires. In order to express someone else’s feelings and desires, adjectives are followed by expressions such as -garu/ -gatte iru ‘to show signs of,’ or evidentials such as yoo da (‘seem’), rashii (‘seem’), and soo da (‘I hear; looks like’), or presented as a quote or hearsay. 28; 13.5
The basic expression of gratitude is arigatoo ‘thanks.’ This phrase alone can be used to one’s social subordinates and equals, such as one’s friends and family members, and to any children. When speaking to one’s social superiors, such as one’s boss at work and older people and to any adults one does not know well, the formal phrase gozaimasu is added to thank them for their kind acts. The past tense form arigatoo gozaimashita is used to express thanks for a kind act that the addressee performed in the past. The addition of the adverb doomo ‘indeed, for some reason’ to arigatoo phrases make them sound more heartfelt. In casual situations, one may just say (with a bow) doomo to express one’s appreciation. The deed or act for which gratitude is expressed appears in a verb phrase preceding arigatoo (gozaimasu/gozaimashita). The verb phrase consists of the main verb in the te form followed by one of the giving and receiving verbs functioning as an auxiliary verb, also in the te-form; e.g. V-te + kurete, kudasatte, itadaite. In a very polite situation, the auxiliary appears in the formal (desu/masu) style; e.g. verb-te + kudasaimashite, itadakimashite.
