Can volitional form mean 'you should ...'


As a guest is leaving a man's house the guest is told:

> おみやげをお持ちいたしましょう。

**Edit: After this the guest is offered a choice of present to take.**

I am not familiar with this use of the volitional form, when the speaker is
not involved in the action. If the sentence ended in か then I'd be happy to
translate it as "Will you take a present". Note that this is printed text so I
guess I shouldn't assume a question with raised intonation in place ofか,
besides which the man doesn't provide an answer.

So how should I interpret this use of the volitional form? The best I can come
up with is "You should take a present" (meant as a polite suggestion) but I
can't find this usage documented anywhere (note, I am not yet able to read
Japanese dictionaries). I have read [this
link](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/14877/why-is-the-
volitional-form-used-in-this-
title-%E6%99%82%E3%81%AB%E3%81%AF%E8%87%AA%E5%88%86%E3%82%92%E7%96%91%E3%81%8A%E3%81%86)
and [this link](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/15889/can-the-
volitional-form-be-used-when-the-speaker-is-not-intending-to-do-the-acti) on
this site, but they both seem to require that the speaker should have some
involvement in the action. Is the fact that the speaker will be 'giving' the
present sufficient involvement to allow this use?

In summary, please clarify the grammar of this use of the volitional form and
when it can be applied. Many thanks.




> As a guest is leaving a man's house the guest is told:
>

>> おみやげをお持ちいたしましょう。

>
> **Edit: After this the guest is offered a choice of present to take.**

So the owner of the house (the man) tells the guest leaving his house
`おみやげをお持ちいたしましょう`, and then offers the guest a present. What the man is
speaking of is his own actions; namely "I'll go get the presents" for the
guest to choose from (duly noted by @seafood258 in the comments above).

The お＋連用形＋いたす form is humble speech (謙譲語) for the speaker. So the man is
definitely saying that he himself will do the action. The opposite form of
honourific speech (尊敬語) would use the form お＋連用形＋に＋なる. So if the man was
telling the guest to do something, it would need this form (or another
honourific form).

So as your other research showed, the man **is** involved in the action
because he's describing his own action, not the guest's.




> As a guest is leaving a man's house the guest is told:
>

>> おみやげをお持ちいたしましょう。

>
> **Edit: After this the guest is offered a choice of present to take.**

So the owner of the house (the man) tells the guest leaving his house
`おみやげをお持ちいたしましょう`, and then offers the guest a present. What the man is
speaking of is his own actions; namely "I'll go get the presents" for the
guest to choose from (duly noted by @seafood258 in the comments above).

The お＋連用形＋いたす form is humble speech (謙譲語) for the speaker. So the man is
definitely saying that he himself will do the action. The opposite form of
honourific speech (尊敬語) would use the form お＋連用形＋に＋なる. So if the man was
telling the guest to do something, it would need this form (or another
honourific form).

So as your other research showed, the man **is** involved in the action
because he's describing his own action, not the guest's.

