Does "敬語" (keigo) just mean "politeness" or is it a technical term specifically relating to Japanese grammar?


What is the difference between the Japanese term "敬語" (keigo) and the English
term "politeness" (Specifically regarding language)?

I assumed politeness is more general covering things like "please" and "thank
you" and that "敬語" (keigo) specifically referred to those aspects of Japanese
grammar that deal with politeness in a technical way that has no equivalent in
English.

But upon reading a bit and using this site a bit I'm not sure anymore. What
are the overlaps and differences in meanings?

(I considered asking this as a meta question concerning the
[keigo](/questions/tagged/keigo "show questions tagged 'keigo'") and
[politeness](/questions/tagged/politeness "show questions tagged
'politeness'") tags but I decided it's of much broader interest.)




Politeness and Keigo are strongly related, but they are not necessarily the
same, neither does one contains all cases of the other.

**Politeness** (丁寧語 _teineigo_ ) is a general term that is used for gauging
the acceptability of different forms in different situations. Polite forms are
expected to be used in formal situations, with most strangers, with peers you
are not intimate enough with and with superiors. Polite forms don't form as
coherent system as Sonkeigo and Kenjōgo do, but it's also quite simpler, since
you just have to remember that some grammatical forms or expressions are
polite, some are intimate and some are downright rude. We actually have the
same thing in English: "Could you hand me the salt, please?" is quite more
polite than "Hey, give me the salt!"

**Keigo** (敬語) itself, refers to the proper usage of two distinct forms of
language: _sonkeigo_ (尊敬語) and _kenjōgo_ 謙譲語.

**Sonkeigo** (尊敬語) means _honorific language_. This category encompasses all
words (mostly verbs) prefixes, suffixes, expressions and grammatical forms
that are considered to convey honor to the person or group they refer to.
These words are often used when referring to superiors, clients, and in some
situations to anyone that is part of the recipient's inside group. Knowing in
which situations one should use sonkeigo (and kenjōgo) is an entirely
different question, and it's highly related to Japanese social and cultural
norms, so it's natural that it seems very baffling to us foreigners in the
beginning. :)

**Kenjōgo** (謙譲語) means _humble_ or _deferential language_. This category
encompasses all words (mostly verbs) prefixes, suffixes, expressions and
grammatical forms that are considered to convey humility about the person or
group they refer to. These words are mostly used when speaking to someone in
sonkeigo and referring to yourself or to people who are in your inside group.

Very often, certain sonkeigo or kenjōgo bits are used without the entire
conversation getting to stick to keigo rules. For instance, when two parents
speaking about their respective sons, they may call each other's son 息子さん and
their own son just 息子. You may call that sonkeigo and kenjōgo if you like
(though some people may argue it isn't), but in the end the two parents might
speak entirely casually. Another place you'd often find bits of sonkeigo and
kenjōgo "out of place" is set phrases such as ありがとうございます (kenjōgo) or
おはようございます (sonkeigo).

### Don't politeness and keigo always come together?

Now, when keigo is used consistently, it's most often used with teineigo
(since when you're using keigo you'd generally want to be polite), but it
doesn't necessarily have to. As far as I can see, the main problem with using
keigo without teineigo, isn't that it would sound rude, but rather that it
would just sound too archaic.

The reason for that is that keigo was indeed used regularly without modern
teineigo suffixes (of the ます and です family) during the Edo period, and you can
still hear such language when watching historical films or TV dramas (時代劇
Jidaigeki). But since most people now identify these forms with the Edo
period, they'd seem more archaic than they'd seem impolite. It's kinda like
_thou_ , which originally was just an intimate version of the polite _you_ ,
would seem to modern English speakers more archaic than impolite.

