Beyond politeness: The strategic use of addressee honorifics and plain forms in Japaneseself -introductions on a gay dating application

Abstract

This study investigates the strategic use of Japanese addressee honorific (AH) and plain forms in written self-introductions on a gay dating application in Japan. While earlier approaches posited a one-to-one relationship between AH and politeness, treating AH as governed by socially prescribed norms, more recent indexical approaches argue that speakers strategically deploy these forms to construct interactional meanings. To examine whether such strategic use extends to written digital discourse, 50 profile self-introductions were collected, yielding 493 clause-final predicates (318 AH; 175 plain). Although AH forms predominated overall (64.5%), substantial individual variation and frequent style mixing were observed. A binomial linear mixed-effects model tested whether relationship-seeking intentions (friendship, long-term partnership, brief encounters) predicted AH use. Results show that users seeking friendship were significantly more likely to use AH forms, while this effect was attenuated when long-term relationship intentions were simultaneously signaled. These findings demonstrate that AH and plain forms function as strategic, indexical resources shaped by interactional goals rather than as fixed markers of politeness.