Re: Distal / polite

Chris Kern wrote: 
[...]
Japanese: The Spoken Language, which uses the term "distal" for
masu/desu, refers to sonkeigo as "honorific polite" and kenjougo as
"humble polite", IIRC.

I'm planning a more thoughtful answer to some of Ben's misgivings tomorrow (I hope), but I have two comments here.

First, you've supported my guess about where I picked up "distal."  Thanks.

Second, I never had to teach any of this stuff beyond a pretty introductory level, and it wasn't one of my research interests, but I was always pretty comfortable with the idea that one had a "polite/distal" vs. "familiar" dimension based on *to whom* one is speaking, and an honorific/respectful (includes humble) vs. (well, it's probably a range rather than polar) dislogistic dimension. It's probably unusual to use humble terms in familiar-side discourse (?"sore-o watasi-ga itasu-yo. But then, how about "kore-kara sensei-no ouchi-e mairu-yo"?), but for sure "honorific" and "polite" can be disassociated.

Bart
.