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When I am asked about my profession and reply that I am "researching the Japanese language," people often give me a puzzled look. It may be difficult to imagine specifically what it means to research one's own native language. Therefore, I would like to give some examples of what I usually think about.

Recently, I often hear the phrase "go-josha suru" (to board) in station announcements. It is used in ways such as, "The train will be departing shortly, so please board (go-josha shite) and wait." Every time I hear this, I feel a slight sense of discomfort, but looking at the reactions of those around me, many people do not seem to find it particularly strange.

Alternatively, there is this example. In a line from a recent TV drama, there was the phrase, "Around what time did you meet (o-ai shita) Professor XX?" This was a scene where a detective was asking a person about Professor XX's alibi. The expression "Did (you) meet (o-ai shita) Professor XX?" is again quite jarring to me, but considering it was used as a line in a drama, it must be a normal expression at least for the people producing the show.

Honorifics like "go-josha suru" and "o-ai suru" are so-called humble language (kenjogo), and the traditional rule is that they are not used in sentences where the listener (i.e., "you") is the subject. The two previous examples violate this rule and would technically be considered misuses. However, in reality, it is often better to view errors that occur commonly among many people as signs of language change rather than just misuses. At the very least, there must be some reason why such errors have come to be accepted... When you research your native language, these things become very intriguing.

Language is a system made of rules far more orderly than we imagine; therefore, even when violations of those rules occur, if multiple people make the same error, it is better to think that some strong motivation exists there.

So, how should we think about the above examples? Well, I would certainly like to explain this point, but unfortunately, it seems I have run out of space. I shall save that talk for another occasion.