My teacher always corrects me when I use 男 or 女 by themselves, without adding の人 to the end of it. But in various Japanese media (music, drama, anime, etc.), I know for sure that I have heard them without の人.
So I'm assuming that adding の人 is a formality thing. Please correct me on this if I'm wrong.
What kind of situations would it be more appropriate to add の人, and what kind of situations would it be more appropriate to not add it? Basically I am wondering just how formal adding の人 is or how informal not adding it is.
Answer
男 and 女 are neutral with politeness in formal contexts. In conversation or colloquial style, they may be (but not necassarily) used to imply rudeness, and 男の人, 女の人, 男性, 女性 are more polite.
When you listen to Japanese news, you will hear both 男 and 女, and 男の人, 女の人, 男性, and 女性. That is a very ashameful aspect of the Japanese culture, and it reveals that the Japanese society is still immature. In these contexts, the announcers are expected/pressured (by the society/broadcasting company) to express personal feelings against criminal suspects by the use of language. 男 and 女are used for offenders (or suspects as well in earlier days) to express that the announcer is siding with the victim and is hence showing a personal dislike to the offender/suspect. This kind of language use is generally subsumed under the notion of 呼び捨て. Other examples include: avoiding to put the polite affix さん to criminals. This departs from the nature of journalism being a neutral and factual information source, and its idea is to add a non-official punishment to the criminal/suspect besides the official judgement given by the court.
No comments:
Post a Comment