In a novel I'm reading (「キッチン」 by 吉本{よしもと}ばなな), there's this situation where the door opens and a woman enters the room asking for the main character by name. The main character, being surprised and not knowing the woman, asks her who she is:
失礼ですが、どちら様でしたか？
My question is: why the past form of です is used in 「どちら様でしたか？」? Those two people are standing there talking to each other, so why the past form? Would it be possible to ask 「どちら様ですか？」?
Answer
It's used for politeness. Here's what Martin writes in his 1975 Reference Grammar of Japanese, p.603:
Sometimes the perfect is used more for politeness than for time reference: あなたはどなたでした = お名前は何とおっしゃいましたか ‘What did you say your name was?’ (when the person has actually not yet said); 判子をお持ちでしたね ‘You have your chop (= signature-seal) with you, I presume’.
Note that Martin refers to the 〜た form as the "perfect" rather than "past tense" form. This usage of た with present time reference is usually only in questions, as noted by Hasegawa in her paper Tense-Aspect Controversy Revisited: the -ta and -ru forms in Japanese (1999), which was pointed out by Tim in the comments section.
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