Constructing a Judging Model of Closeness in Japanese Business Relations

In this paper, we propose a method for constructing a judging model of closeness in human relations, which plays an important role in human communication. The purpose of this model is to clarify the correlation between linguistic honorific expressions and closeness in order to develop a support tool related to the utilization of honorific expressions using information technology. Existing studies focusing on honorific expressions have not considered closeness; therefore, our aim is to investigate the correlation between linguistic honorific expressions and closeness. We believe that it is important to judge the type of closeness correctly in the development of the honorific expresions support tool. In this study, we construct a judging model of closeness using handbooks for writing Japanese business emails, and evaluate the correctness of our constructed model.