贈答場面における配慮表現 : 「つまらないものですが」の使用をめぐって

Though it is said that the usage of considerate expression “tsumaranaimonodesuga (small gift)” has been a traditional language behavior in the gift giving situation, some people nowadays tend not to use this expression. Accordingly this study aims at investigating the characteristics of considerate expression “tsumaranaimonodesuga (small gift)” in the gift-giving situation on the basis of analysis of data collected by interviewing the people in Osaka City and conducting questionnaire survey through correspondence in all over Japan.
The outcome of the interview at Osaka city shows that the people, especially women,
like to use positive expressions for conveying the humility expression and gift-giving expression (P<0.01). In addition, the outcome derived through the questionnaire survey throughout Japan revealed a distribution of the usage of tsumaranaimonodesuga which shows that the usages of this expression are concentrated in West Japan surrounding around the Kinki region. Hence it can be assumed that there likely exists a regional difference in the usage of this very expression.
Thus this study reveals that there exist a variation in gender and generation of the respondents with regard to the usage of considerate expression given that there prevails
some discrepancy in the respondent selection and questionnaire patterns.