The English language seems to be incredibly reliant on the feelings perceived by people within the interaction…do other languages operate this way too?
I don't understand what that means.
@mcfate sorry, it’s early. Let me simplify. When we interact with people, it’s not just the words we use that’s important. The way I interpret your expression of them does too. We see this most often in text message miscommunication, I’m sure we’ve all had that problem.
I’m curious if other languages suffer from a similar problem or if there are more…expressive grammatical structures I suppose
"Reading things into stuff people say" isn't a linguistic feature, it's a psychological one.
Japanese can be rather vague, so you can do a lot of "reading".
The most common thing you'll ever say in keigo in Japanese — assuming you're not working as a cashier in a Starbucks or something like that — is an apology for a big screwup.
MOCHIWAKE GOZAIMASEN!
@tiaugn
Again, I'm not sure what you're referring to, specifically.
"Honorifics", as such, in Japanese are very rarely used in practice, and only in situations where there's a big "power differential" between one party and another. If you're using one, you're talking keigo, which isn't the usual "tone" in most situations.
You'd address your boss Ms. Tamaoka as "Tamaoka-san", not "Tamaoka-dono" or "Tamaoka-sama".