专用词汇形式表示人称谦敬是东亚、东南亚地区的语言区域特征。作者认为,这类人称代词的产生为社会文化和宗教因素所促成。
It is an areal feature among East and Southeast Asian languages using distinct self-depreciatory or honorific lexical forms to indicate humbleness, politeness and deference/ respect of persons. The authors propose that personal pronouns of this kind are motivated by social, cultural and religious factors.