I found a chart listing the plain, polite, honorific, and humble forms of
verbs. The chart listed だ →です→でいらっしゃる→でござる with the note “animate only.” I
know that だ and です can be used for inanimate references. Is it true that
でいらっしゃる and でござる can be used only for animate references, or was the chart in
error? (I know that だ/です is a copulative and not a true verb.) This question
is not about いらっしゃる or ござる used independently, but でいらっしゃる and でござる used,
respectively, as the honorific and humble forms of です.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-29T14:48:29.463
59794
2018-06-29T21:29:15.097
2018-06-29T21:29:15.097
27152
27152
question
grammar verbs honorifics
Use of でいらっしゃる and でござる
「ござる」is simply a much politer version of ある. The copula です stems from the
original copula である ( **で** ありま **す** → **です** ), which is the verb ある
combined with the particle で, so you can say でございます in place of any です,
whether the reference is animate or not.

「いらっしゃる」is the respectful (尊敬語) form of 行く, 来る, and いる. Due to the nature of
these verbs (especially いる) and the nature of 尊敬語, which is used to show
respect to the subject of the sentence, I find it unlikely that いらっしゃる would
ever be used with an inanimate reference.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-29T15:56:05.027
59796
2018-06-29T15:56:05.027
9749
59794
answer