Why is 礼 honorific in 「お礼を申し上げます/give my thanks [to someone]」? In the addition of honorific to a direct object depends on who owns it: > | I will give teacher my book > > | I shall borrow teacher's book > > | I will show teacher to the meeting place There are some words that always take an honorific (examples discussed in other questions include and but is not one of them. Why are "my" thanks honorific but not my book? (I imagine that in Japanese they are not "my" thanks, or their is a difference between tangible/intangible objects/gestures, but these are guesses.)

I think the is simply there to make it sound more polite and is more a part of than a part of . I would consider the classification of your third example as follows.

>
>
>
>

with increasing level of politeness.

>

would be another example of you "giving" something and adding a polite or .