Honorifics have been the focus of several theories and studies. Brown and Levinson (1987) view the use of honorifics as a strategy of negative politeness, while honorifics for some other scholars (e.g. Hill et al., 1986; Ide, 1989; Ide & Yoshida, 1999) are related to social etiquette. For other scholars (e.g. Agha, 1993; Duranti, 1992; Cook, 2011) honorifics are indexes. Although this debate about honorifics is not new, there is a lack of research that applies these theories together and examines which meaning of an honorific is more appropriate in a certain situation. Assuming a possibility of a mix of these theories, the present study implements Optimality Theory (OT) that is developed by Prince and Smolensky (2004) to identify the ranking of constraints that accounts for the optimal honorific in a certain situation. Since Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) presents a modus operandi for most Arabs (Hamid & Mydin, 2009), data of this study is obtained from Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Bukhārī, the most valid and beneficial collection of the Prophet’s reports. Although a huge number of studies have been conducted to analyze Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Bukhārī, covering a wide range of topics in different disciplines, there is a lack of research investigating how the Prophet (PBUH) used honorifics in general, and in Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Bukhārī in particular. This analysis shows that the use of honorifics can be captured more accurately within the framework of OT than using each of Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory, social etiquette and Ide’s notion of wakimae, and Cook’s indexes alone. In doing so, the study expands the use of OT to discourse analysis.
