Use of でいらっしゃる and でござる

Question

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.

Answer 1

「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.