2。1。2 Address forms in American English

Brown and Ford (1961) investigate the use of address forms in American English。 And they find that the principal option of address in American English is the choice between use of the first name (hereafter abbreviated to FN) and use of a title with the last name (TLN)。 Their study particularly focused on three dimensions: (1) mutual exchange of FN, (2) the mutual exchange of TLN, and (3) the nonreciprocal pattern in which one person gives FN and gets TLN in return。 

From Brown and Ford’s study, it is obvious that the two reciprocal patterns are governed by a single dimension, ranging from acquaintance to intimacy。 For instance, people in America call strangers or someone they are merely acquainted with by TLN and are expected to receive the same addressing form in return。 People who are friends call each other by FN。 Brown and Ford also pointed out that in modern American English, the distance between the two points is very small with the Mutual FN usually representing only a very small increment of intimacy over the Mutual TLN; as small sometimes as 5 minutes of conversation。 Furthermore, the third dimension in this study, nonreciprocal pattern, is mainly governed by two dimensions: age and occupational status。 The person with the higher occupational status has the privilege of being addressed with TLN while addressing the other person with FN。 Furthermore, the older person will receive the address with TLN, indicating respect and politeness。 A person who is elder will be called by a TLN form from others, but he or she can call the younger person by an FN form。 It is not always the case that older people have higher occupational status than younger ones。 When there is a conflict, for instance, between a young executive and an old janitor; it will be occupational status that takes precedence。 Status superiors use FN to subordinates but receive TLN in return。 The specific social meaning of FN or TLN varies, depending on who is being addressed。 If a person is called by FN form from his or her family members and friends, it indicates the familiarization。 But if he or she is called by a superior, it means condescension in nonreciprocal exchanges。论文网

In short, power and solidarity, the two dimensions proposed by Brown and Gilman (1960), also occur in American English。 Power is realized in the form of social status represented mainly by age and occupational status; solidarity is realized by the degree of social distance。

2。2 Studies of address forms in China

There are a lot of researches about the differences of address forms between Chinese and English。 In A Comparison of Address Forms in American English and Chinese (Sha Kong, 2009), the writer explored the similarities and differences in the use of English and Chinese address forms, and tried to find the deep structure of these culture from history, family notion and formality and informality。 In A Contrastive Study of Chinese and English Forms of Address (Lanying Hu & Shaoquan Lv, 2014), they investigated the impact of social context as well as intimacy and distance on the choice of forms of address in English and Chinese。 And found that the choice of linguistic forms is determined by formality of the context and the relationship between interlocutors in a speech event。 In Address forms in Chinese and English-speaking culture (Xiaoru Wang, 2015), the writer made a contrast between English and Chinese address forms from kinship terms and terms of position。 And tried to find the reasons from the cultural differences。 The essay showed the importance of the use address forms in communications。 And in The Comparison of Chinese and American Address Forms (Yingdan Chen, 2015), it took the comparison of the Characters of Chinese and American Address forms and then analyzed the main factors which make the great differences between Chinese and American address forms。 From all of these thesis, there are various researches about the use of English and Chinese address forms, but scholars seldom discuss about the differences of address forms between English and Japanese。