Politeness And Illocutionary Force Functions Of Address Forms In English And Chinese

It is hard to ignore functions of address forms in communication. Previous researches fail to pay enough attention to functions of address forms. Therefore this thesis attempts to investigate functions of address forms as politeness and illocutionary force strategies by applying Politeness Principle and Illocutionary Act Theory to reveal that address forms is essential in communication. The previous researches on address forms are reviewed first. Then their limitations follow to account for functions. And next, the thesis investigates address form functions in both English and Chinese by applying Politeness Principle and Illocutionary Act Theory. Examples selected from English and Chinese daily conversations and literary works are given as support. Also the implication brought by the two functions in English teaching and learning is drawn in the last chapter. Address forms are not merely words used in sentence to address someone else, but exert more pragmatic functions. To understand the meanings they convey is a very important step to understand others. In English teaching and learning, more concerns should be given to functions of address forms so as to avoid pragmatic failure.