Names And Naming: A Socio-cultural Analysis

People's names refer to the symbols indicating each particular member in the society. As one of the essential parts of human language, people's names are playing a dominant role in the society. Firstly, only when one person gets a name, does he or she get the symbol of showing his or her existence and identity in the society. Secondly, names are symbols which one person can distinguish himself or herself from others. Thirdly, names are indispensable for the communication in human society since language is a communicative tool for human society.Names are not only used to signify the individual but also in conformity with culture (that is, to observe and "copy" culture). They are characterized as signifying a particular person and expressing various cultural concepts.Names are given or chosen by people, therefore, they have some cultural implications. The relation between a name and what it signifies does not only limit to signifying an individual or a group, because it can directly or indirectly reflect the evolution of society, but also can reflect or even adjust personal relationship between social members.Saussure indicates that the study of language is involved in internal linguistics which is concerned with the structure and system of language and external linguistics which studies the relation between language and ethnology, culture, geography and political history, institutions of everything sort, etc. {Saussure, 1959). The study of names also concerns "internal linguistics" and "external linguistics", that is, "the structure" and "meaning".It must be emphasized that a name has double structures and double meanings. The double structures include the corresponding linguistic structure and cultural structure. Names must observe the language rules, on the other hand, it must be accustomed to the development of society, history and culture. The double meanings of a name include the linguistic meaning and cultural meaning. Here the "linguistic meaning" indicates phonology, grammar and semantics, etc., and it indicates the signifier and signified in narrow linguistic sense. "Social cultural meaning" indicates the values connected with the history and life of a society.In daily communication, names are often used to address people. Address form is the word speakers use to designate the person they are talking to and a means tomaintain the social relationship between the speaker and the hearer. It can also reflect the speakers' social status and their relations. As a sign of language, name is only used to signify a person, which is the intrinsical function of it in speech communication. However, sometimes it can be used to signify emotion and present functional deviation. It is well known that there are many forms to address the same person. The choice of names is conditioned by some factors. In addition to the referential function, name has some deep implication, that is, non-referential function.This dissertation investigates names and naming under English and Chinese cultural backgrounds and analyzes the functions of names when used as address forms in social communication from the aspect of sociolinguistics and pragmatics, then summarizes the factors that condition the choice of names to address somebody. On the base of study the referential function of names, the dissertation analyzes the features of non- referential function of names. Therefore, by analyzing names and naming under English and Chinese cultural backgrounds, we could gain a better understanding of the long histories of two countries, the features of two different countries, different ideologies, their unique social conventions and languages. The study of the referential and non-referential functions is expected to help us to realize the speaker's intention and what he or signifies when he or she chooses some address form, also helps us to choose a proper address form so as to create good relation with others and understand the implication of names.This dissertation consists of consists six chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the objectives of writing this dissertation and the layouts of the dissertation. Chapter 2, first makes a literature review of the research of names and naming, analyzes the basic forms in two naming systems and their respective cultural connotation, and then studies surnames in terms of origins, the sequencing, locality and the change of female surnames, also given names. In chapter 3, the author investigates the function of names when used as address forms from the aspects of sociolinguistics and pragmatics, and then summarizes the factors that condition the choice of names. Chapter 4 analyzes the features of non-referential names. Chapter 5 discusses some remaining issues in names and naming. The last chapter concludes the dissertation.