The Address Terms Used By Military Cadets And Their Interaction With The Military Culture And Network

Address term is an important aspect of sociolinguistics. People use different address terms to locate themselves in a complex interpersonal relationship. In 1960, Brown and Gilman published their classic work in which they put forward the concept of "power" and "solidarity". In 1982, Lesley Milroy put forward the important concept of social network, which she deemed as "an norm enforcement mechanism". This thesis, based on the research findings of Brown and Gilman and Lesley Milroy, attempts to find out how the power relations and network of the military academy interact with the military cadets' choice of address terms.Two aspects are examined in this thesis: "the consideration of respect"—how much respect the cadets paid in choosing the appropriate address terms, and "the consideration of dependence"—how much the cadets feel bound by the network in their choices.The data in this thesis are collected through questionnaire and analyzed not only to present how the cadets address the people in their daily life, but to show what has been the dominant factor in their choice. The findings have been interesting. The address terms of the cadets tend to be "focused" and are both marked and unmarked and their consideration of respect is prominent in the most of the address terms they choose.