A Sociolinguistic Study On Address Forms Of College Students In Shenyang

Address forms are common phenomena in verbal communication in daily life. They have the function of establishing, maintaining and strengthening the interpersonal relationship between participants. Address forms are the best area where social factors influence language and are generally regarded as the barometers of interpersonal relationship. The use of address forms somehow reflects Social change. This thesis focused on the college students'use of social address forms and tried to summarize their typical linguistic features.This research was a preliminary investigation of address forms used by college students. For the understanding of the address forms used by college students, corpus-based research was indispensable. It drew on data from three main sources: questionnaire, interview and observation. The target group of the research was the college students from Shenyang City in Liaoning Province. This research mainly analyzed the features of address forms used by college students, on which there were no previous studies conducted. The features of address forms used by college students are analyzed mainly from three aspects: the address forms in relation to fellow students; the address forms in relation to teaching and administrative staff; the address forms in relation to strangers.By analyzing the data about the customary usage of address forms in relation to fellow students, it is found that in the community of college students, no-naming more often emerges in the communications of the unfamiliar than in those of the familiar, which is opposite to Li Mingjie's report. Besides the customary use of address forms, college students have far more uncustomary address forms in their daily life. The single multiple choices can not provide enough room for students to list out all the address forms they actually use. From all the information gained, it can be learned that there are a variety of uncustomary usage concerning FN and LN. Those address forms can be divided into three groups: FN+LN and its variations, LN and its variations, FN and its variations. It is also found that college students favor the nicknames indicating intimacy or friendship and sometimes they used the nickname to make jokes. Moreover for some college students, the roommates have some specialty and privileges. While in the small circle of dormitory, sharing the same room with their peers, those students feel very intimate and are willing to set up the solidary relationship with each other. Thus, after getting to know each other, they line up their names according to the rule of seniority among brothers and sisters. And then they call each other in accordance with the order that the addressee has in the line.From the statistics on the address forms in relation to teaching staff, it is learned that, for college students, Title, as an address form, still has the priority, which appears alone or accompanies LN. Other address forms have comparatively smaller proportions. The questionnaire and interview shows that T in addressing teacher staff is employed in various ways divergent from the traditional one, changing with different contexts. The phenomenon shows the new relationship between teachers and college students, close and intimate.By analyzing the data on the address forms in relation to strangers, and comparing the usual social use, it is obvious that there is great divergence existing in the community of college students. They have their own opinions and understanding of the seven social address forms.There are wide sources of address forms used by college students. Just because of that, the address forms on campus can be various and diverse. Address forms have a close link with culture and are sure to be embedded in the culture where they are born. Moreover, English plays a very important role in college study; both Chinese culture and English culture present clear reflection in the address forms used by college students. A large number of address forms used by college students have got changes in content, semantics and lexis. They gain the original sources from the Internet, pop songs, film, TV programs and so on, and dialect and simplification provide them large stock for their reservoir. College students'attitude to address forms is influenced by many factors, several of which are selected to be discussed here, such as gender, major, grade, family background and so on, in addition to context and communication.