A Socio-pragmatic Analysis Of Changes Of Address Forms In Contemporary Chinese

An address form (AF) is the word or phrase used for addressing a person’s name or identity in a certain language environment, which is an important part of verbal communication, and it’s often the first information to convey to the hearer. AFs not only mean the recognition between each other, but also refer to the person-to-person interaction. The correct use of AFs is directly related to the success or failure of verbal communication, and the ability to deal with the interpersonal relationships. The proper use of AFs is particularly important in cross-cultural communication. Language belongs to a cultural phenomenon;it presents a relatively stable state in the traditional society. But with the adjustment of economic and social structure, the spread of material culture, modern Chinese AFs has experienced great development and changes.So this thesis will focus on the analysis of changes and the development trend of modern Chinese AFs in recent years on the basis of existing research from the view of socio-pragmatic functions. And the thesis will discuss some major factors caused these changes from the angle of social culture and the psychology to look for some better ways to make the use of Chinese AFs more standardized.In the introduction, some Chinese and western studies of AFs are introduced, and the research background, purpose and significance of this thesis are explained at the end.In Chapter One, different definitions of AF are introduced at the beginning and then the different conceptual categories of AFs are discussed. Then the thesis introduces the two major categories of Chinese AFs:kinship terms and social AFs. Next, from the perspective of social pragmatics, this thesis analyzes the interpersonal function and the illocutionary function of Afs.Chapter Two is a discussion about the development and evolution of contemporary AFs. First, the author points out some features of AFs from the analysis of three different historical periods, and then explores the evolution of the contemporary Chinese AFs from the perspective of language change:the emergence of new AFs, extension of meaning, elevation and degradation of AFs.In Chapter Three, the author combines the theory with the practice to elaborate the development trend of the contemporary Chinese AFs from four aspects including the simplification, entertainment, and decline of sexism and the extensive use of kinship terms. The major causes of changes of contemporary Chinese AFs are analyzed from the perspective of social culture and the psychology.