A Pragmatic Analysis Of Address Terms From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

As the basic constituent in a language system, the address term has been a heated topicattracting much attention from scholars of different branches. Pervasive in human daily life,the use of address terms is of great importance to communication, which is well worthanalyzing. The classic and most influential study on address terms is published by Brown andGilman, who put forward the two famous governing semantic dimensions: power andsolidarity in choosing the form of the second person pronoun Tu or Vous (you, and to be hereafter shortened as T, V respectively). Their pioneer studies pave the way for the later researchof address terms. Other important contributions are made by Brown&Ford, and Ervin-Tripp.Brown and Ford carry out another classic study on the choice of names which are used toaddress others especially in American English. They propose that there are three patterns ofaddress in American address system: the mutual exchange of first name, the mutual exchangeof title with last name and a nonreciprocal pattern. Another sociolinguist Ervin-Tripp uses thecomputer flow chart to present American address system in the form of a series of choices.Chinese scholars also make great achievements on the studies of address terms. ZhaoYuanren, with his work Chinese Terms of Address and Zhu Wanjin who is influenced by theflow chart of Ervin-Tripp and designs a similar chart to analyze the Chinese address terms, arethe representatives on the studies of Chinese address terms. However, the previous studies aremainly conducted from socio-linguistic perspective focusing mainly on the classification andfunctions of address terms, which are stable. However, address terms are used in differentcontexts and influenced by different factors, which is a dynamic process. So, the thesisdevotes to analyzing the dynamic use of address terms from pragmatic perspective byadopting Verschueren’s adaptation theory.Verschueren believes that language use is one of human adaptive behaviors and a processof making choices constantly. In this dynamic process, the context and linguistic choices aremutual adaptation. The three properties of human language: variability, negotiability andadaptability are the guarantee for language users to make linguistic choices. Based on thenotion of adaptability, Verschueren assigns four angles of investigation to pragmaticdescriptions and explanations, which are focal points in a coherent pragmatic approach: contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, dynamics ofadaptability and salience of adaptation processes. The linguistic choices are made in theprocess of adapting languages to different communicative contexts. The communicativecontext is complicated, including various factors of mental world, social world and physicalworld, all of which have great effects on the linguistic choices. The adaptation theory can alsobe adopted to analyze the choice of address terms, the basic constituent in a language system.The thesis begins with the introduction of address terms and the previous studies in ChapterOne and Two, and then in Chapter Three, the thesis presents the basic content ofVerschueren’s adaptation theory. In Chapter Four, based on Verschueren’s adaptation theoryand data on address terms taken from literary works and daily communication, the thesismainly analyzes the dynamic choice of address terms in different communicative contexts,containing the adaption to mental world, social world and physical world. The mental world isrelatively complicated, containing the factors as personality, beliefs, emotions, intentions andso on. In Chapter Five, through the analysis of different examples taken from literary worksand daily communication, the thesis draws a conclusion that in order to start and develop thecommunication successfully, language users should constantly choose proper address terms toadapt to different communicative contexts, which is also a proof of strong explanatory powerand penetration of Verschueren’s adaptation theory. The limitations and implications of thethesis are also mentioned in this chapter.