A Study Of Address Forms In Hong Kong Under The Influence Of English From The View Of Cultural Colonization

Address form is the special word/words used to address other person by the speakers. It shows the different roles people play in certain communicating background. It also implies the interpersonal relationships between them. Every language and culture has its own address form system. Address form is not only the identity of a person, but also a mark of culture. The forming, selecting and using of it are affected and restricted by socio-cultural factors. And, the address form represents the unique cultural features of different regions under the various cultural backgrounds.Combining with the researches by predecessors and based on many theories mainly the theory of address form, culture, cultural colonization, and sociolinguistics, the author does the comprehensive and systematical study on address form systems which is concerned with kinship terms and social terms used in Hong Kong, a special region which has the colonial history. Methods such as observation, participant-observation, informal interview, references analysis, etc. have been adopted. As the colony of Britain, Hong Kong once experienced more than one hundred years long colonial history. And it gets the cultural colonization from Britain. The address form used in Hong Kong is certainly affected by English. In this thesis, through analyzing the forms, patterns structures, classifications, pragmatic functions and usages of the address forms used in Hong Kong, the author tries to illustrate how the address form used in Hong Kong gets the influence from the cultural colonization of Britain. Meanwhile, through analyzing various social factors and reasons to show the unique of the address form used in Hong Kong. Through these studies, this thesis also shows the similarities and difference of the Chinese culture and western culture which are represented by Hong Kong and Britain.Through the study, the author finds that, generally the address form used in Hong Kong gets the influence of English because of the cultural colonization from Britain, at the same time, the address form used in Hong Kong has the Chinese language essential features because of the mother tone and the Return of Hong Kong. But with the evolution of different historical period, the address form used in Hong Kong reflects the conflict and the blending of the cultures.All in all, address form varies with time, regions, ethnics, languages, etc. which require people to try to improve intercultural communicative competence, and learn about the customs and traditions as well as the address forms using conventions of the other part, then select appropriate address forms according to the communicating purposes and the contexts, etc. And under the special view of cultural colonization, also require people to understand the conflict and blending of cultures of some special backgrounds, and learn the objective and rational attitude to understand cultures under Chinese and Western backgrounds.