A Study On The Interpersonal Meaning Of Gender Address Forms In House Of Cards

The personal referential system is composed of the system of address form (or appellative system) and the pronoun system. The research in this field has become one of the main topics in linguistic theoretical research and practice. However, the previous studies only focused on the referential function, the part of speech, anaphoric relationship and its presentation in social communication. A systemic, dynamic and applicable analytical framework has not been worked out by taking into consideration of the participants, context, tenor and mode. Hence, based on the register theory of systemic functional linguistics and the appraisal system, and combining them with the basic theories and methodologies in pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, and social linguistics, with data collected from the dialogues in American and British versions of series House of Cards, this thesis has analyzed the gender markedness of address form from the perspective of interpersonal meaning in order to explore its semantic potentiality, that is, in a dynamic context, the relationship between the tenor and the gender markedness of address form, overt or covert. The specific analysis is taken on the interrelationship between the address system and gender marks selection, context, personal social background, status and communicative motivation, aiming to prove why in different context, different people will differ in choosing address forms to present their attitudes, motivations and relationships in communication. The processing mechanism of the address system has also been focused.In the study, there are three major findings. Firstly, it is the address gender markedness that construes the semantic potentiality of the address form, which will be realized with dynamic tenor and context. Secondly, based on the appraisal system, the analysis shows that the realization of gender markedness of the address system is in polarity for different categories of power, communicative motivation, value, race, religion, kinship, age, etc. Thirdly, the choice on address gender marks will reveal people’s subjective affection, attitude and the alternation of the interpersonal relationship, and highlight personal features, communicative motivations and strategies, which will deepen the theme of the series. The results prove that based on SFL theories of register and the appraisal system, a systemic and appliable model can be established for the analysis of the gender markedness and the function of the address system, especially the dynamic presentation function of its interpersonal meaning. The study specifies the theoretical framework of the address system and broadens the interpersonal meaning studies. In the literature appreciation, the analysis on the interpersonal meaning of the address system can help deepen readers’ understanding of the viewpoint and the characters’social and political background, personality, feeling, motivation, communicating goal and strategy. Moreover, the study is also a theoretical orientation for a proper choice of the address system in intercultural communication to maintain a good interpersonal relationship.