CuluraldifferencesinChineseandEnglishaddressforms_开题报告

 Along with the social development, the distance of the heart between Chinese and English people are much closer than it has ever been, one word that can evocatively indicate such a phenomenon is “the Global village”.In other word, intercultural communication goes forward with an irresistible force. So that appropriate address behavior is crucial for effective communication and successful maintenance of interpersonal relationships.Many predecessors had studied the address forms for particular languages, but a few are focused on the comparative study between Chinese and English address forms, for which will be discussed in this topic with practical examples in different conditions by referring the predecessors studies of the address forms of the related languages, before that, I should provide the background in relation to their studies of address forms.

 

 As early as the 1960s, some of western scholars had studied many aspects of address forms, for Roger Brown(1960) who had studied the indicative usage of second personal pronoun of Indo-european from the outbreak of socialinguistics; Brown and Ford’s(1961) examination of nominal address in American English is also among the earliest studies on intimacy and distance , in which a significant contrast in the use of first name(FN) and titles + last name(TLN) as forms of address was revealed.It is suggested from their study that FN is used reciprocally while TLN is used only among people who are not acquaintances. Without a doubt,intimacy and distance play an important role in determination of the choice of address forms.Owing to the different cultural background between Chinese and English, the former one is inclined to groupment culture for whom regard it as the cell composition of a society while the latter one advocate and value independent culture.So that the address form used in American English based on above researchers somehow can not represent Chinese one.      

The turn of the millennium saw the emergency of more studies on sociolinguistic and ethnographic approaches in relation to forms of address.In a study of Chinese English, Zhang(2002) stresses the importance of address term studied and asserts that forms of address are an important means to convey cultural messages, especially with regards to the status and social relationships of the interlocutors. Continuing and extending the study of address forms as a means of conveying social values such as solidarity and politeness, sociolinguists of this phase have made great contributions.For example, Wardhaugh (2006:260-283) devoted one chapter in this book, An introduction to Sociolinguistics (5th edition),to the discussion of solidarity and politeness mainly on the grounds of the former studies of Title version usage.In discussing the link between linguistic behaviour and politic behavior, Watts(2003) established new theories of politeness and politeness strategies.Other recent studies with a focus on expressing politeness, intimacy, power, and solidarity through address form usage include those by Keshavarz(2001), Woolard(2003), Afful(2006), Tran (2010) and Shohet (2013), etc. Any of these points of address form should also depend on the cultural difference between Chinese and English, as the presentation ways of politeness in these Countries are different because Chinese people take great importance to monarch-subjects, father-son relationships, address forms in China is defined by way of seniority with strict hierarchy, while people in English and American Countries are equal in status between seniority and one’s juniors, for whom are befriended with each other.

In summary, one should understand well that people of different Nations differ in culture, history, customs, and convention, and these differences can be shown in their address forms. According to the explanation in Modern Chinese Dictionary(1979), Address form is the interrelations of people between relatives and other aspects, which can also obtained from one’s identity and profession.Generally speaking, address forms can be classified into two types, kinship terms and social terms.My study will mainly focus on the two types to spread with a detailed analysis based on the study of 中西人际称谓系统（Chinese-Western interpersonal appellation system）（1998）written by Tian Huize for both different cultures influential to address forms and hopefully my study can be referred for later researchers.     

       

             

Outline 

Introduction

2. Cultural differences that reflected in between Chinese and English address terms

2.1 Influence factors in Chinese address forms

2.2 Influence factors in English address forms

3. Kinship terms between Chinese and English

3.1 Kinship terms in between Chinese and English address forms for blood relatives

3.2 Kinship terms in between Chinese and English address forms for non-linear relatives

Social terms between Chinese and English

Title terms in between Chinese and English

4.2 Name terms in between Chinese and English

4.3 General terms in between Chinese and English

4.4 Personal terms in between Chinese and English

4.5 No-naming terms in between Chinese and English

5. Conclusion

6. References

           References

Brown, R., &Gilman, A (1960). The Pronouns of power and solidarity. In A.T. Sebeok (Ed.), Stle in language (p. 253-276)

Brown, R., & Ford, M.(1961).Address in American English. Journal of Abnormal and social psychology, 62,. (p.375-385)

Zhang, H. (2002).Bilingual creativity in Chinese English. Ha Jin’s in the pond.World Englishes, 21(2), (p.305-315)

Wardhaugh,R. (2006). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (5th ed.).Oxford,UK: Blackwell.

Keshavarz, M. H. (2001). The role of social context, intimacy, and distance in the choice of froms and address.International journal of the Sociology of Language, (p. 148,5-18).

Watts, R.(2005). Politeness in language: Studies in its history, theory, and practice.In R.J. Watts, Sachiko Ide & Konrad Ehlich (eds.)43-70. Berlin/New York: mouton De Gruyter

Afful,J.(2006).Non-kinship address terms in Akan: A sociolinguistics study of language use in Gana.Journal of Multilingual and Multicutural Development, 27(4), p. 275-289

Tran, V.M.Y.(2010). Vietnamese expressions of politeness.Griffith working papers in pragmatics and Intercultural Communication, 3(1),12-21.

Yang.C. (2010). Translation of English and Chinese address terms from the cultural aspect.Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 1(5), p.738-742

田惠则（1998），中西人际称谓系统