艾小乐论文二稿

江西理工大学

本科毕业论文

The Differences of Address Forms in English and Chinese and

their Culture Connotation

学院: The Faculty of Foreign Study

专业：English

班级：Class 071

学生姓名：Ai Xiaole

指导教师：Liu Hongying

称谓语是发话人用来称呼交际对方的用语，它是一种语言现象，但其功能远不仅如此。称谓语的使用，反应出特定的社会现象和文化内涵。中国拥有五千多年的悠久历史，中国发展至今，保留着大量的称谓语，这些称谓语都反应了一个时代的特征和文化内涵。如今，随着中国的对外开放以及加入WTO，中国与外界的联系也越来越密切、深入、广泛。同时，中国的现代化发展也使中国在国际上的地位日渐提高，影响力逐渐扩大，全世界开始关注中国，并开始研究和学习中国语言。然而英语仍然是世界通用语言，大多数的发达国家都是英语系国家，因此我们很有必要学习其先进的文化、知识和技术。本文通过收集、归纳中英称谓语，研究和学习中英称谓语的差异，分析其反映的文化内涵，从而达到学习双方文化的目的，利于双方文化交流沟通。

关键词：称谓语；差异；文化内涵

Abstract

Address forms are the languages used by the speakers to call the other people of a conversation. They are the phenomena of language, but they have much more functions. Address forms reflect the particular social phenomenon and culture connotation. China has a long history of more than 5000 years. Till now, there exist a great number of address forms. These address forms all reflect the characteristics of an age and the culture connotation. Nowadays, with the Chinese opening to the outside and joining into WTO, it relates with the outside world more closely, more deeply, more comprehensively, at the mean time, the development of Chinese modernization improves Chinese status gradually over the world, and Chinese influences become wider. All the countries over the world start to pay attention to China, and start to study and learn Chinese language. But English is still the common used language over the world, and the language of the most developed countries is English. So it’s quite necessary for us to learn their advanced cultures, knowledge, technologies. This thesis focus on collecting the address forms of English and Chinese, studying and learning the differences, and analyzing the culture connotation reflected in them. So as to reach the goal of learning the cultures of both sides, and make the exchanging and communications of different cultures more conveniently.

Key words: Address forms; Differences; Culture connotation

Chapter I Introduction

Language is a carrier of culture, and it also reflects one country’s cultural characteristics. Address form is an element of language and a very important base of communication. Its proper use is the foundation of maintaining people’s convenient communication. With the development of the world and the rising of China, the communications between the cultures of China and western countries become more and more. How to research and study the proper use of address forms will play an important role in the communications between the Chinese culture and western culture. At present, lots of experts and scholars have studied the topic and many books and papers have written the topic, these works are mainly emphasizing on the address forms in Chinese and English, and the differences between two languages. These works are comprehensive and they have achieved great successes. This topic in this thesis are based on predecessors’ works, and the purpose of writing this thesis is to raise my own views and ideas on address forms. Besides the predecessors’ works, this thesis will also raise the generalization and westernization of Chinese forms. The development of society brings people new idea and new mind, and lots of traditional address forms change their original meanings with the time going. Also, with the rapid procceding of Internet and information tech, a lot of new address forms have been created and used in our daily life. Meanwhile, after China’s entry into WTO, cultures of western countries flow into China and affect even impact Chinese culture and people’s mind, people start to adjust their life including address forms to accord with the international standards. So it is quite necessary to analyse the phenomena of generalization and westernization of Chinese address forms, and find out the origin. It will help us to understand our own history and culture, then the world.

Chapter II The definition of address form and the functions 2.1.Definition

According to the explanation in Modern Chinese Dictionary, address form refers to the names based on the kinship or other relations among the people and people’s statuses and professions. Address form reflects language, and it also reflects the social cultures. In any languages, address form plays an important role in social intercourses. The theory of sociolinguistics puts that the use of address form should be limited in the frame of ethnic culture. And the address form depends on the relations of similarity or dissimilarity, the relations of ascendance, coherence relations and other relations. It should properly recognize the relations among the roles in particular situations. It should also obey the behavioral norms of speech roles expected by the society. Address form can be parted in two branches: kinship address form and social address form.

2.2. Functions

In interpersonal communications, address forms consist of three aspects: address forms for both sides of communication, address forms for speakers own, and address forms for others. Joshua Fishman raised the theory of register in the research of sociolinguistics. He put the use of address forms into five registers: family register, friend register, religion register, education register, work register. Fishman considers that people can choose the address forms in different situations based on the five registers. The author thinks that the functions of address forms are to maintain the coherence of speeches and clearance of meanings and to make the propagations of information between communicative sides more fluently and conveniently. The features are as following:

(1) Address forms help to build new human relations, express the will to get close, or just be used as an address forms, or express the will to be away. For example, on the calling of names, two strangers meet with each other for the first time, and one gets to know the other one’s name is ZhangXiaojun, when he calls XiaoJun, it will let the other one feels familiar. It reflects he wants to get close to the other one and use a proper strategy.

(2) Address forms adjust the old human relation; it can make the original relations closer or remoter or keep them still. From the following conversation, we can see that different uses of address forms reflect both sides’mental activities ingeniously, and imply their willings to adjust the original relation.

E.g. A gentleman says to a lady: “Darling, forgive me this time, ok?”

The lady answers: “No way! Chen Zhongqing, I won’t be fool again!”

In the conversation, the two people choose different address forms, and reflect their different aims to adjust the original relation. The husband use Darling a very familiar address form. His aim is quite clear, he tries to get close to his wife, and pray for the forgiveness, while the wife choose the full name to call the husband in order to keep distance, even make the original relation remoter, and shows her mental activity of non-cooperation and refuse to accept her husband’s apology.

Chapter III The differences of kinship address forms in

English and Chinese and their culture connotation

3.1. The definition of kinship address forms

Kinship address forms refer to the names that define the kin members and principle’s relations centered on the principle. Kinship address forms are the names or callings among relatives based on consanguinity and affinity. Kinship address forms are the marks centered on the principle to define the relations among relatives and principle.

According to the consanguinity and affinity relations, the author collects and classifies the kinship address forms usually used in our daily life.

Consanguinity:

Chinese English

丈夫husband

妻子wife

父亲father

母亲mother

儿子son

女儿daughter

哥哥、弟弟brother

姐姐、妹妹sister

祖父、外祖父grandfather

祖母、外祖母grandmother

孙子、外孙grandson

孙女、外孙女granddaughter

伯父、叔父、舅舅、姑父、姨父uncle

侄子、外甥nephew

伯母、婶母、舅母、姑母、姨母aunt

侄女、外甥女niece

堂兄弟姐妹、表兄弟姐妹cousin

Affinity:

Chinese English

公公、岳父father-in-law

婆婆、岳母mother-in-law

女婿son-in-law

儿媳daughter-in-law

大伯、小叔、内兄、内弟、姐夫、妹夫brother-in-law

大姑、小姑、大姨、小姨、嫂子、弟媳妇sister-in-law

3.2. Kinship address forms in Chinese are more complex than those in English

Why Chinese kinship address forms are more complex. First, it is the etiquette tradition of Chinese culture. The Chinese nation was reputed as a civilized nation and a state of ceremonies in the world. The system of etiquette has formed and highly developed many thousand years ago, and it combined with the Confucian ideals later. Its affluences and bonding forces became more comprehensive and wider. So in such a etiquette society, the culture of etiquette become so mature. There must be complex address forms to comply with them. Second, it is because our nation had been in the feudal society for a long history, and the unit of social community is family or clan. So the power of clan is very strong. In the clan, the close and distant relations are classified by levels strictly, and the distinctions of internal and external relatives are very clear. So lots of interrelated address forms appeared and were classified in detail. Meanwhile, the address forms in English are quite simple. A few words can cover lots of them. British etiquette culture formed many thousand years later than Chinese, and after the Renaissance, some books of etiquette appeared in the western countries, but the they only focused on teaching people how to have a refined way of speaking and good manners and to be gentle. These etiquette principles are just some decorations and embellishes for the super class society. They are not like what the Chinese ancient ancestors recognized the etiquette as the foundation to run the country well and give the people peace and security. So the etiquette principles are not so comprehensive, systematic, detailed as Chinese ones. Even though the western countries also went through the feudal society, and there were serfdom and the feudal Patrilineal clan system, but after the Renaissance and the industry revolution, western legal system stepped into a new period. The idea of freedom, equality and fraternity spread everywhere, and under the affluences of legal system, the address forms of consanguinity and affinity in English are simpler than those quite common for us to see in Chinese. So address forms in Chinese are more complex.

3.3. Kinship address forms in Chinese emphasize the position while those in

English do not

Kinship address forms in Chinese emphasize the position and elders and juniors are each in their places. Kinship address forms should recognize the exact position of one among the brothers and sisters, this comply with the ideas of elders gain the respects in etiquette. The family should obey the Patrilineal clan system order of elders and juniors are each in their places and elders gain the respects from the juniors. Age and position are important and strict basis to distinguish, because in the feudal society where gain respects or not based on age, even one hour, one day earlier, the former one gets the position as elder, and has the rights to gain respects and obedience from the later ones, and the duties attach with the rights, such as recognizing the elder brother as the father and in the ancient time the emperor passed the position to the eldest son. So the kinship address forms in Chinese distinguish the elder and junior ones clearly. But the kinship address forms in English do not emphasize the difference of ages. The males in the same generation call each other brother, and the females call sister, and the western people usually use the name or nickname as address forms in the same

generation. Jesus advocated all the members in a family are equal and he called his mother’s name directly, and he considered sons and daughters could debate with parents, even could be enemies. So there’s no difference of whose position’s high or low, and in the same generation, the members could call the names directly no matter who are elder or junior, to show familiar and friendly. So the people in Chinese can not call the elders’names directly, but those in the western countries can. And in the western countries, the centre family has the dominant position, the relations among the family members are quite simple. All members do not pay much attention to the kinship of each other, for the members do not stay with each other in the same house or place. So it’s not necessary to distinguish each other’s position.

3.4. Kinship address forms in Chinese emphasize the internal and external relations while those in English do not

In Chinese Culture and Translation of Chinese and English, professor LuHongmei puts that in the Chinese address forms culture, people firstly emphasize the differences of paternal line and maternal line, followed with the differences of branch growth and marriage relations. Such as 祖父、外祖父，伯叔、舅舅，姑母、姨母, these are different address forms based on different branches of the family and clan, though the members are in the same generation and have the same gender. Moreover, there are eight address forms such as 表兄弟、表姐们、堂兄弟、堂姐妹in the kinship address forms in Chinese, these address forms tied tightly with the traditional ideas of great differences among internal and external ones which passed from the ancient time. Chinese “表”means external in English, 表亲refers the external relatives, they are not the members in the same family, but 堂兄弟refers to the internal relatives, they are the members of the family. And there’s also a traditional idea that when the daughter grows up and marries with a man, she becomes a member of other family, not an internal member. So the assets of the family and other skills passed from the ancestors will be passed to the males and internal ones but not the females and external ones. Therefore the kinship address forms in Chinese emphasize the internal and external relations. In the kinship address forms in English, there are not so many differences of paternal lines and maternal lines, and people only use cousin instead of 表兄弟、表姐们、堂兄弟、堂姐妹in Chinese, all these reflect that kinship address forms in English do not emphasize the differences of internal and external relations as those in Chinese.

Chapter IV The differences of social address forms in English

and Chinese and their culture connotation

4.1. The definition of social address forms

Social address forms refer to the address forms besides kinship address forms. They reflect the culture of social life and mutual relations, the social relations between the two sides of communication, and the social roles and the respected levels and so on. Social address forms can be apart into non-kinship address forms and situation address forms.

Non-kinship address forms, refer to the address forms beside kinship ones, such as boy, girl, guy, they are common used in the society. They reflect that the communicative two people do not have the relationship of kin. Situation address forms refer to the particular address forms used in particular situation, they reflect the people’s classes, status, and also the relations between supply and demand. Here is a conversation between a black doctor and a white policeman:

“What’s your name, boy?” the policeman asked

“Dr. Poussaint, I’m a physician.”

“What’s your first name, boy?”

“Alvin.”

In this conversation, the white policeman should call the black man “Doctor”, but he uses “boy” to address the doctor, then the black man tells the policeman his title and position, but the white policeman still ignores that and uses “boy” to address the black man. It reflects that at that period, black people were in a low class and did not gain respects from the white people.

4.2. The differences of social address forms in English and Chinese and their

culture connotation

Being polite and modest is a traditional virtue of our Chinese nation. It is also existed in western culture, but there are great differences of each cultural backgrounds. The practical uses of address forms are quite different. This point is especially reflected on the title address forms. People in China use the position title to call the officers to show respect, such as Teacher Zhang, Professor Li, Principal Wang and so on. Though lots of people advocate using Comrade instead, the old habit can not be corrected easily. Even more, someone wants to show the respect as much as possible, so he or she ignore the word vice of the position title.

But in the western countries, the use of title address forms are limited for the royals, super class of government, the members in the areas of religions, military, and legislation. Owen Trollope, American social linguist, summarized the rules of social address forms in American English as following:

Cardinal Your excellency

U.S President Mr. President

Priest Father(+LN) (LN= Last name)

Nun Sister(+religious name)

Physician Doctor(+LN)

Ph.D. Doctor(+LN)

Ed.D. etc Doctor(+LN)

Professor Professor(+LN)

This is just a common rule of social address forms. The practical uses of address forms are much more complex. On the matter of address forms, Chinese culture believes the junior ones should respect the elder ones. This relates to our traditional morals. When we call the elder ones, we often call Old Wang, Wang Old, Old Grandpa, Old Grandma and so on. Because in China, the word “old” refers to one who is full of knowledge, wisdom and skills. But in the western countries, except in the very formal situations people call Mr, Lady, Mrs. People who are familiar with each other usually call their names, the same for the seniors and juniors, elders and juniors, teachers and students. They think that reflects their close friendships. Especially when you call the aged with an address form attached to old, they usually become very angry for they think that intimates they are weak, poor in health, and lack of vigor. They expect you to call their names directly. Meanwhile in this situation you will be considered not being brought up well.

In addition, there are lots of words with the meaning of respect in Chinese. The most popular ones were comrade, master and so on in the early time. No matter what gender you are, these address forms were in common use. Recently, with the development of Reform and Opening of China, Mr, Lady, Miss and so on are often used. The International address forms are used more and more comprehensively. This also reflects the impacts and affluences of internationalization on Chinese traditional sense of value. In the western culture, the address forms of showing respect are usually Mr., Mrs., Miss, Sir, Madam etc. Just like we put forward above, the former three address forms can be attached to family name or full name. But when you use Mr., Mrs., Sir, Madam, you should know the followings: even though Mr., Mrs. can be attached to family name or full name, they can not be attached to the religious name, and they are usually used for the persons with no title or unknown title, or they are very formal, and do not show the close relation.

Mr. can be attached to the title of government officer, for example, Mr. President. It can be attached to the names of places, sports or jobs, such as Mr. American (The champion of muscular development match in America), Mr. Baseball (The baseball player who performs very well in the baseball game). Mrs. is an address form refers to the woman married, it can be attached to the family name of the husband or the name after marriage, it likes Mr., can be attached to the names of places, sports, jobs, such as Mrs. American (The champion of Beauty match in America and married). Sir, Madam usually can not be attached to the family names. They do not show the close relations of people. Sir is used to call the seniors, elders, chancellors, police, teachers(for students), male guests(for the staffs of shop). And when the strangers meet with each other, some will use Sir to call the others. Madam is an address form to call the females unfamiliar. It is usually used by the staffs to call the female guests. Madam could be attached to the religious name in the early time, but now it is usually used with family names and

positions, such as Madam Smith, Madam President, Madam Ambassador. Sir can be attached to full names or religious names, but can not be attached to family names. When it is used with full names, it does not refer to the general meaning of sir. It means the nobility of a people, such as Sir John White or Sir John.

Chapter V The generalization and westernization of Chinese

address forms

5.1. The generalization of Chinese kinship address forms

The generalization of Chinese kinship address forms means that people use the kinship address forms to call the non-kinship people. It’s the main part of generalization of address forms, and it enriches the meanings and directions of kinship address forms. Children call the aged people Grandpa. They call the elder male people “brother” in the street, even though they do not have the relations of consanguinity. What they do conforms the principles of love in the communications of human in Chinese culture. They want to express their concerning and modesty.

5.2. The generalization of Chinese social address forms

The generalization of Chinese social address forms refers to the using of the address forms which have particular social relation characteristics to the ones who do not have the characteristics. For example, in the address forms of position, people ignore the vice of one’s position. They call director instead of vice-director, call professor instead of vice-professor. These intimate the respect and glorification, and people achieve their requires based on these address forms. In the common address forms, some address forms have particular directions, but after the generalization, they have much more directions, such as comrade, master, Miss and so on. We can study from the sociolinguistics angle, that is, different generalizations of address forms of different languages reflect different choices of the nations in the communications. These choices are the sediments of languages and the phenomenon based languages in the national cultures.

5.3. The westernization of Chinese address forms

With the development of China, our communications with the outside world become more and more. Different cultures merge with each other. Lots of Chinese traditional cultures and customs are fading away. Because of the impacts and influences of western ideas and cultures, lots of westernization phenomena appear in the Chinese address forms.

5.3.1. From Community spirit to Personal spirit

Nowadays, with the opening to the outside, lots of intellectuals are affected by the western personal spirit, especially the so called “new human beings”—the children

born in 1980s. They become mature gradually, have strong sense of independence, like to do something new and strange, and be willing to adventure. They do not like to follow the main stream of society. In such environment, some intellectuals start to cultivate their children’s independence spirit, so they will allow the children to call the parents’ names directly, so as to respect the children’s developments of personalities. 5.3.2. From the Concept of Class to the Sense of Equality

In the current society, the sense of equality is gradually changing Chinese traditional sense of class, especially in the aspect of social address forms. People become equal, They called each other comrade and master in the early time, but later, such as sir, lady, Miss became popular. Great changes happened in the aspect of equality of male and female. Now the society recognizes that “Women can brace half of the sky”, and in the address forms among the couples, such as honey, darling, sweetheart are very common now, in addition, there are also all kinds of nicknames. 5.3.3. From Emphasizing the Face to Emphasizing the Practical Use and Abilities

With the development of society and the fierce competitions, Chinese people become more practical and pay more attention to the abilities and disbursements. It reflects a great trend of pragmaticism, such as Ph.D. Liu, Engineer Zhang. These two address forms emphasize that the degree of Ph.D. and the position of engineer are gained by great efforts and disbursements.

Chapter VI Conclusion

Language is the carrier of culture, while culture is the connotation of language. Language reflects the sense of value and social culture contents of a nation, and it also reflects the traditional special connotation of national culture. Address form which is an important part of language, is very close to the culture. In Chinese culture, address form reflects two moral concepts of moral rules: Elders and juniors are in each place and great differences of internal and external relations. Juniors should respect the elders, the elders occupy the upper position in the system. The system emphasizes the orders, rules, positions, classes and powers, not people’s abilities and creativities. In China, especially in the ancient China, the degress was very important, and sometimes an old man would address an infant “grandfather”. Meanwhile, the system of English address form has simple classes and vague meanings. People treat each other equally, they do not care about the blood relations very much, and there are no clear boundary of internal and external relations. People are much more pragmatic and they care more about the personal abilities, not the backgrounds. Ability decides the position. Address form relates to sociolinguistics, psychology, anthropology, folklore and so on. It’s affected by social culture and sense of value. The proceeding of modernization and globalization accelerates currency of spirits and material goods, and puts different nations into a common “global village”, and cross culture communications become essential parts of daily life in every nation. So it’s quite necessary to research and study the differences of cultures in the east and west, and puts it into the practical use. This will make great contribution to learn our own cultures better, and then spread the national cultures to the world. It will help to conquer the hinders caused by the differences of cultures in the communications and remove the misunderstandings of each other. It also will promote the exchanging of English and Chinese nations and the cross culture communications.

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Acknowledgement

First of all, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Professor Liu Hongying, who offered me very valuable and constructive suggestions and great encouragement when I get into trouble. Without his patient guide, effective enlightenment and constructive suggestions, the paper cannot reach the current level.

Second, I am also sincerely grateful to all the writers whose articles or works give me a lot of help because these materials enrich my paper. Moreover, I want to thank my classmates for their company and help in my study in this university. They shared a lot of materials with me and offered me many helpful advices.

At last, I thank my parents and friends offering me help. My paper can be finished under their devotion and supporting.

In a word, here I offer my thanks to everyone again!