Address forms in Chinese and English-speaking culture

Address form is one of markers of politeness and is an indispensable part of communication. An appropriate address form promotes interpersonal communication smoothly. An address form is polite in one culture, but might be inappropriate in another culture. The paper contrasts address forms in English and Chinese culture and exolores the reasons for their different choice of address terms.

Identity Construction Discourse in the Perspective ofInter-Subjectivity-The Case of Address Forms

In daily social communication,people mainly construct their own and others'identities through discourse,and the most representative and widely used of identity-constructing discourse is address forms.In this paper,we focus on the identity-constructing function of address formsand the cognitive collaboration of their subordinate categories at the conceptual level,where different forms of address formshave obvious selection preferences in expressing specific discourse functions.Addressing has a discourse function other than the referential function,and inter-subjectivityis its underlying motivation.

SPECIAL ISSUE： LANGUAGE STUDIES AND METHODS FROM THE CROSS-DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE Semantic Transfer of Chinese Kinship Terms to Occupational Address Forms since the Economic Reform

Semantic transfer of kinship terms in address forms to nonkin has always been an intriguing topic to researchers from different fields, anthropologists and sociolinguists alike, whose investigations involve data from various cultures. This study focuses on eight Chinese kinship terms used in twenty-one address forms for addressing nonkin in newly created occupations and practices during the recent economic reform in China, in an attempt to identify the driving force behind such transfer. By examining the use of these kinship terms in addressing nonkin in the economic reform, this study compares its findings to those from earlier studies and has found surprisingly that except gender, the other distinctive features, such as consanguinity, affinity, seniority, and generation, have all become neutralized in the semantic transfer, driven chiefly by the nonkin＇s occupational status. The results from this study demonstrate that the ＂categorical falsity＂ evidenced in the semantic transfer of kinship terms in address forms to nonkin is in essence a manifestation of performing an attitudinal ＂speech act＂ by the general public about how the nonkin＇s occupational status is evaluated in the economic reform.

Address forms in Chinese audit opinions

Although forms of address are widely used in textual and other types of disclosure, empirical evidence of their effects is rare. China provides a unique setting in which to test the economic consequences of the forms of address used in audit reports. From 2003 to 2011, about 60% of auditors surveyed addressed their clients by their real names in audit opinions, while the others used honorifics. Based on a sample of Chinese audit opinions, I report the following findings. First, the announcement of an audit opinion that uses the client’s real name elicits a greater market response than the announcement of an opinion featuring an honorific form of address. Second, the effects of real-name forms of address are stronger in firms with weak board governance. Third, the association between audit fees and audit risk factors, such as loss-making, is stronger in firms that are addressed by their real names in audit reports. I conclude from these findings that the forms of address used in audit opinions may reveal private information on audit quality. The results of this study are consistent with the power-solidarity effect described by sociolinguists.

A Contrastive Study of Chinese and English Forms of Address

According to sociolinguistic research of speech events, the choice of linguistic forms is determined by the formality of the context and the relationship between interlocutors in a speech event. In this respect, address forms are socially driven phenomena which make the fundamental point in sociolinguistics clearly. The attempt of this study will be made to discuss the impact of the cultures, especially people in America and China. Mainly, the paper is pertinent to ask some questions： （1） whether there are any different pronouns of address used in different cultures, （2） the discrepancy of forms of address used in America and China and how interlocutors used them respectively and （3） are there any semantic systems presented in both two cultures based upon interlocutors＇ social position and cultural background.