Address Forms And Interpersonal Meanings-A Systemic Functional Perspective

The present study discusses how address forms realize the interpersonal meanings within the theory of SFL. Address forms play a prominent role in daily speech communication and are considered as the first message conveyed from speakers to hearers. There are two main concerns in this study. (1)I attempt to study address forms from a new angle ---under the theoretical framework of SFL mainly through a qualitative and descriptive analysis. (2) It argues that interpersonal meanings can also be realized through multiple means, and address forms can reflect interpersonal meanings effectively. The present paper is divided into seven chapters. Chapter One is an introductory chapter; Chapter Two provides the literature review on address forms; Chapter Three is about the theoretical framework; the next three chapters are the main body of this paper and the last chapter is the conclusion and implications.