A Gender-based Sociolinguistic Study Of Address Forms In Occupational Setting

Address forms have always been important questions in the field of sociolinguistics, because they are the most obvious area to represent the covariance of language and society. Address forms are the absolutely necessary part in the activities of social communication. They have functions of arousing others'attentions, designating statuses, reflecting relationships and expressing emotions. Different address forms can not only represent the status and distance of addressor-addressee relationships, but also express the emotions that speakers want to relay. Appropriate address forms as a barometer of the society play an important role in the activities of social communication. Through the study of address forms, we can perceive the change of society more directly as well as the subtle changes of people's social psychology, view of value and personal relationship brought by it. There is a complex address system in China, which is closely related to its rich cultural tradition and complex social changes. With the development of economy, people become more and more involved in social activities, and the use of address forms in occupational setting becomes more and more important. Under such circumstances, to make a study of address forms in occupational setting are of great realistic significance. In this thesis, the author study one of the focal questions in sociolinguistics, i.e. address forms in occupational setting, so as to explore language in a company of Henan province. This thesis provides an innovative way of the empirical investigation on address forms in occupational setting.With the method of questionnaire, this thesis is based on address forms in a company of Henan province, surveys the situations of different gender addressing different people in different occasions, and analyzes how social relationships between people of this speech community are constructed through address forms. Based on the analysis of a questionnaire, this thesis points out that there is a strong correlation between gender and address forms.Through the analysis and statistical calculation of clerk in company of Henan province, this study finds as follows:First, the addressing practices in this kind of oral communication are characterized by the diversity and elaboration in the Chinese context. Second, the analysis also shows that the use of address forms in occupation is governed by social variables (i.e. gender, occasions and social roles) which affect the use of address forms by the Chinese in occupational setting. In addition, the choice and the distribution of address forms are very much related to the gender, social roles of the participant, and the occasion where addressing practice occurring as well. Last, as far as the relationship of social variables and linguistic variations of address form is concerned, the results of this study reveal that social factors have a significant effect on how Chinese choose address forms.