Studies On Shift Of Address Form And Its Pragmatic Functions

In verbal communication, address form reflects not only various social features, such as age, identity, occupation and status, but also the interpersonal relationships and emotional attitudes of both interlocutors. Sociologists and linguists at home and abroad have done related researches on address forms from different perspectives. This thesis analyzes the modes, motivations and pragmatic functions of shift of address forms in literary works, theoretically based on Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory, Austin and Searle’s Speech Act Theory, Brown and Gilman’s Power and Solidarity. Data analysis, descriptive study and exemplification are employed in this thesis. It tries to answer the following questions:(1) Why should people choose specific address form which is different from the usual one in a certain context?(2) What motivations influence the shift of address form?(3) What pragmatic functions does the shift of address form have?Through studying the shift of address form, main conclusions drawn from this thesis arc as follows.(1) Choice of address form is affected by the shift modes, which fall into two categories: shift of address form for intimacy and shift of address form for estrangement.(2) Shift of address form is influenced by the factors of degree of intimacy, social relationship, power and solidarity, context and communication content.(3) The pragmatic functions of shift of address form include speech act functions, emotional deictic functions, social deictic functions and politeness marked functions. The research is of some help for a better understanding and application of address forms, it aims to further the study on address forms by offering some constructive value as well as some consultative value for verbal communication.