STIBET | Terms of Address in the Social, Cultural and Historical Studies

As a social man, we can not avoid using terms of address in our private life or in the public occasion. The choice of a specific form of address in social interaction not only indicates the interpersonal relationship between the speaker and the addressee, but also expresses the emotion or attitude of the speaker towards their addressee. Furthermore, the use of addressing differs between the formal and informal situations, between countries and cultures, between the past and the present. Therefore, terms of address are also significant in reflecting the social ideology, cultural difference and historical development. It is essential and meaningful to investigate the forms and functions of terms of address in various discursive contexts.

The workshop aims at the discussion on the usage of terms of address in the social, cultural and historical background. It will firstly make a definition of terms of address with detailed examples. Secondly, the exploration of terms of address in the social context will be centered on the use of addressing in casual conversation and institutional discourse. Thirdly, the investigation of terms of address from the cultural perspective will be concerned with the different use of addressing between American and British English, between eastern and western society. Fourthly, the role of terms of address in reflecting the historical development and power relations will be demonstrated by their usage in historical English letters and historical courtroom trials. The workshop will finally summarize the possible theoretical foundations and research methodologies in the field of terms of address.

It is expected that, after the workshop, the audiences will have more knowledge and interest in the study of terms of address, and hopefully, develop their own thoughts or methods in the further exploration of this topic.

// Qin Liu

Qin Liu is a doctoral student at the Department of English of the JLU. Her doctoral study is focused on the usage of terms of address in the historical English courtroom. Her research interests include discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, corpus linguistics and systemic functional linguistics.