A Brief Introduction of Interpersonal Relationships

杨娟

【Abstract】When people use language, they do not only try to get another person to understand the speakers thoughts and feelings but also define their relationship to each other in a subtle way at the same time,on the other hand, interpersonal relationship also affects peoples use of language. In daily life, people may meet others with different social status, age, sex, etc. How can people adopt appropriate address forms to different persons? In the essay, the author analyzes two aspects of the interpersonal relationships: power and solidarity, which influence address forms.

【Key Words】Interpersonal Relationship, Address Forms, Power, Solidarity.

I. Introduction

Address forms are those words used to address people. In daily communication, we must have encountered such situations where we must decide how to address the person we are talking to. Can we address him or her by title, by first name, by last name, by some combination of these or by nothing at all? In the following passage the author will introduce how power and solidarity influence address forms.

II. Power

Power is a vertical, power-based relationship, based on any one or more a large number of social or physical factors, which serves to separate people into different categories. It is nonreciprocal relationship, based on social attributes including wealth, age, sex, physical strength, professional status, institutional role (teacher, preacher head, etc.),etc. or combination of these. Next, I will talk about language use from two aspects: age and occupational status.

2.1 Ages Influence on Address Forms

In most countries, the older people are assumed to have power over younger people, parents over children and grandparents over the parents. In the old times of China, the child or the son or daughter in the bureaucrat families call their mother mu qin da ren(mother in great position),and call their father fu qin da ren(father in great position)to show their respect for their parents, and admit their parents' absolute power over them.

In the modern times of China, the younger can call an older person “lao +surname”, for example old wang to show respect.

Another strange phenomenon in China no matter in ancient times or in recent days, we may find that some child call another child with the similar age aunt, or others that seems so unaccepted. This phenomenon can be explained by relative generation.

In China, there are two second-person pronouns using to call a person, if you do not know his or her first name, surname or occupation. They are ni and nin. People often use nin to call one with older age to show his respect, and ni or nin to call a person with similar age, in which cases nin stands for ones respect, and ni can also be accepted by the listener. Whats more, ni is an appropriate choice to call a younger person.

Age can influence the address forms, but we can not ignore the other factors' influence on language use, for example, the degree of friendship, extent of familiarity and so on.

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2.2 Occupational Statuss Influence on Address Forms

Occupational status is a kind of nonreciprocal relationship because the people cannot have power over each other in the same area. Employers have power over employees, nobles over peasants, military officers over enlisted men. A person with the higher occupational status has the privilege of being address with TLN (title with last name) while addressing the other person with FN (first name).It is not always the case that older people have higher occupational status than younger ones. When there is a conflict, for instance between a young executive and an old janitor, it will be occupational status that takes precedence: the janitor will be called by FN and the executive by TLN (Brown and Ford 1964).

In China, the use of address forms can change with the social and political situation's change.

In the old times of China, especially in the feudal dynasty, for instance, the emperor call himself "朕(zhen)"or "寡人(gua ren)" (I) to symbolize his privilege and his power , and he call the minister "爱卿(ai qing)"(dear subjects); the subjects call the emperor "皇上(huang shang)"(emperor) or “陛下(bi xia)" ( majesty).

In this time of China, we are in the stage of socialism, and we have not the social stratum in politics life. So we call the president Hu Jintao "President Hu" to show people's respect. In some informal situation, I even hear some youth call president Hu Jintao "Brother Tao" to show their love for the president and intimate relationship with him.

In the relationship of employer and employee, the employee often call his employer "lao ban (big boss)" or TLN., and the employer often call his employee's "xiao + surname", for example "xiao zhang"(little zhang) or FN. There is an exceptional case that the employee is older than the employer. In this case, the employee often calls his employer TLN, and the employer may call his employee TLN or "lao+ surname" to show his respect or politeness for the older.

In some institutional role, we can call the people by their titles, like lao shi(teacher), jiao shou(professor), zhu ren(director), shi fu(master) and so on.

III. Solidarity

Since not all differences between people are related to power or Status, solidarity semantic is developed. Solidarity implies a degree of closeness and intimacy. It is reciprocal, based on shared social characteristics, like social class, age group or generation, shared sporting interest, shared occupation, etc.

For example:

1.Mr Yang: -Hello, Lao Wang.

Mr Wang:-Lao Yang, long time no see.

2. A: -Little Li, have you finished Grandpas assignment?

B: -No.

In the second example, Grandpa does not refer to A and Bs real grandpa but their linguistics teacher, who is an old man. They call him Grandpa to show their respect to him, which is shared knowledge among them. So B can easily guess who the Grandpa refers to.

IV. Conclusion

Address forms is a universal phenomenon in all cultures. The use of address forms can indicate both the power or solidarity relationship and the relationship between people. In the above essay, the author analyses the interpersonal relationships influence on address forms, from the aspects of status and solidarity, by taking Chinese address forms for examples. Even though, the author does not mention the differences between English and Chinese address forms in use. In our intercultural communication, we should pay attention to the appropriate choices of address forms.

References：

[1]Austin, J. How to Do Tings with Words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960.

[2]Bemard,S.2000. Sociolinguistics. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

[3]Fasold, R. 2000. The Sociolinguistics of Language. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

[4]Hou Xu, 2010. The Sociolinguistics of Language. Southeast University Press.

[5]何自然, 2003.语用学概论, 湖南:湖南教育出版社.

[6]杨永林,2004.社会语言学研究:功能!称谓!性别篇,上海:上海外语教育出版社.

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