Borrowing of address forms for dimensions of social relation in a contact-induced multilingual community

Abstract

Abstract Address forms have been studied in various contexts, and it has been assumed that the determining dimensions are solidarity, including closeness and equality, and power, including distance and hierarchy. Solidarity is indexed with singular forms while power is represented with plural forms. Using ethnography of communication framework, this study enriches this discussion by examining the use of address forms by Bima people in a multilingual community in Bima, Indonesia, where Bima, Indonesian and other languages in contact have been used for centuries. Address forms including speaker reference forms were identified and classified in 1,250 h of data collected through observation, interviews, elicitation, and recordings of conversation. The study shows that address forms from languages in contact with Bima have been borrowed to represent dimensions within the solidarity-power continuum including intimacy, closeness, equality, hierarchy and respect. The Bima forms are used to exercise traditional solidarity-power relations, but the borrowed forms of Arab, Bugis, Chinese, English, and Makassarese origins are used to negotiate more intimate, close, equal and respectful relations within the social hierarchy. Using the native and the borrowed forms according to referent’s age, gender, status, and contexts, speakers construct different social spaces of intimacy, closeness, equality, hierarchy, respect, and power.