Naming and addressing: Expressing deference, respect, and solidarity

Abstract

F irst names, middle names, last names, nicknames, pronouns and other terms of address all identify individuals in a society. Such address forms can contribute to a person's sense of identity and can characterise ‘an individual's position in his family and in society at large; it defines his social personality’ (Mauss 1974:134). Kinship and other terms indicating relationships are also important as terms of address in certain cultures. Appel and Muysken (1987:13) suggest that personal identity can be defined as ‘the self feeling in relation to the group’. Braun (1988) outlines some basic concepts in his theory of terms of address. According to Braun, address denotes a speaker's linguistic reference to his/her collocutors (1988:7). Words and phrases such as second-person pronouns, names, kinship terms and titles, reflect the relationship between the individual and their social context. Braun (1988:13) suggests that: … address behavior is the way individual speakers or groups of speakers use the repertory of address variants available to them. From a sociolinguistic point of view, address behavior is meaningful whenever speakers have to choose between several variants … Address behavior is further influenced by a speaker's social and linguistic background. PRONOUNS OF ADDRESS Pronouns are markers of personal identity in relation to the group. Thus, pronouns of address serve to identify individuals within a given society and their daily usage reinforces personal and social identity .