Abstract
As an important feature of interface between language and society, address terms can provide valuable sociolinguistic information about the interlocutors, their relationship and their circumstances. As a result, in the past few decades address terms in different languages have been studied from different angles and with varying focus. In line with those studies this article focuses on identifying different types of addressing terminology that Persian interlocutors may use in different contexts. Personal names, general and occupation titles, kinship related terms, religious oriented expressions, honorifics, terms of intimacy, personal pronouns, descriptive phrases and employing greetings or attention getters to avoid address terms were found to be the possible categories for Persian addressers choice. The study also reveals that Persian language is rich enough in this respect and that an artful skill is required for Persian speakers to make an accurate and proper use of the vast range of choices for addressing individuals in various contexts. In addition to account for the abandonment of certain socioeconomic-referenced terms, the study also shows a number of culture-specific address terms which may have no equivalent in English.
Highlights
Establishing social relationship between individuals is perhaps the first step to every communicative event
They can be used with Job Title (JT), as in جناب سروان /jenâb sarvân/, with first name (FN) and last name (LN), as in جناب احمد محمدی/jenâb Ahmad Mohamadi/, or with General Title (GT), FN and LN, as in سرکار خانم مريم محمدی/sarkâr khânom Maryam Mohamadi/
With respect to the observations of this study, the following points could be stressed: The attempt of the authors concerning categorization of the expressions in Modern Persian can be regarded as a pioneering effort to demonstrate the vast lingual potentiality of this language regarding multiplicity of interlocutory expressions on the one hand and the changeability and enrichment of these terms especially during the last three decades on the other
Summary
Establishing social relationship between individuals is perhaps the first step to every communicative event. One important issue in studying communication is to learn how individuals manage to open conversations or how people may address one another in a given language. Leech (1999) considers that terms of address are an important formulaic verbal behavior well recognized in the sociolinguistic literature as they signal transactional, interpersonal and deictic ramifications in human relationships. Other scholars consider the study of address terms a fruitful field for sociolinguistics due to the fact that it shows how interpersonal relationships can be socially and strategically constructed (Fitch 1991, Morford 1997). Address terms in different speech communities are worth study. They are likely to be different because different languages have different linguistic resources to express what is culturally permissible and meaningful.
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