Variation in Address Forms for Arab Married and Unmarried Women in the Workplace: A Sociolinguistic Study

Abstract

This study aims at investigating address forms that are usually used in the workplace to address Arab married and unmarried women, from a sociolinguistic point of view. Despite the universality of the notion of using address forms, the elements that make them up and the rules that govern their use are cultural and social bound. It examines the use of address forms in relation to the impact of social variables such as gender, age and status on the form being used. To this end, a discourse completion task (DCT) was used to collect data. Analysis of 2000 occurrences of using address terms was carried out. Occurrences were collected from 100 Jordanian people working for JHAS organization. The collected data were analyzed quantitatively. Data were categorized into ten major categories. Results of the study highlight the most persistent terms of address. Results show that personal ‘first name’ form was the most frequently used address form, while ‘kinship terms’ were the least used form of address.