英语专业论文A Comparative Study between English and Chinese Address Forms.docx

1、英语专业论文A Comparative Study between English and Chinese Address FormsAcknowledgements I wish to express my thanks and appreciation to my tutor, Miss Zhou yehao whose suggestions have been invaluable to me throughout my thesis writing. My thanks should also be given to all the teachers who have taught

2、me my BA courses. Without their enthusiasm and support, this work would not have been possible.There are many colleagues and friends who have helped me during the course of conducting this paper. They have shared their experience, knowledge and ideas with me. Some have pointed me towards essential r

3、eferences and suggested points of interest which I was encouraged to pursue. In particular, I own a special debt of thanks to Sha Zhixia & Lan Huiliang, who has given me many suggestions to revise the paper.Last I would like to thank my family. Their love, care, support and encouragement have helped

4、 me to overcome many difficulties throughout the thesis writing. This thesis is therefore dedicated to all who have helped me through this enlightening process. AbstractLanguage is a part of culture. People of different nations differ in culture, history, custom and convention, and these differences

5、 can be shown in their languages. Thus different national people may have their own vocative expressions. During the process of intercultural communication, without knowing the partners way to use the address will cause pragmatic failure and even break down the communication.The culture difference b

6、etween English and Chinese kinship terms lies on the division of patriarchal and non-patriarchal clans, details and omissions of paterchal and maternal kinships terms, elder-younger relations and seniority order, blood relations by marriage, construction of derivatives, generalization. In non-kinshi

7、p terms (social address forms), Chinese has more complex address words. The reasons of such phenomenon are the different histories, concepts of bearing, concepts of friendships, as well as the different beliefs.This paper mainly expresses the similarities and differences of the English and Chinese a

8、ddress forms from the two aspects of the kinship and social address form. Whats more, the author analyzed the address forms from the aspects of historical reasons, concepts of bearing and concepts of friendship so that the readers can have a better understanding of it. It is hoped that this paper ca

9、n help people to understand each other easily and set up good relationship.Key Words: kinship social address form cultural difference摘 要语言是民族文化的一个组成部分。不同民族有着不同的文化、历史、风俗习惯和风土人情等,各民族的文化和社会风俗又都在该民族的语言中表现出来。不同的民族有其不同的称呼系统。在跨文化交际的过程中，若不了解对方称呼语的使用习惯就会造成语用失误，这样就给双方的交流带来极大的不便。英汉亲属称谓语在区分宗族与非宗族、父系与母系、长幼辈分、姻亲与

10、血亲、派生词的使用、泛化方面有明显的区别；在社会称谓中，汉语表达的词汇相对比英语丰富多了。造成这些区别的主要原因是英汉两民族自身的历史背景、生育观念、友谊观念和信仰观念的不同。本文主要从亲属称谓和社会称谓这两大方面来阐述英汉称谓语的异同,并从两民族的历史、生育观念和信仰观念的新视角来深化人们对称谓语这一语言现象的认识,从而增进彼此之间的了解,提高人与人之间的交流水平,建立良好的人际关系.关键词：亲属称谓 社会称谓 文化差异 Contents AcknowledgementsiAbstract(English) .iiAbstract(Chinese) .iii1. Introduction12

11、. Differences in kinship terms.12.1 Divisions of kinship terms.1 2.1.1 The difference by patriarchal and non-patriarchal clans2 2.1.2 Divisions of blood relation and relation by marriage.4 2.1.3 Difference of paternal and maternal kinship terms.5 2.1.4 Divisions by elder-younger relation and seniori

12、ty order in the clan.52.2 Derivatives of kinship terms.72.3 Generalization of kinship terms.73. Difference in social address forms.93.1 Address forms in English-speaking countries.93.2 Address forms in Chinese society.104. The influence of East-west social and culture background on the address form.

13、12 4.1 Chinese “self-abasement” and westerners “self-confidence” .12 4.2 Chinese traditional conception and western view of “everyone is born to be equal” .14 4.3 Chinese collectivism and western individualism.154.4 Some different concepts between Chinese and westerners155. Reasons of the difference

14、 in address forms.165.1 Historical reasons.17 5.2 Concepts of bearing185.3 Concepts of friendship.185.4 Different beliefs196. Conclusion.19References21 A Comparative Study between English and Chinese Address Forms英汉称谓语的对比研究1. Introduction Language and culture have very close relationship in society

15、contexts. For the same word, people from different culture backgrounds may have different impressions or understanding. Language is the presentation of culture. Without knowledge of culture, it is difficult to learn language well. “Culture is a symbolic system in this network. One should think of la

16、nguage in culture and not just of language and culture.”(Chang, 2004)Human beings do not live in the world alone. People can understand their past, present and future by language. This paper aims at illustrating the relationship between language and culture through the address forms contrast between

17、 English and Chinese, including kinship terms, social address forms, selection of respect and honorific words and further analysis of reasons of such differences in address forms.2. Differences in kinship terms One interesting way in which people use language in daily life is to refer to various kin

18、ds of kin. There is a considerable literature on kinship terminology, describing how people in various parts of the world refer to brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins and so on. Kinship system is a universal feature of languages as a result of the importance in social organization. In kinship

19、system, people must make use of such factors as sex, age, generation, blood and marriage in their society. And people can use the actual words from these factors to describe a particular kin relationship.2.1 Division of kinship terms There are two common points between English and Chinese kinship ad

20、dress terms: one is the quantities of both experience a process from more to less; the other is that some basic address words have equal meanings in both language, for instance, father=父亲(fu qin), mother=母亲(mu qin),son=儿子(er zi), husband=丈夫(zhang fu), wife=妻子(qi zi). Meanwhile, most of the address w

21、ords have different forms in the two languages because of the difference of culture and language forms, and such phenomenon reflects the two nations difference.2.1.1 The difference by patriarchal and non-patriarchal clansGenerally speaking, patriarchal clan is regarded as the basic unit of Chinese t

22、raditional social structure. Grandpa, grandma, nephew, grandson, granddaughter are defined in patriarchal group; therefore, grandpa in mothers side ,grandma in mothers side, son of ones sister, son of ones brother or cousin, daughter of ones sister and so on are regulated in non-patriarchal group. O

23、ne of the most distinct features of Chinese kinship address forms is that patriarchal and non-patriarchal clans are strictly distinguished, that is to say, various relationships are clearly reflected and not occurred each other. For example, in Chinese “外”(wai) a morpheme expressing non-patriarchal

24、clans, is usually used to address relatives on mothers ,sisters or daughters side . According to Analytical Dictionary of Chinese Characters(Chen,1989), the original meaning of “外”(wai) in Chinese is “far and away”. The address customs just adopted the extended meaning.In English, kinship terminolog

25、y may be difficult to express because patriarchal and non-patriarchal clans in addressing, order and position in the family are not classified clearly. Asking a particular person what he or she calls others who have known relationships to that person, for example, that persons father, or mothers bro

26、ther, or sister husband, in an attempt to show how individuals employ various terms, but without trying to specify anything concerning the semantic composition of those terms. One will find in English that ones brothers wife father cannot be refer to directly; brothers wife father is a rather burden

27、some expressing in kinship terminology. Providing someone wants to emphasize his/her “奶奶”(nai nai) or”外婆”(wai po), the only thing he can do is making an explanation “on my fathers side” or “in my mothers side”. Grandfather=爷爷/外公(ye ye/wai gong), Grandmother=奶奶/外婆(nai nai/wai po), Grandson=孙子/外孙(sun

28、zi/wai sun), Granddaughter=孙女/外孙女(sun nv/wai sun nv), Niece=侄女/外甥女(zhi nv/wai sheng nv) such words are polysemies. In Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary, 2004) “祖母”(zu mu)or “外祖母”(wai zu mu) is translated into “(maternal) grandmother”, which just process there is no proper vocabular

29、y classifying “奶奶”(nai nai)or“外婆”(wai po) in communication in the west. This illustrates that there is no distinction between patriarchal and non-patriarchal clans in English. In Chinese, “堂”(tang)、 “表”(biao) should belong to different clans, while a single word “cousin” in English embraces series o

30、f Chinese kinship address words, such as 堂兄(弟),tang xiong(di)/堂姐(妹),tang jie(mei)/表兄(弟),biao xiong(di)/表姐(妹),biao jie(mei)=cousin.2.1.2 Divisions of blood relation and relation by marriageBlood relation refers to the relatives who are related by birth. According Blood Relation Rule reflects the kins

31、hip classifications that require different address forms to kin on mothers side. Marriage Relation Rule requires using two address systems to the members of the same clan and relation by marriage. (Ma, 2000)In Chinese kinship terms, the address words in blood relation and relation marriage are widely accepted. For example, 伯父(bo fu,melder brother of ones father)