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1、An Analysis of the Differences in Appellation between China and Britain【Abstract】Appellation is the term that people address each other. It reflects a persons identity in different conversation environment. Since appellation in China and Britain belong to different addressing systems and has differe
2、nt usages， the all-sided understanding of the differences in it between China and Britain is of vital importance in any successful intercultural communication. This paper will give a general discussion about the differences in several types of appellation between China and England. Whats more， the r
3、easons for differences will also be discussed. 【Key words】appellation； differences； China； England I. Introduction In human society， appellation embodies a particular persons identity in a specific interpersonal relationship network. Also it reflects the relationship between people in a certain soci
4、ety or specific language environment. According to Crystal， address forms are “The terms used to refer to some indirect linguistic interactions.”（Crystal， 1980）. “Address forms are the words speakers use to designate the person while they are talking to them.” （Fasold， 2000）. Appellation is the prod
5、uct of a particular culture and is the cultural symbol in interpersonal relationship. Different cultural systems， cultural views and cultural mentalities endow the appellation words with different semantic contents. II. Classification on address forms Address term is a word used to address somebody
6、in speech. The way in which people address others depends on age， sex， social status and interpersonal relationships. Generally， appellation can be divided into seven groups. （1） General addressing In English， there are many terms that are used to address someone without considering age， professiona
7、l titles， gender or other factors. This is usually called general addressing， for example， “Mr.， Mrs.， Ms.， Miss.， Sir.” and etc. In Chinese， we also have “先生， 女士， 夫人”and etc. This group can only carry limited information about the person to whom you are speaking. And the English form is not always
8、applicable in Chinese in some cases. （2） Addressing by professional title This means using professional title to address someone. When it comes to the professional title， the address forms in English are different from those of Chinese. In English， we apply professional title+family name， for exampl
9、e， Dr. David， Prof. Brown etc. While in Chinese， we use peoples last name+professional title， such as “王博士” ， “李教授” and etc. （3） Addressing by position As for addressing someone by his or her position， there are many address forms used for position in China， such as driver， manager， doctor， director
10、， teacher and etc. But this scene is seldom seen in English. For example， In Chinese， we usually call “李老?” or simply “老师”. But in English， it is improper to call the teacher “teacher”， the students tend to call “Mr. Smith” or just their first name， such as “Amanda” and etc. （4） Addressing by name I
11、t simply refers to addressing someone by his or her full name， alias， or childhood name. In Chinese， people who are familiar with each other usually call “老， 小， 大”+last name， whereas this is not going to happen in England. In England， there are cases in which children call their parents and teachers
12、 by using their given names. （5） Addressing by kinship term In England as well as in China， kinship terms are used to address relatives. It is quite clear that Chinese kinship terms are much more complicated than English. And Chinese people widely and frequently use kinship terms to call those who a
13、re actually not their relatives. For example， In Chinese， one may call someone who is not his relatives and is the same age as his grandpa “爷爷”and his grandma “奶奶”. But this will not happen in England. （6） Addressing by personal pronoun Addressing by personal pronoun is mainly about second person pr
14、onoun. In old English， there is a word “thou” which refers to a second person who is more respectable and has a higher rank. But in todays modern English， this kind of usage has already missing. （7） Zero addressing When we dont know how to call a person properly， we tend to use greeting words， such
15、as “Excuse me”， “Hello” etc， or we may use the listeners state of existence or the activities he is taking part in to address him. By doing this we may avoid the embarrassing conditions. III. Reasons for the differences in appellation According to different cultural background， the appellation syste
16、ms of all kinds of culture are dramatically different from each other. So， a serous-minded comparative study of the reasons for this difference is of vital importance to reveal the cultural characteristics of the nations language. The reasons for differences in appellation between China and Britain can be summarized as follows. Family structure. Since ancient times， Chinese people live in the feudal patriarchal society for a long time. People regard family a
