A Comparative Study between English and Chinese Address s.doc

毕业论文(设计)Acknowledgements 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 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 references 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 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 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 between 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-kinship 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 address 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 can 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. 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 seniority 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.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 in address forms.165.1 Historical reasons.17 5.2 Concepts of bearing185.3 Concepts of friendship.185.4 Different beliefs196. Conclusion.19References21 v22A 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 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 language 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 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 kinds 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 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 address 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 words 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 traditional 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. One 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 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 terminology 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 brother, 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 burdensome 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 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 vocabulary 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 of 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 kinship 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), 叔父(shu fu,younger brother of ones father),舅父(jiu fu,brother of ones mother) and 姑母(gu mu,elder sister of ones father) belong to blood relation. While, 姑父(gu fu,husband of ones father sister), 姨夫(yi fu,husband of ones mother sister), 伯母(bo mu,wife of ones fathers elder brother)., 婶母(shen mu,wife of one fathers younger brother) and 舅母(jiu mu,wife of ones mothers brother) belong to relation by marriage. This division mirrors Chinese strong concepts of blood relation.Blood relation and relation by marriage are not differentiated in English address. The explanation of “UNCLE” in Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary (2004) is as the following (A) a brother of one mother. (B) a brother of ones father.(C) the husband of ones aunt. “AUNT” (A) a sister of ones mother. (B) a sister of ones father. (C) the wife of ones uncle. From this point, it can be seen that blood relation and relation by marriage are not so important in western society. Therefore, it is hard to understand the relation between various relatives and address in English countries. It is certain that English does not omit relation by marriage completely. A suffix “in-law” is usually added to parents, “brother-in law” refers to 姐(妹)夫,jie(mei)fu/丈夫的姐(妹)夫,zhang fu de jie(mei)fu/内兄(弟)nei xiong(di)/大伯子,da bo zi/小叔子,xiao shu zi=uncle.2.1.3 Difference of paternal and maternal kinship termsTraditionally, China is a patriarchy society in her long history. Furthermore, Chinese moral principles focus on the close and the distant, the inside and outside. Maternal relation is regarded as distant and outside; otherwise, paternal relation is regulated in the close and the inside. An unbalance phenomenon, therefore, widely exists in Chinese address forms: the words of male kinship are more delicate than female ones. For example, fathers elder brother(伯伯,bo bo), fathers younger brother(叔叔,shu shu), the formers wife(伯母,bo mu), the latters wife(婶母/婶婶,shen mu/shen shen); Whereas mothers elder or younger brother has an only expression in Chinese addresses forms. And sisters on mothers side and on fathers side are equally called “姑姑”(gu gu) or “阿姨”(a yi)(no division of elder or younger), which proves another tradition of Chinese society: regarding men as superior to women.In English, the difference about sex and paternal or maternal is not clear: uncle and aunt represent brother and sister of ones mother and father, cousin represents son and daughter of ones fathers brother and sister.2.1.4 Divisions by elder-younger relation and seniority order in the clanAs we know, traditional Chinese society advocates the principle of all the members inhabiting together from generation to generation, bringing honor to their ancestors. Regulation of the patriarchal clan must be maintained and senior or junior order in the clan is regarded as a key yardstick. In Chinese address system, therefore, 哥哥(ge ge,elder brother) and 弟弟(di di,younger brother), 姐姐(jie jie,elder sister) and 妹妹(mei mei,younger sister), 伯父(bo fu,fathers elder brother) and 叔叔(shu shu,fathers younger brother) are clearly divided in the same generation. In different generation, however, the elder generation may address the younger not only surname but also full names (including family names);while to address senior generation, the younger one cannot use their surnames because it is a behavior of treason and heiry, unfulial duty. Elder-younger relation and seniority order in the clan do not play an important part in English address system. The difference in age is not shown in western culture. For instance: brother and sister. In western society, terms of endearment surnames and family names are commonly adopted. They believe that their usage of kinship address forms is enough and direct. It is a common sight to address elder generation name directly. For example, in Family Album (U.S.A), Marilyn (daughterin-law) calls Robert (her father-in-law) and Jenny (her mother-in-law) directly. In the view of westerners, it indicates that they are on intimate terms and in harmony.There is a dialogue: (Wu, 2002)Jenny: Where are you going, Robert?Robert: Remember, the England football game?Jenny: Did you forget something?Robert: Just let me see this play, Jenny.Marilyn: Go ahead, Robert. We should all take a little break before dessert.2.2 Derivatives of kinship terms Being a comprehensive language, English uses the forms change to express the grammatical relations of the words in a sentence. On the contrary, the grammatical relation among Chinese words depends on other factors (the forms of words are not changed). Based on the above principle, there are no actual derivatives to express affection:阿爸,a ba(father)、阿妹,a mei(sister)、好妈妈,hao ma ma(mother)、乖女儿guai nv er(daughter)、亲爱的爷爷,qin ai de ye ye(grandpa), adding “子,zi”、 “儿,er” after the address word. For example, 叔子,shu zi(uncle)、侄儿,zhi er(nephew)etc. And in Hong Kong or Taiwan, the forms are usually added to the prefix. For instance, 老爸,lao ba(daddy)、老妈,lao ma(mummy). However, in western expression, “-y” and “-ie” or some phonemics are used to derive some new words expressing affection in kinship terms. Such as mum-mummy; dad-daddy, dadie; nan-nanny, nanna; daughter-daughtie; aunt-aunty, auntie; grandny-grannie.2.3 Generalization of kinship terms Generalization of kinship terms refers to addressing non-kin or stranger by kinship terms. In many situations, children are taught to use kinship terms to address to the close friends of their parents therefore, kinship terminology is often employed. The difference between “close” and “distant” is taken seriously in Chinese traditional culture. The order from close to distant is: directly related relatives to collateral relatives. So the subjects of daily communication always choose close address forms in kinship terms according to the characteristics (age, sex, etc.) of the object. That is to say, the subject may use kinship terms to express their intimation to the object. In addition, choosing address forms is attached important in “Respect Rule”. Generalization only exists in address from younger to elder, instead of from elder to younger. Children may address non-kinship relatives “老爷爷,lao ye ye”(an old man) 、“老奶奶,lao nai nai”(an old woman). This generalization phenomenon indicates that interpersonal relation net of Han nationality has the function of promoting group cohesion. English-speaking countries, on the other hand, think highly of the value: “individualism”. In daily communication, seniority order, age and interpersonal relation net are omitted. In English, address for personal identity can be used between persons who have different ages and status. For example, the students can call their teachers name directly; even the grandchild can call their grandparents name. On the contrary, in Chinese, only the one who is powerful has the right to call the others name directly, otherwise, the one will leave an impression of impoliteness. “老,lao(old)+surname” indicates respect in Chinese culture. In English culture, it should be avoided, because it is very impolite to call people “old man”. Age is a great taboo in the western culture. “An old man would rather take an umbrella to the street on a sunny day to be called mad man than going about on a crutch as an old man.” (Chen, 1998) 3. Difference in social address forms Social address forms (non-kinship term address) are another stream of address system. Social address forms play an important role in language communication, because it expresses the first signal as soon as the communication begins. To choose proper social address forms, besides considering peoples status, occupation, age, one should also take the relationship into account. Social address forms can not only indicate the social property of the participants, but also define