Hutsulyak-Timofti
L.T.
Chernivtsi University
Pragmatics of Direct Adress.
An important contribution to the
development of theoretical and practical pragmatics and the theory of direct
address in particular has been made by A.V. Veltistova, O.H.
Vetrova, V.E. Goldin, H.N.
Klyusov, O.N. Minina, M.A. Olikova, L.P. Rud’ko, A.H. Gardiner, J Habermas and
other linguists.
The significance of direct address
has always been one of the most fascinating subjects in different spheres of
linguistics since with their help the relation and style of communication
between the interlocutors is determined. Most linguists singled out the most
important functions of direct address in communication, the principles of
direct address determination etc.
The objective of our research is the analysis of a
social component of direct address in the author’s discourse (J.R.R.
Tolkien, Chalker Jack L., G. K. Chesterton and Jane
Austen). The common volume of discourse is 912815 words.
The most
acceptable form of polite addressing is the use of direct address Mr.,
Mrs., or Miss (for a young or unmarried girl) + last name e.g.: 'I will go along with you, Mr. Frodo,' said Sam. [7, 315]
Direct address Mr., Mrs. come forward
as a zero the use of which is locked by the rules of etiquette, similar direct
addresses are used exceptionally with the last names, but never alone or with
first names. Violation of this norm may testify to low public status. Though, applying in the street or in
a transport to the unknown man, we can use direct address Mr fully
appropriately., Mrs. And in the friendly tone direct address Mr.,
Mrs. (if not accompanied by brightly expressed emotion) is unnatural, foreign e.g.: "Well, Mrs.
Savage, when do we have our honeymoon?" he asked her. [7,
420] Exception - direct address Miss, which is expressed as an address,
e.g. to the teacher. However considering its use in relation to an unknown
woman it is the sign of lack of upbringing.
This direct
address is nowadays in most situations officially expressed. That is why in
other tone of intercourse, say, in neutral, such direct address signals about
the presence of certain “distance” between the speakers.
A regular polite form of direct address to the woman - Madam. For example: 'What do
you fear, madam?' he asked. [7,516], "My dear madam! Nobody but yourself could imagine such a thing
possible.’ [3, 206]
The same form of direct address to a man (especially, who has higher
grade) Sir. So schoolboys speak to the teachers, men to soldiers in an
army to higher ups, salesmen in shops to the customers e.g.: "Duty watch,
Sir," came an officious voice. [5, 73] In a group this direct address is substituted by the
word gentlemen, and Madam
- by the word ladies. ‘Ladies and gentlemen--I am ordered by Miss Woodhouse
to say, that she waives her right of knowing exactly what you may all be
thinking of.’ [3, 247]
Direct address, if it is accompanied by Dear contains an
additional tint of respect, that is why fully logical will sound direct
address: Dear Sir (e.g.:"Dear
Sir, do not make a stranger of me." [3, 36]), Dear Father (e.g.:‘My
Dear father! I congratulate you! [3, 125]), etc.
First we will
consider pragmatics of formal direct address:
1) Direct
address of noble persons:
-
to queen, king at presentation - Your
majesty (« your lightness»)
-
to husband of a queen, and also to
the heirs of monarch - Your Royal Highness («Your Royal Lightness»):
farther these titles are replaced by the direct address Ma`am and Sir;
-
to duke - Your Grace («your lightness»); direct address
to his wife is the same;
-
to marquis, count, viscount and baron
- Madam, your Lordship, and also My Lady (similar direct address
is usually used by servants) e.g.: "Never,
madam," cried he, affronted in his turn: never, I assure you.” [3, 88]
-
to baronet and to the possessor of
knight's rank which is used for the special merits, - Sir (at the word Sir
the title of baronet or knight before the name or before the name and last
name is used) e.g.: "My dear Sir, upon no account in the world; my father
can direct me." [3, 128]
-
at the
word Lady the title of wife of baronet or knight together with the last
name of husband is used: Lady Bromgrew, the name can be used in brackets e.g.: "Why should I
help you, lady (Barbara) Bromgrev or whatever you are?" [5, 90], 'And you, lady, leave him a while
with me. I will care for him.' [7,342].
2)
Professional forms of direct address
To Lord-Major
in
An official
address to the ambassador is Your Excellency or Sir + name, or Mr.
+ last name e.g.: 'Don't let
him hurt me, Sir!’ [7, 44]
For
polite direct address of people, which take up medicine, the use of their
professional titles is ordinary. Thus, direct address doctor – doctor e.g.
‘What is the matter,
doctor?" [6, 82].
As for the concept of ‘Medical sister", it has the followings synonyms:
direct address nurse is used in relation to women and men which carry
out the duties of junior medical personnel; to the medical sister being a men,
which occupies higher official position in a hospital, is expedient to apply by
the word sister; direct address matron is used in relation to a
senior sister in a hospital e.g.: "You
are my friend Mrs Rooke; Nurse Rook.’ [4,
196]
In military powers the direct address to
soldieries, as a rule, includes their rank (with the last name, or without it) of
Admiral (Smith), General, Colonel, Major, Captain, Lieutenant, Sergeant,
Corporal. Direct address in the form of «direct address + the last name» is
more official e.g.: "Certainly, Captain Benwick." [4, 201]
Direct address to the policemen applying his rank: Sergeant,
Inspector. For example: "Mr. Inspector, I have not the
slightest objection to being arrested’. [4,109] Colloquial
direct address is Officer e.g.:’ Officers generally have swords, don't they?’ [6,135]
In
official cases it is accepted as direct address to the interlocutors on ranks: Professor,
Senior, Tutor, Dean. For example: ‘a lecturing college professor’.
[5,8]
We will mark that some direct addresses, which are closely associated
with the names of professions, are scarcely possible to consider polite. They
are neutral and are often used. For example ‘waiter’ e.g.: "Got your window broken, waiter, I see,"
said Valentin’ [6, 8], you call a porter on the station : "Porter!",
tell the driver of taxi: "Stop here, driver." Most forms of
direct address in plural sound neutrally.
Let us
consider direct address of family relations:
Direct address father meets either in this form, or in such
colloquial forms, as dad, daddy, pa, papa. Direct address mother has
a lot of colloquial variants also: ma, mam, mum, mamma, non, mummy. But
in official communication we observe the usage of direct address father + last
name e.g.: "You seem to know a lot
about him, Father Brown." [6,
52]
Direct
address son is more characteristic for parents, while direct
address daughter is rarely used e.g.: "My son…" [3, 79]
Individually
to the children parents address by personal names, by home nicknames or use
tender words.
To the senior
family (grandfather grandmothers) members traditionally direct address grandpa,
granddad, grandma, granny is used. The last use the personal names
to address their grandchildren instead of such words, as grandson or granddaughter.
Direct
address to other near relatives includes the words uncle, aunt, auntie, sometimes
in connection with the personal names e.g.: ‘uncle James Blount’ [6,48]
Direct
address for the married couples is expresses by the personal names,
affectionate nicknames, or tender words [2, 30].
Direct address brother
and sister we can meet nowadays very rarely. Personal names of brother and
sister are usually used. It should
be noted that in out-domestic relations direct addresses brother and sister are
used more frequent e.g.: ‘My brother and sister, you promised us a visit…’ [3,
187]
Than we shall consider a pragmatic aspect of direct
address marked with tender and friendly features.
Direct addresses, which express
positive attitude toward an addressee, are very popular in modern English. Among them it is possible to remember well known in
modern English numerous baby, boy, dear, angel, dearest, dear boy, dear
girl, friend, honey, kid, love, lovely, sweet, sweetheart, sweets e.g.: "I hate to
disturb you, lover boy!" [5, 48] 'Master,
dear master,' he said, but Frodo did not speak’ [7, 482]
Here
the different forms of friendly direct addresses belong to my or my
dear: my precious, my dear son, my
dear daughter, my dear
sweet, sweet heart etc. e.g.:
‘See, my precious: if we has it, then we can escape,
even from Him, eh?’ [7, 419],
"My dear chap, any friend of
yours.’ [6, 46]
The following
forms of direct address are marked with unfriendly features:
It is conventional to interpret the
majority of direct address of the type you + adjective + noun as negative
(unfriendly, touchy). There are such examples of realization of this model: you
bloody fool, you bloody swine, you dirty bastard, you old cow e.g.:
"You old fool!" she said in
a low voice without pretence of piety, "what do you suppose you are trying
to prove?’ [6, 22], 'You idiotic fool!' [7, 392]
Among negative direct addresses there are a lot of
words, related to the animal kingdom (zoologismen): ass, cat, cow, goat,
hog, jackass, louse, pig, shrew, skunk, swine, turkey, vermin e.g.: ‘My dear ass, your pack is lying by your bed, and
you had it on your back when I met you.’
[7, 573]
In English a tendency exists to form a negative direct address with a
component - head: blockhead, blunderhead, bonehead, fathead, muttonhead,
pinhead, puddinghead, steephead. In the work of J Chalker we meet the
adjective bullheaded with a negative coloring e.g.: "He knew me
well. That's why he picked me. He called me bullheaded, self-centered, and
revenge-minded.” [5, 98]
Impersonal direct addresses take a special place. The
words and word-combinations, which have lost their logical meaning, for
example: "Oh my God!" he said, and screamed for help. [5, 11]
Consequently,
in the author’s discourse (J.R.R. Tolkien,
Chalker Jack L., G. K. Chesterton and Jane Austen),
its own peculiarity of direct address exists, but principle of its usage is
mostly the same. Depending on a situation and sort of relations it is possible
to define between the speakers, what direct address to use, but one must be
well-informed and weighed, not to offend an addressee [2, 73].
Table 1. Pragmatics of Direct Address in Author’s Discourse
In conclusion
we may state that having investigated social aspect of direct address in
author’s discourse we have found out that (1) polite DA occupies dominant
position among the other direct addresses; (2) authors use DA of professions,
naming the characters of their works; (3) DA of family relations are used
almost by all authors in certain amounts, that points on the descriptions of
family relations of the characters; (4) friendly DA we can meet in all works,
as it shows the attitudes and relationship between the heroes; (5) unfriendly
DA signifies the negative and touchy atmosphere between the communicators, and
is rarely used by the authors. However the given work has merely highlighted
some issues related to the problem of direct address and further researches in
this field will provide answers to many questions concerning this topic.
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