On the Analysis of the Address Term“老师”in General Use

CA-N_D-Y.Mother: Ok,but I vetoOn the Analysis of the Address对于爸爸想给孩子买Term“老师”in General Use吃的东西的建议，妈妈不反对，但是妈妈担心爸爸买糖果，孩子吃多了糖果口高岩会产生龋齿，于是妈妈使用了晦涩的句子，没有言渤海大学外国语学院明她的主张，而是让爸爸根据其语言去推导出她真正的想法，那就是:不能给孩子们买糖果吃，这个句子挺复杂的，是一句书面语，孩子们根本没法弄清妈妈的意思，而这正是妈妈要达到的效果，她就是要让孩子听不懂，只要爸爸听明白就好.Abstract: The address term"老师"is used widely in modem society. This paper mainly3结语soudies the generul use of the address term“老师”. It raised the hypothesis firstly. Thensome questionnaires were handed out to collect the data for the analysis. According to the用推论的方式其实并不能使一切隐含的意义都statistics, this phenomenon is analyzed and interpreted. It is due to both psychological明白话，而是要让译者用灵活多样的方式来传递原Key words: address term; general use;老师文的会话含义。在翻译之[中圈分类号] HO-O [文献标识码]A [文章 编号11009-6167(2012)05-0040-04时，如果逐字翻译能够能够传递原文的含义，那当40然是最好的翻译方式，可0 lotroduction是，如果二者产生矛盾，那么我们就要保留会话含Address terms can be a miror of people's social position and itrrclationship. They义，而可以牺牲翻译的形change with the devclopment of the society. Some address termns gradually disappear from式.use and no proper address tems take the places. This causes the vacancy of address termsin some circumstances. Some address terms are kept for use in a variety of ways, which拷文献causes the general use of address terms. These two phenomena exist and mix together inmoderm Chinese address system No doubt, it will lead to a complex system of address1]陈淑萍. 合作原则对译者and even cause confusion sometimes. Sociolinguists' study of Chinese address system has的启示01.商丘师范学院学made a lot of contributions to one of the functions of language- a reflection of the society.报，2004(4. .2] 张宏瑜，杨雪.翻译中的Wardhaugh once said in his work,"A whole society which is undergoing social change is语用等效问题研究U].also likcely to show certain indications of such change if the language in use in that socicty木斯大学社会科学学报，has (or had) a complex system of adress." Obe such society is modem China.2008(6).Zhu Wanjin studies the complex system of Chinese address termns and described sixcategories that are used by an adult in diferent circumstances:①Kinship terms in kinshiprelationship. ②Kinship terms in social rclationship, e.g.“叔叔"“阿姨".③Name.④General address trms, e.g"“同志”,“师傅”.⑤Title.⑥Professional title or the action of theadresee, e.g“民警”“骑自行车的”. I will focus on one of the last category of addressterms"老师”which is called according to the professional title .Tbe essay consists of six narts. starting with the introduction. Part lI, the aim andmy hypothesis.s Part叫, the rev中国煤化工mcthods, which comnesbefore part V, findings and interMRCNMHGion作者篱介:禺岩，制教授,确士生导师。研究方向:语言学。address trms, so far as I know, is by Tian Huigang. He statod2 The Reason, Aim and Hypothesis of the Researchthat the address terms like“师傅”,“老师”and"大夫”areThe aim of this essay is to analyze the general use of thein general use. He empbasized that“老师”is tnot a properaddress termf" 老师”.address term for the administrative personnel and serviceDo you only call the one who teacbes you“老师”?personpel on campus. A review of the literature revealsSociolinguists give us a negative answer in their studiesextensive research of Chinese address termns and some of theof the Chinese address system. Tian Huigang in his workchanges brought about by the social change, but relativelyillustrates on campus, the administrative personnel andlittle rescarch that has specifically donc on the general use of蒂service personnel who do not teach are called" 老师".Inthe address term“老师".his opinion, teachers have a specialized position in teachingkmowledge, terefore“老师"Is not a proper adress term for4 Methodsthe adminisrative personnel and service personnel. When4.1. Selection of Infomantstalking about the address term"老师”, a scholar said angrily:4.1.1 Education level of the sample“老师”is misused in the society nowadays. The host of anThe thirty-two infrmants are all college stuadeats inevening party introduced an actor who performed a comicBohai University. They are from two classes.mdialogue as XX老师.1 do not admit xX is my teacher.4.1.2 Age1 can not acept the address term“老师”used by that bhost.All the Informants are sophomores wbo are betweenProbing into this phenomenon, we can find the general use of19 and 23 years old. Though they are young, they can use thethe address term“老师”in moderm society.address terms like an adult场Since tbe address term“老师”is widely used, there4.1.3 Dialect Regionsbould be some reasons for that. Tberefore, the aim in thisAll the informants live in the cities of Liaoning学essay is to make a tentative analysis of the general use of theProvince in Nortberm China. The diatects they use are almostaddress term“老师”in our society and find the social andstandard Chinese. Because they are highly educated, they willpsychological reason for that.use Putonghua, the standard Chinese in formal situations.The bypothesis bere is that the address term “老师" is4.2 Selection of the AdressessThe adresees include represcnatives of the staf41in general use on campus. n otber words, all the staf whowork in schools teod to be clled“老师.”who do diferent kinds of jobs on campus in Bobai University.4.3 Data Collction3 Review of the Past LiteratureEach nformants was given a questionnaire on the sameIn 1950s, Cho Yuenren, in “Chinese Terms of Address”day in Bohai University for surveying students' use of themade an exbaustive study of the Chinese address system.address term“老师”. The questionnaire is designed like this:However, many changes of the address terms after liberationHow do you address the following pecople? If you callwere not touched(Zhu Wanjin) e.g. he mentioned that“先them“老师"，please mark“V" in the corresponding blank.生”,“太太”,“大姐”are the address termns in common use.If not, please 6l1 in the address term you use. The form of theHowever, they were replaced by“同志”after liberation andquestionnaire is like Table I, without the part of oumber and“师傅”undet the influence of culural revolution.percentage.Earlier studies by Wardhaugh mentioned that in ChineseThe Informants were asked to fl in the family addressaddress system, possional titles are sill used, c.g.“老师”to guarantee all the informants are from Liaoning province.(tcacher),“大夫”(doctor) and siled workers prefer to beThe qustionnaire items under the category“identity"adressed as“师傅”(master). The old“先生”(M:) is nowcontained nearly all kinds of working personnel in the college.applied only to certain old scbolars; young teacbers are calledThe item of" teacber s spouse" is the inelletual wbo is not“老师”or“教授" if they are proesors. More recently, Zhua teacher. The questionnaire items under the category“age"Wanjin analyzed the general use of the address term“fdistinguish the young fom the old in order that the students志" and“师傅”. She mentioned that“老师”is the generalcould reflect on diferent address terms.address term among itellecruals.sAftel中国煤化工the ifomats,The most recent research about tbe general use of1 waited:YHCNMHGf1lintheform枚鹞日期: 2012-3-27independently without consulting others' opinion. Theto these people. They administer afairs concerning variousinformants proceeded after a few minutcs of thinking, andaspets of students' study life. To some exteat, these peoplethen they flled in the form quickdy. All the questionnairesbelong to the stratum of illtualse They need to have thewere tumed in ten minutes later.relevant knowledge to their jobs. Even though they do not4.4 Dala Analysisteach, they have bad a higher education. They are somewbatThe data were proved to be valid before the analysis.kmnowledgeable, bence respectable. The other reason is thatThe tirtytwo qustionnaires were all clled by myself. Ithe addressees are working in college. Social context playschecked each one of them, and calculated the number of thean important role in cotolling people' s language. Theuse of the address term“老师”in each item. The numbermain activity in college is teaching and leaning. Though thedivides into thirty-two, the total oumber of tbhe questionnaire.personnel I mentioned above do not engage in this activityThen the percenage of the use of tbe adress term“老师”in directly, they work for it. The social context of collegeeach itemn can be got. The students' responscs were listed incampus has an influence on these people. These specialspecifec stistical figures below.situation wins the address term“老师" for them. The peopleTable 1. the number and percentage of the use of thewho do the same kind of job with them outside collegeaddress term“老师”campus are seldom addressed“老师”. Secondly, lttlemore than half of the students also addressed the deans“老YoungYoumg MalefemaleOld mnle0ld female师". Less part of them prefer the use of the fficial title . InKentityimn %| Nm% Nan|| Nim| %Chinese tradition, there are bureaucratic ais. The official titleYorrache |100 | 1200| 300|200seems to be a more respectful address form to most people.However, on college campus, still quite a few students tend to|35|11+3413|406|I75use the address term“老师”instead of the oficial title. TheOfxcCak | 26| 8125 28125 1244main reason is that the address term sbows more intimacyDamof5625 18%625 1%6255625than the ofncial tile. The use of tbe address term“老师”toDeputbeladdress the deans indicates that the students do not keep thestukio625| 22S| x25 2025deans at a distance and they bave a closer reltionship with42The wotingpaoondi 6| 1.75 6锦75875 685their deans. In this sense, solidarity is more important. Atthe same time, tbe students also expressed their politenessThowolingpand|xns|如93759759.75by using the address term“老师”. Thirdly, the personnelwho work in the clinic and the dining ball are called”老师”The wodcingpanxcad 8| 3585|58diningtullby some students because they work for te students in theMargoulcollege. The doctors or murses who work in the bospital andn.4| 2;| 245 25| %!the stafs who works in the restaurant outside college campuswill never be called“老师”. Most students use the addressterm“大夫”and“师傅". In fact, these two terms are also5 Findings and Iterpretatiosin general use in the society. “大夫”is the general term inDo the students address the stafs besides their teachershospital. Nurscs are called “大夫" quite often because the6|“老师"? The analysis of the data which I olled on cllegejobs of the nurses seem inferior to the jobs of the doctors. The?|campus indicates that the address term“老师" is indeednurses are more status conscious and would like to be clledlgin gencral use by the students. Firstly, the analysis shows“大夫”.“师傅" is in gencral use afer Cultural Revolution.a very bigh percentage of the students tend to address theTraditinally, “师傅”is the address term for silld workers.回|administative personnel, the working personncl in libraryGradually, it replaced“同志”to some extent. Some people尽|and the managerial personnel of the students' apartments,even usc“师傅”io any case when they do not know thethese three kinds of personnel“老师”. Why do most of theoccupation of the addressee, especially the young people.students use the address term“老师”for these personnel whoThey use师傅”to show respect to the people who are olderdo not teach them? In my opinion, one reason is that by using中国煤化IIdress tcm“大夫" andthe address term“老师", the students are showing respect:YHC N M H Ghe proesioa teisalso a way to show politenes and respect just like the use of“老师". However, it is not in all contexts that they will be“老师”。At last, ler's see how the students address teachers'called“老师". The formality of the stting is relevant to thespouses. Though they may not work in college, they haveaddress term. In some informal occasions, some changes maysome relationship with the teachers. The students' responsetake place. The last reason concerms the vacancy of addressto this question is very complex. Some studcnts address themterms. With the development of the society, some address“老师”without distinction. Some students use the addressterms gradually disappear. For a period of time, DO newterm "师母”for the male teacher's wife, but do not know howaddress termns emerge to fll the vacancy. This makes us in a￥to address the female teacher's husband. Even though"父situation of not knowing how to address a person properly母”is always together, only one student f1l in“师父" in thesometimes, e.g. “同志”used to be used in a variety of|corresponding bianks for teachers' husband. Some sudentsways.The party wants 1o put everyone on an equal rootinguse the kinship terms like“大哥”,“大嫂”,"叔叔"“阿姨”through encournging the use of an address form that impliesto address teachers' spouses. Some students fill in nothing inno social or economic dferences and untes all plitially.”the blanks of the item, which means they do not know how to(Wardhuagh). This is not very important in moderm society.address teachers' spouses. The confusion of the address term“先生”and“小姐”are more popular and become a widely-in this situation is due to the vacancy of address terms. Inused address term. However,“先生”and“小姐" are notmany cases, we will fall ioto m embarassing situation, for weproper address terms on campus. When students can find acannot find a proper address term. For example, once I wassuitable term to address the administative personnel and theintroduced to a new colleague s husband wbo is the same ageservice personnel, some of them have to address them withwith me. Not knowing how to address him, ljust said hello 10the address termn“老师”.场him without any address term. The vacancy of address termsIn the dictionary of address terms by Hanyi,“老师”really troubles the students to find a proper address term foris defined as①the respectful form of address 1o tcacher,②学teachers' spouses.the older scbolars. The admninistrative personnel and service术personnel in school belong to neitber of these. That they are究6 Conclusioncalled“老师”reflects the vacancy and generalization of theThe adress term“老师”is the general use on collegeChinese address terms. This is pot only due to the aritrary,43campus. No matter the personnel working in the collegeambiguous and polysemantic characteristic of language, butteach or not, they tend to be called"老师" by the students.also due to the culture and structure of the Chinese society.Though some sociolinguists point out that the general useThe standardization and perfection of the address termsof some address terms shows the imperfect, incomplete andare necessary. It will also contribute to the cross-culturalimmature characteristics of the address system, I think therecommunicationare some reasons for that. We can sce it through the analysisof the general use of“老师”on campus. One reason is that拷文献“老师”is a respectful form of address, passing knowledge(1] Han Xingzhi. The Dictionany ofhe ddress Terms[M New Worldto the students is the sacred duty of teache. Because of this,pres, 1991.teacber has been one of the most of respectful occupation[2] Tian Huigang. The Chnese and Western ddress SystemM].from the ancient times. Now the status of ieacher is also highForcign languages Pes, 1998.in ay society. In realit, title address term rflects a perso's[3] Warhugh, Ronald. An Inroduction 10 Socinguistics[M]. Basilsocial status. Teacher is in higher social positin so that“老Blackwell World Publishing Corp, 1989.师”is the address tem for a respectable person. This polite[4] Zbu Wajin. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction[M]. Humanusage sprads form carmpus to society. When you call the oneEducation Pres. 1992.who do not teach“老师”, you are sbowing respect to him.The other reason is that the people who are clled“老师"shared something in comnon with teacber. Though they donot teach, they serve for teaching indirectly. They work in thecollege, the same with teachers. The same context influences中国煤化工the form of the address, which cauises the sarme address termMYHCNMHG