文章基本信息

标题：Terms of Endearment in American English and Syrian Arabic Family Discourse
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作者：Amr A.A. Khalil ; Tatiana V. Larina
期刊名称：RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics
印刷版ISSN：2313-2299
电子版ISSN：2411-1236
出版年度：2022
卷号：13
期号：1
页码：27-44
DOI：10.22363/2313-2299-2022-13-1-27-44
语种：English
出版社：Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)
摘要：Each culture has its own system of address forms, which vary not only across languages but across the varieties of the same language. This fact confirms the impact that sociocultural factors assert on the set of address forms and their functioning. The present study is focused on a sub-category of address forms, namely, terms of endearment, which are explored in American English and Syrian Arabic family discourse. The study aims to specify the set of the terms of endearment in two contexts and reveal similarities and differences in their usage related to their pragmatic meaning, im/politeness, and communicative values. It also investigates how frequently and in what contexts terms of endearment are used in the American and Syrian family circle. The dataset, which includes 312 interactions with 199 terms of endearment (87 English and 112 Arabic) were obtained from 20 hours of American drama television series, This is us and 25 hours of a Syrian drama television series, Rouzana. The data were categorized and analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively implementing discourse analysis theory, politeness theory, and cultural studies. The results of our analysis have shown that the American English and Syrian Arabic terms of endearment are used as indicators of personal attitude and emotion, as well as markers of informality, closeness, and emotive politeness. They indicate that in Syrian Arabic, terms of endearment can also express respect and deference, they are more variable, expressive, and conventional which may suggest that they are a salient feature of the Arabic family discourse. The findings of the present paper add to the existing writings on forms of address and can be useful for further research in sociolinguistics, cross-cultural pragmatics, and intercultural communication.