The Comparison of Vocatives between English and Chinese in Pragmatics
Abstract: Vocatives are key to people’s daily communication. Each conversation needs vocatives and each person has may be more than one vocatives. Under many circumstances, it is the vocatives that what we pass to each other in a conversation in the first place. It not only helps people who are involved to get started, but also reflects the identities, status of both sides and their relationships. There are a great many differences between English and Chinese vocatives. In this thesis, we are going to explain the definition of vocatives and compare the commons and the differences in pragmatics and try to find out the reason to this problem. Thus we can do better in choosing the accurate and suitable vocatives according to different situations and make the social communication start effectively.
摘要：称呼语是人们日常交际生活中所必不可缺少的。 每个对话中都有称呼语。在不同的情况下，每个人的称呼语也是不同的。它是我们在交际过程中所传达给对方的第一个信息。
Key words: vocatives, pragmatics, commons, differences, English and Chinese
Introduction:
When people communicate, they are always choosing. They choose whom to talk to, where to talk, when to talk, what they talk and how can they communicate effectively. And the first choice they make when they communicate is addressing—the calling of people. Just like father, mother, doctor and so on.. That is vocatives. Or we can call it address forms. Vocatives are essential to people’s communication. Each conversation needs vocatives. And every person has their specific vocatives under different circumstances. Vocatives indicates the communicators’ status, social position and their interrelationship. A suitable vocative can make a comfortable environment to the people who are involved and helps the conversation start smoothly. On the contrary, a bad vocative can ruin the conversation entirely.
Each culture has its own vocatives and classification. And there are a great many differences between the English and Chinese vocatives: the definition, the classification, the usage and the cause to their differences.
Before we can a further research on the differences between the English and Chinese vocatives, we have to make out one thing: what is vocative? Or what does address form mean?
The Definition of Vocative.
In Chinese, there are two explanations of the word “Vocative” in Chinese Dictionary ① addressing, which means the calling of the people . ② it is the name which represents the identity, status and occupational position.
In English, in Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, vocative means: (in some languages) the form of a noun, a pronoun or a adjective used when addressing a person or thing.
Vocative rose the concern of many famous researchers in 1960s. And many of them gave out their own definiton of vocative.
As Loveday(1982:69) claims, vocatives, as a part of greeting, occur in all languages. They provide the means for opening conversations appropriately, and for identifying, establishing and maintaining social relationships of the participants.
According to Fasold (1990), “address forms are the words speakers use to designate the person they are talking to while they are talking to them. Address forms are used when a speaker already has the listener’s attention.
Another definition by Braun (1988:7) is “ forms of address are words or phrases used for addressing. They refer to the collocutor and thus contain a strong element of deixis.
Though many linguists have their own understanding of vocatives, in linguistic, for a long time, we can’t give a exact definition to the word “vocative (address form)” . After years’ of study, we have made an agreement on its definition, which means the name that used when people make communication face to face.
Current Researches about Vocative
Roger Brown and Albert Gilman
Roger Brown and Albert Gilman are the representatives of the sociolinguists who study vocatives. During 1960s, through the analysis of the literature works, the study of the questionnaires’ results, they study the usage of tu and vous in Italian, French, German and Spanish.
Fasold evaluates their work published at that time as “the classic and most influential study of address forms and the social relationships they reveal.”
Through the study, they find that when people choose vocatives, there are two elements that should be taken into consideration: power and solidarity. Power is displayed by social position. It means that the age, hierarchy, seniority, wealth, social status, strength of one person is superior to the other one. And solidarity means the commons of the participants, like experience, age, gender, occupational positions, interests, religious faith and race and so on. Social distance can show solidarity.
They also study the second singular pronoun in most languages like French, German, Latin, Russia, Italian and find that they all have a T form and a V form. It is divided by tu-vous in Latin. When people talk, if they use T form, we can say that they are very close. While they use V form, it indicates that their social gap are very big. Under many circumstances, the participants in the conversation are not equal in social status, occupational positions and so forth. When the collocutor’s position is lower than the cal lee’s, the latter will always receive the vocatives with respect.
Roger Brown and Marguerite Ford
Interested in the general use rather than in the somewhat differing patterns that might be found in separate subgroups in the society, Roger Brown and Marguerite Ford gather their data through the observation of spontaneous interactions among men and women of different occupational statuses in work-related environments.
When the social positions of the communicators are similar, they will both use T/V to address each other. At this moment, the vocatives they choose will show the social distance and their intimacies. If they have a close relationship, they would always use T form. For example, the husband and the wife, the classmates often use T form. But if it not the case, like strangers, they would use V form. Besides, when the upper class uses the nonreciprocal address form to the lower class, like T form, the vocatives which the upper class uses reflects power. Contrary to this situation, when we use T form to address someone who has the similar social status, the vocatives does indicates the distance between the communicators.
However, several studies (Braun 1988:22, Fasold 1990:35) make it clear that the applications of power and solidarity semantics can vary substantially form language to language, form society to society, even form group to group in the same community.
In English, there is no T/V in second singular pronoun, only “you”. And the very unit which can best reflects the power and solidarity is the vocatives. As Brown puts: The linguistic form that is used to an inferior in a dyad of unequal status is, in dyads of equal status used mutually by intimates…the form used to a superior in a dyad of unequal status is ,in a dyad of equal status, used mutually by strangers.” (Roger Brown 1965:92)
After the research of the English vocatives, Brown and Ford find that most pairs of speakers( or dyads) follow what is called a reciprocal pattern. That is, both participants use First Name( FN)to each other or both use Title and Last Name(TLN) to each other. This shows the inequality of power. One case is that people use Title and Last Name(TLN) to address each other to show that their social statuses are different or they are not familiar, while they use First Name(FN) for their intimacies. During the communication, the vocatives they use will change form TLN to FN. And this is controlled in the hand of the superiority.
In general, reciprocal forms of address (mutual exchange of either FN or TLN) occur between equal status and nonreciprocal forms are typical of unequal relationships.
In addition to the reciprocal patterns of mutual First Name(FN), and mutual Title and Last Name(TLN), Brown and Ford also discussed a nonreciprocal pattern in which one member the participants uses FN to the other but is addressed by TLN.
Susan Ervin-Tripp
Ervin-Tripp (1972) presents the American address form system through using a computer chant format. According to Ervin-Tripp’s model, some forms of TLN would be used if the communicator is not intimate with each other. And if the addressee is in a higher rank, then we will not take the age factor into consideration when choosing the vocative. And the younger or the lower-status persons subordinate to the older or higher-rank persons when choose vocatives.
Another thing discovered by Ervin-Tripp is that there may be chances that a speaker might simply avoid using any name at all. One situation is when there is uncertainty as to options.Ervin-Tripp (1972:228) gives a very clear description of the rules for American English by stating that “a priest, physician, dentist, or judge may be addressed by title alone, but a plain citizen or an academic person may not.” Another situation is that if we don’t know the name, we would no-name the addressee. For example, we may simply name a stranger “Sir” or “Ma’am”, but not the odd names like “Mr.” or “Mrs.”.
When compare the different vocative systems in selection, Ervin-Tripp holds the opinion that “a shared language does not necessarily mean a shared set of sociolinguistic rules”(1972:230). It means that different groups have their own specific rules.
Address Forms in Chinese
With the reference to Brown, Gilman, Ford, Ervin-Tripp, Chinese scholars also pay much attention to the Chinese address systems and believe that there are several social factors affect choosing systems, like the classification, different kinds of address forms, the rules governing them, and people’s daily use of these address forms.
Chao Yuanren
In 1950s, while the scholars abroad study the vocatives, Chinese scholars also do their own researches. At that time, Chao studies the pronouns, titles, kinship terms. In 1956, Chao Yuanren gives a very detailed representation of the address forms in Chinese.
In his research, he mentions(1) vocatives, or terms of direct address to call persons by, and (2) designate, or mentioning terms, which one uses as part of connected discourse in speaking of persons.
Zhu Wanjin
Being the pioneer of sociolinguists in China, Zhu has make a remarkable contribution in this field. She mainly concerned the changes of usage of “tongzhi”(comrade) in China. In 1970s, Zhu writes the work “tongzhi in China: language change and its conversational consequences ”(Scotton and Zhu 1983)in collaboration with Scotton.. In that book, they bring out the seven different usage of tongzhi under different situations.(1983:484-485)
(1) 空位符+ Title: tongzhi (comrade)
(2) Given Name+ Title: Yongjun tongzhi, comrade Yongjun
(3) Modifier + Title: Lao(Xiao)tongzhi, old(young) comrade
(4) Family Name+ Title: Wang tongzhi, comrade Wang
(5) 空位符+Title: zhuren tongzhi, comrade director
(6) Family Name + Given Name + Title: Wang Xiaoming tongzhi, Comrade Wang Xiaoming
(7) Modifier + Family Name + Title: Lao Wang tongzhi, old comrade Wang
In 1990, with the help of Ervin-Tripp’ flow chart format, Zhu gives out a flow chart of the Chinese address system. And she thinks that when choosing vocatives in Chinese, age, seniority, interaction relationship may play important roles. She divides it into six subtypes according to an adult’s rank, social status. They are the following ones:
(1) kinship forms
(2) special kinship forms (which refer to use kinship forms under non-kinship relations. e.g. uncle, aunt)
(3) names, including full name, milk name, nickname, lao(old)/xiao(young)/old(elder) + family name
(4) universal address forms, which can be applied to each member of the same social category, such as “tongzhi (comrade)”, “shifu(master)”
(5) titles, such as official titles
(6) 空位符， zero address form
Chen Yueming
The types of vocatives
According to their main functions, Zwicky (1974), Levinson (1983) and Quirk (1985) divided vocatives into types. One is calls or summons, which is drawing the attention of the person or persons addressed, singling them out from others in hearing; the other is addresses, expressing the speaker’s relationship or attitude to the person or persons addressed (Qurik, 1983: 773). This typical division has been accepted by most linguists and language learners.
The forms of vocatives
In A Comprehensive Grammar of English Language (1985), Quirk et al give a very clear description of the forms of vocatives. Vocatives may be：（1985:773）
a) Names: first name, last name, full name, with or without a title, a nick-name or pet name
b) Standard appellatives, usually without modification:
(i ) terms for family relationships.
(ii )titles of respect : Your Honor, My Lord, etc.
(iii) markers of status: Prime Minister, Mr. President, etc.
c) Terms for occupations : waiter, officer, etc.
d) Epithets (noun or adjective phrase) expressing an evaluation
e) General nouns, but which are often used in more specialized cases. As brother, girl, ladies and gentlemen, etc.
f) The personal pronoun “you” and indefinite pronoun as “somebody”
g) Nominal clauses (very occasionally): whoever said that, etc.
h) Items from a), d), e) and f) may be expanded by the addition of modifiers or appositive elements of various kinds.
The comparison between English an Chinese Vocatives
I. Names as vocatives
Names are symbols of people. Everyone at least has one name. Some others may have several or even dozens of names. The names that can be used as vocatives include full name, scientific name, pet name, offensive slang and so on. Or we can add some affixes before or after the names, like lao,xiao in Chinese and “Mike, the superior”. Regardless of English and Chinese, the names are the most widespread vocatives. Though both the English and Chinese names are made up of surname and given name. but they are in different orders. In Chinese, the order is surname (singular or plural) + given name (singular or plural). But in English, the order is on the reverse, that is given name + (middle name) + family name. There are several things we should pay attention to when names are used as vocatives:
(1). Both in English and Chinese there are rare cases that we address people by full names(excluding the speaker is in power or there are changes in people’s attitudes and emotions). Usually , we combine surname (full name or given name) with other forms, like 李小姐，寇超同志，doctor Steven.
(2). In English, for example, we can call “Smith” short for “Theodore Smith ”. In other words, we can directly use the family name as vocatives. While in Chinese, this is not the case. We occasionally use it among our colleagues, friends and people who have close relationships.
(3). In English, there are some other forms ( like Ms., Mr.) + family name (full name in formal occasions) . For example, we can call “Aaron Hotchner” as “Mr. Hotchner”, “Mr. Aaron Hotchner(formal occasions)”, but we do not use Mr. Aaron. In Chinese, we can call 李洁 as 李小姐， 李洁小姐，but not 洁小姐. That is, we can either use family name and full name or given name( only plural) + other forms of names to address someone.
(4). There are many pet names in English among the same generations, like Maggie- Meg. But in Chinese, the apply range are very narrow. For instance, the seniority to the younger generation or the lovers can use 洁.
(5). No matter in what age, what positions in the family hierarchy, even among people who are in a big gap of their social status, we can usually directly use the names to address them, just as the teachers address their teacher, the child address the elder(only between familiars) or even their parents. And in Chinese culture, only the people in power can do this, or we can offense others and leave them the impression of lack of educate.
(6). In Chinese, we usually show our respect with the forms like “Lao + family name”. In English , the case should be avoided. But the form like “Xiao + family name ” can express intimacies in both two languages.
II. Kinship terms as vocatives
Kinship terms or kinship terms + other words can also be used as vocatives. For example, in Chinese, “爷爷，奶奶，哥哥，姐姐”. In English, we have “sister , father , grandpa”. This is a sophisticated type, especially in Chinese. No wonder that we people in China communicate with the people who has a English culture background, there are always difficulties in understanding each other. The main misunderstanding are the following:
(1). The meanings of the kinship terms are vague. This make the people with Chinese culture confused. Like “brother, sister, uncle, aunt”. E.g. “My aunt met Jane’s uncle yesterday.”. We Chinese people may puzzled wither what does “uncle” and “aunt” mean in Chinese. Likewise, the excessive division of Chinese kinship terms also cause the confusion of the people abroad.
(2). In English culture, being used alone, the kinship used to address the seniority can low one degree, we can use “uncle” to instead “granduncle”. But that is not the case in Chinese.
(3). Some kinship terms in Chinese have extensibilities. In other words, we can use the kinship terms to our neighbors, friends and strangers. E.g. we can use “阿姨，大妈” to name the women the same generation of our mother. But in English culture, it is not suitable except in Catholic group or other religious groups. For example, “Brother Joseph”, “Sister Mary”.
III. The terms indicate social status as vocatives
The words “tongzhi, xiansheng, xiaojie, shifu” belong to this category. And in English the words are “Mr., Mrs., Miss, Madam, Doctor” and so on. Some of these terms can be used alone, but others should be used with family names. The application of this kinds of terms in Chinese and English are different. In Chinese, the terms like “tongzhi, xiansheng, xiaojie, shifu” can be used alone as general vocatives. In other words, they are the terms which are employed to the members of the same community. And in English, the same words are “Madame, Sir, Doctor”. For example: “Sir, what can I do for you?” Secondly, this kinds of terms in Chinese can combine with the family name (full name or given name) or the words like “Lao”, “Xiao”. A person called Li Yajing , we can call it Li tongzhi (Comrade Li), Li Yajing tongzhi (Comrade Li Yajing), or Yajing tongzhi(Comrade Yajing). While in English, we usually use it together with family name, like “Mr. Hotch”, “Mrs. Ford”. Besides, the quantity of this kind of terms are very small. Except the words mentioned above, there are “Judge, Governor, Mayor, Professor, Doctor”. In recent years, affected by the Chinese traditions, the address forms like “Teacher Zhang” have been accepted by foreigners. At last, we should pay special attention to the word “Sir” in English. It equivalent to the word “xiansheng” in Chinese. But their have obvious distinction. In English, we usually put it at the beginning or at the end of the sentence, separated by the comma to show respect.
A: What can I do for you, sir?
B: I want to have a look at that suit.
IV. Zero address forms
Zero address forms means there is no vocatives in the communication. Some scholars count the terms “喂，嗨” in Chinese and “Hello, Hi, Hey, Excuse me” into the zero address form. The case in Chinese are few. Except that the speaker are superior to the listener or that the speaker doesn’t know how to address the listener. Otherwise, the listener will feel abrupt, impolite or disrespect. But this can not be applied to the English cases. No matter what social position are you in, or which place are you in in your generation, you can always use the zero address form. If you know this case, you would better understand why people in English-speaking countries usually use “Hi, Hey” to greet someone. But if the listener is your superior or seniority, you’d better use “Hello!”
The words, phrases or clauses that can be used as vocatives
There are plenty of words of this kind and it is very open, which means that we can create as many new words as possible. In Chinese, the words “胖胖， 宝贝，他爹” belong to this kind. Likewise, the words in English are “(my) love, sweet heart, skinny, people who like coffee”. Besides this, the second pronouns in both two languages belong to this kind. And there is a little difference in the second pronoun. But there is one thing that we should pay attention to : together with some other European languages(French, Latin), there is T and V form of second pronoun in Chinese while in English there is only “you”.
One more thing: both the two languages avoid directly using the pronouns as vocatives except that you express special emotions (like greetings, orders and so on). And the nick name, like “baby, dear” are confined to a specific occasion, and we can not use it in the cross-cultural communication. Besides that, the words “baby, love” can only be used among the parents to children, loves, husband and wife, or intimates in Chinese. In English, we can use it in a wide range: acquaintance, even between the shop assistants and the customers. If a foreigner isn’t familiar with the Chinese cultural and name the person “Baby, Love”, especially to the young lady. She would feel confused and embarrassed.
The types of vocatives
Vocatives is a relatively free, independent grammar unit. It has its own appliance rules and systems. Being the unit of speech communication and pragmatics, the vocatives strongly reflect the influences of the variation in community on the culture. Also, it indicates people’s social relations, culture. The social factors in Chinese vocatives are far more sophisticated that those in English, especially in the aspects in the vocatives choosing, power and solidarity. Altogether, the vocatives can be divided into the following five sub-types.
Kinship terms as vocatives.
Both in English and Chinese address systems, there are kinship terms. But the Chinese ones are much more sophisticated than the English ones. In real life, we can find the kinship terms in English are smaller than those of Chinese and their semantic meanings are quite different. For example, “aunt” in English can address all the people who are of the same age of our mothers. But in Chinese, we should call the sisters of our father’s “姑姑”，the sisters of our mother’s “姨姨”. The word “uncle” in English addresses the men who are of the same age of our fathers. But in Chinese, we should call the brothers of our mother’s “舅舅”, and those of our father’s “叔叔”. Also the words like “nephew”, “niece”, “grandfather” and “grandmother” are of the same kind.
Names as vocatives
We can directly use people’s names as vocatives both in English and Chinese. And western people are accustomed to use given name, not the full name. In Chinese, the names include full name, specific name, milk name
General terms as vocatives
General terms refers to the vocatives which can be widely used among the members of the same category. Like the word “Sir”, “Madam” in English and “shifu(master)” “tongzhi(comrade)” in Chinese.
Title + Surname
Referring to the titles, Zhao Yuanren points out that there are three kinds of titles in Chinese : social titles, official titles and occupational titles. And this can also be applied to the English address systems.
Zero address forms
Zero address forms are used to address strangers. For example: the words like “喂， 劳驾” and the English word “Hi, Hello, Excuse me, Forgive me”. They are proposed by the rules of politeness.
The reasons that cause the differences in English and Chinese Vocatives
The reasons that cause the differences are many, and they can be categorized to the followings:
Firstly, China is a historically feudalism community. She is famous for appropriate etiquette around the world. But the western countries emphasizes the democratic rights and Christ theology. Two different social system cause their own specific address systems and means of expression.
In China, the members of address system are sophisticated and have a powerful hierarchy. But the western address systems are simple and week in hierarchy. Nowadays , though the social system in China have changed a lot, but we can still perceive the old tradition. And it has a big difference with the Western’s.
Secondly, from the aspects of the values and the moral principles, the western countries lay stress on the individual features and don’t judge people according to their ages, genders and experiences. They advocate the individualism, encourage self representation and self affirmness. In the social interact, people would not like be constringed by the social hierarchy and other traditions and prefer to the equality of everyone. The most special points of the Chinese vocative systems is humble and modest, it represents the power in people’s communication. On the contrary, this is not the case in English. They are affected by the paralleled society and self respect. They uphold power and ability. And the English vocatives embody the “equal”. This two beliefs contradicts with each other.
Thirdly, the rules of politeness are the important factors in the variation of English and Chinese vocatives.
Lastly is the context which also causes the differences in English and Chinese vocatives. The context includes the time of the communication, the place, the topic, the way how to speak, the status of the participants and their interrelationship, the intimacies between them, people’s knowledge and the culture, society and the political background and so on.
The main commons and differences of the English and Chinese vocatives.
Firstly, both of the their social functions are the same. Being the important components of the Social Etiquette, they has the effect of keep, intensify and even establish different kinds of relationships. Through the use of vocatives, the participants’ identity, social status, character and the distance between them can be highlighted and affirmed.
Secondly, their differences between them are obvious. They stem form two diverse cultural tradition, experienced distinct length development history. And the relationship they maintain, keep and intensify are not totally unanimous. It can be seen from the fact that some kinship terms can be applied to the non-kinship relationships in Chinese while in English it is not so widespread.
We can say that it is a cultural diversity. Foe example, we can see that both in Chinese and English has the vocative “Mr.(xiansheng)”, but they are not totally equivalent words. Furthermore, some vocatives are specific in their own languages, totally non-equivalent words in other languages. For instance, we haven’t found out the equivalent word of “老师” in English. And the same happens to the word “师傅” in Chinese.
The pragmatics function of the vocatives
As Firth (1972:30) comments, vocatives are “a system of signs that convey other than overt messages”. But which is the correct way that people can take the covert messages from this sophisticated sign system?
According to Leech (1983:290), the pragmatic analysis of language can be broadly understood as the investigation into that aspect of meaning which is derived not from the formal properties of words and constructions, but from the way in which utterance are used and how they relate to the context in which they are uttered. Two important aspects which relate utterance meaning to context are speech acts and conversational implicatures.
The social function of vocatives
Every interaction or every communicative event is certainly composed of some factors that are relevant in understanding how that particular interaction or communicative event achieves its objectives, such as the certain situation or context of the interaction, the styles or forms the participants use in the communication. Sometimes we can infer some “extra” information form these factors. Vocatives can indicate the social relationship between speakers
The change of vocatives means the change of interpersonal relationship. And different speech acts and different environments they are in can also influence the change of vocatives. In the communication, people would always unconsciously change the vocatives affected by the context and serve for the communication.
In this thesis, we have probed into the topic of vocative in English and Chinese, their classification, the differences in pragmatics and the causes to their differences, like culture and historical. And it has a guide meaning to our communication. We all know that due to the development of the Internet, the world is becoming smaller and smaller and the connection is tighter and tighter. At this time, vocatives is especially important. A suitable vocative can build a good environment to our conversation. Through this thesis, we can know more about it and thus can perform better in our daily conversation.
Different vocatives embody different national cultures. They reflects the differences in cultural orientation, social relationship, educational degree, interrelationship, religious faith and so on. As for the vocatives in English and Chinese, the diversity of semantics and context can hardly make sure that they may cooperate well in cross-cultural communication. If we don’t know this and always address someone according to our own rules, we may cause the misunderstandings and conflicts between us, not mention achieving our purpose in communication.
Suggestion to foreign language teaching in China.
There are a lot defects when we Chinese students learn English. And this can be obviously perceived form the use of vocatives. The reason to this problem is that we haven’t yet covert our thoughts when we are learning English. We always perceive and understand English in a Chinese way. This is a disadvantage of our learning. In view of this situation, some suggestions would be given to foreign language teaching:
(1) At the very beginning of the English learning, the teachers should instill into the students the idea “thinking in a English way”. And create an English atmosphere in class, minimize the interference of Chinese.
(2) Consciously introduce some knowledge about English culture, and thus make the students know more about their differences.
(3) Improve the students’ pragmatic competence step by step. And adjust the teaching plan according to students’ actual ability.
中国学生在学习英语的时候，常常存在着大量不不足， 这一点从称呼语的用法上就可以很明显地看出来。究其原因在于，我们的思维没有转换过来。我们常常以汉语的思维去考虑英语的问题，以汉语的习惯去琢磨英语的传统。这对于我们的学习是非常不利的。我们要在以下几个方面做写修改
(1)在最初开始的英语学习中，教师应该给学生灌输一种理念是“用西方人的方式去思维”并在课堂上创造一种英语氛围，减少汉语的介入。
（2）有意识地介绍一下英美文化及其风俗，使得学生多多了解它与中国文化的不同。
（3）逐步提高学生的语言应用能力，根据实际生活进行合适的教学。
(五)， 相当于名称的词、词组或从句作称呼语
英、汉语中此类称呼大量存在，而且具有很大的开放性，即随时可以创造出新词新语。如汉语：“穿绿夹克的、孩子他爸、他大婶、宝贝、心肝、煤球、豆芽菜、胖墩等；英语：(my) dear、(my) darling、(my) love、honey、bustard、idiot、skinny、those who want to go”等。此类称呼还包括两种语言里的第二人称代词。值得注意的是：同其他许多欧洲语言（法语、拉丁语等）
一样，汉语第二人称代词也有普通称“你”和尊称“您”的区分（而英语中却只有“you”一种形式0。值得注意的是：除非表达特殊的感情色彩（如会见、命令等）， 两种语言里都应避免代词直接做称呼。而向“豆芽菜、fatty”等绰号，在英汉文化力都限于特定场合，切勿在跨文化交际中使用。此外，诸如“宝贝、亲爱的”等在汉文化里限于父母对儿女或恋人、夫妻、关系特别的朋友间使用的称呼，在英美文化中则能用于普通关系者之间。有事甚至店员.
招呼顾客也会用上“honey”或“dear”之类的称呼。如英美人不了解汉文化，如是称呼中国人，尤其青年女性的话，常常会使对方误解和难堪。
英汉称呼语的分类及对比
称呼语是一种相对自由的、独立的语法单位，它有自己独立的使用规则和使用系统。它作为“言语交际和语用单位”强烈地反映出社会的变异对文化的影响，反映出一定社会下的人的社会性、文化性、 汉语中称呼语的社会因素要比英语称呼语系统中的因素复杂得多，特别是称呼语的选择与权势、亲疏程度、辈分之间的关系比英语要复杂、深奥。综合起来，大致可以划分为五类：
1） 亲属称呼语。英汉皆有亲属称呼语，但汉语采用亲属称呼语的情况要复杂的多。在现实生活中我们发现英语中的亲属称呼语要远少于汉语， uncle aunt.
2） 直名称呼。中美文化都有直呼其名的称呼方式，只是美国人更习惯于称名，而不是全名。汉语中，直名称呼包括全名、学名、小名以及在姓前加上“老”，“小”等字，即使被称呼方并非上了年纪，这也被视为对对方的尊敬。而汉语的这一敬称在美国行不通。美国人忌老（old），尤其是妇女。
3） 通用称呼语。通用称呼语指：“可以广泛应用于同一社会范畴内各成员的称呼语。” 例如sir 师傅
4） 职衔+姓 的称呼方式。赵元任在提到titles(头衔)时， 指出有social titles, official titles, occupational titles. 这三项也都适用于英语称呼方式。
5） 零称呼。 它们用来招呼陌生人，如“喂， 劳驾等，如hi hello,excuse me。是没有称呼形式的口语词语。零称呼的提出，大都基于交际中的礼貌原则。
造成英汉称呼语差异的原因
造成这些区别的原因既有文化上的因素，也有价值观念上的因素。总的来说，汉民族农耕文化源远流长，一般以家族为单位群居和进行生产，自古以来就有很强的宗族观念。在这样的文化氛围中，汉文化发展了一套非常完善细密的宗亲称呼。这主要体现在汉人对血缘关系的高度重视，非常强调辈分差别，父系和母系亲属关系有着严格的区分，等级及排行都十分明确。于是汉语亲属称呼语就呈现出辈分分明，男女有别，长幼有序的特点。而英美文化并不强调家族观念和等级思想。在西方，由于原始的集体协作生产方式很早就被新的个体生产方式所取代，使得人们迅速摆脱了血缘关系网的束缚。受其影响，英美人的宗族观念淡薄，西方的家庭生活是以核心家庭为中心的。各家庭与其他亲属间的联系也不是十分密切。
另外，其价值观念上也处处体现了英美文化在称呼语上与汉文化的区别。从英美文学史上，我们可以看到，文艺复兴对英美人的价值观念的影响很深。文艺复兴崇尚个人主义individualism。 认为人乃宇宙的中心，每个人都是独立的，都是一个奇迹，人与人之间的关系也是平等的。个人主义强调自我和个人成就，与集体、社会的关系松散。
中国历史上是一个封建宗法社会，素以“礼仪之邦”甲天下， 而西方则是民主自由制和基督神学发达的国家。两种不同的社会制度造就了各自不同的称呼语和表达方式。在中国，称呼繁杂，等级性强，而西方则简单明了，等级性弱。虽然现在中国的社会制度发生了变化，但仍有旧习惯的痕迹，与西方的称呼还存在较大的差异。其次，从价值观和伦理观来看，西方国家注重个人特征，不以年龄、性别和资历作为等级标准，崇尚个人主义，提倡自我表现和自我肯定。人际关系的主体是独立的个人，在社交中人们不愿被“血亲等级”，“长幼尊卑”，“男尊女卑”等习俗所束缚，而是以“讲究平等，不拘形式、语用简便”为基本特征。受传统的差叙格局的社会结构，伦理道德和宗法社会等因素的影响，汉语称呼语的最大特点是“卑己尊人”和“祖先崇拜”，它所体现的是人际交往中的权势关系；而西方人受平行社会关系，个人本位取向的影响，崇拜的是权力和能力，反映的则是“平等”的人际关系。英美国家这种不拘泥于形式的传统和讲究“平等”的观念和中国人崇尚礼节，尊老爱幼、师道尊严的文化石格格不入的。再次，礼貌原则也是造成中西称呼语差异的重要因素。最后是语境因素，包括交际的时间，地点，话题，说话的方式，交际的地位及相互之间的关系，彼此了解的程度，人的世界知识以及交际的文化，社会，政治背景等等。
称呼语的改变意味着人际关系的改变，而不同的言语行为和所处的不同环境又会影响称呼语的改变。在交际过程中，人们总是自觉不自觉地受到语境的影响并利用语境很好地进行称呼语的选择，为交际服务。 ]
汉英称呼语的主要异同点
首先，这两种称呼语的社会功能都是一样的。 作为社交礼仪的重要组成部分，他们具有保持，加强，甚至建立各种人际关系的作用。通过称谓语的使用，交际双方的身份、地位、角色以及两者之间的亲疏感想被突出出来并加以认定。
其次，两者的差异也是十分明显的，它们分别产生于两种不同的文化传统，经历了长短不一的历史发展历程，它们所认定、保持和加强的各种人际关系也不完全一致。这主要表现在汉语中的某些亲属称谓可以使用于非亲属间，而英语中这种用法并不普遍，这实际上是一种文化差异的反应。比如，在两种称谓中都有先生一词，但是两者并不是百分之百的对应词。另外，在两种称呼语中有些称呼语是各自语言独有的，完全没有对应语可言。比如，汉语中的老师一词到现在人们也没有找到恰当的翻译形式。汉语中的师傅，英语中也找不到对应词。
Conclusion
在这篇文章中，我们探讨了英汉称呼语的定义，分类以及它们在语用方面的差别。并且探寻了造成它们之间差别的原因，有文化的，有历史的，等等。这对我们进行外语交际具有重要的指导意义。众所周知，现在的社会是一个开放的社会，由于网络的作用，国际间的交流更加密切。称呼语在这时候显得尤为重要。一个恰当的称呼语可以给我们营造良好的交流氛围。通过这篇文章对于称呼语的介绍，我们可以在实际交流中根据不同的场合选择不同的称呼语，有效地展开我们的对话。
不同的称呼语体现不同的民族文化，反应不同的文化取向、社会格局、教育程度、人际关系、宗教信仰、礼貌原则等。就英汉称呼语来说，义域差异及不同的使用语境，很难确保它们之间的得体性、一致性与和谐性。如果不了解这一点，一味地根据自己的称呼规则去称呼对方，有时不仅达不到交际的目的，反倒会引起双方的误解和冲突，造成交际失误。
