ELTE BTK Magyar Nyelvtudományi és Finnugor Intézet

Radó Annabella

nyomtatható változat

Radó, Annabella (Budapest)

Address in the family (pdf)

The linguistic usage reflects the social relationships, including the most intimate one, the bond between family members. The way we call people is an important part and tool of our communication. We can use addressing by purpose, but usually we do not realize how it works. It is interesting to study what it tells us how we name each other or how we refer to each other. This subject concerns sociolinguistics, pragmatics, onomastics, speech acts and I also used the politeness theory studies like Fairclough's three-dimensional model.

The way we call each other in the family is defined by society and tradition. It is questionable whether there is a regularity how family members call each other in different situations, but it is clear that they do not pick addresses randomly. How children call their parents, how the husband and wife name each other and the children, whether they use the whole name, the first name or nickname, it depends on the purpose of the message. The intention can be: affecting an emotion, arousing attention, to express superiority or respect. Calling depends on situation as well, we name each other differently at home and in formal situations like among unknown people. The calling can change when the family changes, for example, if a baby was born. Address also can change by time – as the language in general – old calling disappears, new ones come in fashion.

In my essay, I have studied the present-day Hungarian language based on former researches. This is a foundation of a framework for an intended study.