首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The Game of the Name Here comes John Smith walking toward me. Even though he is but a passing acquaintance, the American gre
The Game of the Name Here comes John Smith walking toward me. Even though he is but a passing acquaintance, the American gre
admin
2012-04-23
49
问题
The Game of the Name
Here comes John Smith walking toward me. Even though he is but a passing acquaintance, the American greeting ritual demands that I utter a few words to reassure him of my good will. But what form of address should I use? John? Smith? Dr. Smith? A decision such as this is usually made unconsciously.
As native speakers in the American speech community, we have grown up learning the rules of address at the same time that we were acquiring the grammatical rules of American - English. At first thought, it might seem a trivial pursuit to examine the ways in which we address one another. But forms of address reveal many assumptions we make about memebers of our speech community.
Our initial decision about the appropriate address form is based on relative ages. If the person being addressed is a child, then almost all the rules that we have unconsciously assimilated can safely he ignored, and we use the simple formula First Name. The child, in turn, addresses an adult by using the formula Tilte plus Last Name.
But defining a" child" is not always easy. I address my son’s roommate at college by FN, even though he is an adult under the law. I, too, have the relative age of a child to a 75 - year - old acquaintance who calls me Pete. Let us assume that John Smith is not a child who can be addressed by FN but is either my contemporary or my elder. The next important determiner for the form of address will then be the speech situation.
If the situation is a formal one, then I must disregard all other rules and use social Identity plus Last Name. John Smith will always be addressed as Dr. Smith ( or sometimes simply as Doetor, with Last Name understood) in the medical setting of office or hospital. ( I am allowed to call him if my status is at least as high as his or if we are friends outside of our social roles, but the rest of my utterance must remain respectful. )
We are also obliged to address certain other people by their social identity in formal situation: public officials (Congressman: Your Honor) , educators (Professor or Doctor), leaders of meetings (Mr. Chairman), Roman Catholic priests (Father Daffy) and nuns (Sister Anna), and so forth. By the way, note the sexist distinction in the formulas for priests and nuns. The formula for a priest is Father plus Last Name, but for a nun it is Sister plus Religious Name (usually an FN).
Most conversations, however, are not carried on in formal speech situations, and so the basic decision is when to use FN to TLN. A social acquaintance or newly hired colleague of approximately the same age and rank is usually introduced on an FN basis. "Pete, I’ d like you to meet Harvy. "Now a problem arises if both age and rank of cone of the parties are higher: "Pete, I’ d like you to meet Attorney Brown. "
Attorney Brown may, of course, at any time signal me that he is willing to suspend the rules of address and allow an FN basis. Such a suspension is his privilege to bestow, and it is usually handled humorously, with a remark like, "I answer quicker to Bruce. "
Complications arise when relative age and relative rank are not both the same. A young doctor who joins a hospital finds it difficult to address a much older doctor. They are equal in rank (and therefore FN should be used) but the great disparity in ages calls for TLN. In such cases, the young doctor can use the No - Name (NN) formula, phrasing his utterances adroitly to avoid using any term of address at all.
English is quite exceptional among the world’s languages in this respect. Most European languages oblige the speaker to choose between the familiar and formal second person singular as in the French tu and vous), as English once did when "thou" was in use.
This is the basic American system, but the rules vary according to speech situations, subtle friendship or kin relationships between the speakers, regions of the country, and so forth.
Southern speech, for example, adds the formula Title plus First Name (Mr. Charlie) to indicate familiar respect. Southerners are also likely to specify kin terms (as in Cousin Jane) whereas in most of the United States FN is used for cousins.
Address to strangers also alters some of the rules. A speaker usually addresses a stranger whose attire, and behavior indicate higher status by saying sir. But sometimes speakers with low status address those with obviously higher status by spurning this rule and instead using Mac or buddy--as when a construction worker asks a passing executive, socially identified by his atlacie’ case, "You got a match, buddy? "
How do people address a public official correctly?
选项
A、Professor or Doctor.
B、Father or Sister.
C、Mr. Chairman.
D、His Honor or Congressman.
答案
D
解析
在第六段中,作者提到对于政府官员的称呼。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/gijYFFFM
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Sincethelate1970’s,inthefaceofasevere10ssofmarketshareindozensofindustries,manufacturersintheUnitedStates
A、strongwin&andlackofwaterB、rapideconomicgrowthC、lockeddoorsandwindowsD、overcrowdedpeopleD
Afterhavingassuredtheirreturnjourney,thewriterandhiscompanioncouldconcentrateoncollectingandfilmanimals.Decidi
LeacockwasprobablythefirstCanadiantoqualifyasa"pro-AmericanBritishimperialist."Acolleague,Prof.JohnCulliton,sa
ConversationalSkillsPeoplewhousuallymakeusfeelcomfortableinconversationsaregoodtalkers.Andtheyhavesome-thin
Abouthalfoftheinfantandmaternaldeathsindevelopingcountriescouldbeavoidedifwomenhad【M1】______usedfamilyplannin
Justafewshortmonthsago,theUSeconomywasaworker’sparadise:nearlyunlimitedovertime,signingbonusesfornewhires,a
TheSupremeCourt’srecentdecisionallowsregionalinterstatebankstodoawaywithonerestrictioninAmerica’sbankingoperat
A、tomediatebetweenthetwoparties.B、todistinguishthemastwocountries.C、toinviteHamasleaderstoParis.D、tolegitimiz
Theproducersofinstantcoffeefoundtheirproductstronglyresistedinthemarketplacesinspiteoftheirproducts’manifest
随机试题
社区准备开展一个活动,让大家学习身边的人做好事,学习文明行为。你会如何组织这个活动?
看到学生人数不断减少,校长心里很难受.
MeVay腹股沟疝修补法主要用于
A.促凝作用B.促纤溶作用C.促血管收缩作用D.促血管舒张作用E.抗凝作用TF的作用是
患者男性,40岁。多年胃、十二指肠溃疡,近半个月来胃病发作,饮食后突然腹痛剧烈,刀割样,血压100/70mmHg,脉率100次/分,全腹压痛,反跳痛,肌紧张。术后胃肠减压,拔胃管的时机是
房地产抵押合同签订后,土地上新增的房屋()。
以技术分析为基础的投资策略.是在否定()前提下的。
某公司2020年税后净利润为2200万元,2021年投资计划需要资金2500万元。如果该公司采用剩余股利政策,2020年发放的股利为700万元,则该公司目标资本结构中权益资本所占的比例为()。
企业标准化的目标是()。
Theofficemanagerhastousethemostsuitablebusinesssysteminorderto______.Accordingtothepassage,thefunctionoft
最新回复
(
0
)