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1、毕业论文(设计)On the Differences Between Chinese and English Appellation1. Introduction12. The differences between Chinese and English appellation22.1 Family appellation22.1.1 Appellation among members of family32.1.2 Appellation among non-members of family52.2 Social appellation72.2.1 Title appellation72
2、.2.2 Name appellation102.2.3 Respectful appellation112.2.3.1 Respectful appellation forms in Chinese122.2.3.2 Other respectful appellation forms in Chinese -Tongzhi and Xiansheng132.2.3.3 Respectful appellation forms in English142.2.4 Other appellation-Excuse me and Nihao163. The influences of East-
3、west social and culture background on the address forms163.1 Chinese traditional conception “nanzunnvbei” and Western view of “everyone is born to be equal”173.2 Chineses collectivism and Westerners Individualism183.3 Chineses “neiwaiyoubie, zhangyouyouxu” and Westerners “all people are brothers”194
4、 Conclusion20References211. IntroductionAs we all know, different countries have different cultures. Moreover, it is inevitable that the cultural differences have effect on daily life.During the course of communication, appellation is usually the first information conveying to others. When one perso
5、n speaks to another, there will be created a thing about how people would be addressed or named. Appellation not only reflects different statuses, roles, social positions among each other, but also shows the politeness. It is known that using appellation in the right way can make communication go on
6、 smoothly. Otherwise, it will make people feel unhappy. The different cultures between Chinese and English lead to two distinct appellation systems. If Chinese appellation is directly translated into English appellation, it would cause some unexpected culture shock. Since various cultures have their
7、 own addressing, it is very important for intercultural communicators to pay attention to such diversity.2. The differences between Chinese and English appellationAccording to the explanation of Tian Huigang (1998: 305), the definition of appellation is that it is a title of a person because of the
8、relationship between relatives or a title coming from statuses, occupations and other social relationship. Generally speaking, there are two kinds of appellation. One is family appellation, and the other is social appellation (Tian Huigang, 1998: 305).2.1 Family appellationFamily appellation is a ti
9、tle considering oneself as a center to show relationship among all family members, which is a name to call other person basing on in-law relationship or kinship (Kang Yuehui, 2005: 5). It is also a sign to distinguish relatives. To some extent, family appellation can be further divided into the two
10、following forms: appellation among members of family and appellation among non-members of family (Kang Yuehui, 2005: 5).2.1.1 Appellation among members of familyThe kinship terms in Chinese are more complex than those in English, and some of them have no equivalents in English. Take the following fo
11、rms for example:shushu, jiujiu, bofu, gufu,-uncleayi, guma, shenshen, jiumu-auntbiaoxiong, tangdi, biaomei, tangjie-cousinnainai, waipo-grandmotheryeye, waigong-grandfatherIn modern Chinese, the kinship terms can express the status clearly and exactly between all the relatives in the family as it li
12、sts above (Kang Yuehui, 2005: 7). Compared with Chinese, English has fewer kinship terms. For instance, in English, the word “aunt” has a far wider rang of meanings than its Chinese counterpart. It includes what we call shenshen, guma, jiuma, etc. If you want to know exactly who “aunt” is, you are s
13、upposed to get it from context (if it happens to be a passage) or ask the speaker (if involving in a dialogue). Similarly, the words, such as “sister”, “brother” and “grandmother”, have the same function of this kind.Kang Yuehui (2005: 7) said that, in Chinese, people usually address other family me
14、mbers depending on “beifen” and age. Generally speaking, if people have different “beifen”, the young cannot call the elder ones names directly. They do this just to show their respect and politeness. Such as, to call our parent “mom” or “dad”, and to call our parents father as “grandfather”. If peo
15、ple have the same “beifen”, the youths are not allowed to call the elders names directly. For example, we can call other person around our age “dage”, “sandi”, “simei”, etc.In most families of America, children are allowed to call their parents names directly. Especially in a few families, children
16、call their parents by their given name, a practice that people in other families especially families in China may find troubling or shocking (Xu Hong, 2006: 25). Even more, individuals can address others, no matter young or old, relatives or strangers, directly by their nicknames or their given name
17、s, which are seldom used in Chinese.Similarly, there is a difference of addressing forms between husband and wife. In Chinese, both of them can call each others name directly. However, especially in north of China, people often stand in the childrens position to call their husbands and wives as “chi
18、ldrens father, childrens mother” (Sheng Yinhua, 1994: 13). Take the following address for example:One day, an American student was invited to a Chinese farmers house, and the farmer introduced his wife to him. The farmer said, “This is the childs mother”. The American student got confused. The stude
19、nt believed that he remembered the appellation of family members well in Chinese families. And in this sentence, there was no a new word to the American student, but he really did not know whom this appellation referred to.Something like this happens frequently just because the foreigners do not kno
20、w that “husband” and “wife” are only used in some formal situations. And they are seldom used as appellation to show the relationship between husband and wife.It can be analyzed that if the American student had a general knowledge of appellation in north of China, he would exactly know about what th
21、e farmer had said.Meanwhile, “Airen” is a very formal address form for Chinese to introduce their husband and wife to others. However, it is an obvious mistake to translate “Airen” into lover in English. Because, “Airen” in Chinese has the same meaning as Englishmen call their wives “my love”, “my d
22、arling”, “my sweet heart”.The family appellation in Chinese is complicated. But its advantage is that it can figure out the relationship of all members in a big family. On the contrast, the family addressing in English is not as complex as that of Chinese and usually it is much simple and vague. At
23、the same time, it has regardless of “beifen”, which plays an important role in Chinese addressing (Sheng Yinhua, 1994: 14).2.1.2 Appellation among non-members of familyDuring communication, to show speakers respect and courtesy, Chinese people always use family appellation to address others, who are
24、 non-family members. It is usually considered as the widen use of family appellation. This kind of addressing is more friendly and genial, which can have the effect of reducing the distance among communicators. However, if using this kind of addressing in English-speaking country, it would cause con
25、fusion for they only use family addressing limited to family members (Xu Hong, 2006: 26).Let us have a look at an example of daily life:An English woman lived in a Chinese friends home when she visited Beijing. To her surprise, the child of the friend called her “aunt”, because she was as old as the
26、 childs mother. In this situation, Chinese people translated their own address into English appellation directly, which seemed reasonable to Chinese people. In fact, it is a wrong way to translate the Chinese appellation into the English appellation for people from other cultures seldom use family a
27、ppellation to address non-member of family. No wonder, in the above situation, the English woman had a feeling of surprise for the child calling her “aunt”.In Chinese, we call “shushu”, “ayi” to people, who are our patents friends or strangers around their age. In the same way, we can address an old
28、 acquaintance or stranger “yeye” or “nainai” to show our respect and courtesy. This type of appellation is used widely and frequently in Chinese. However, it is rarely used in English-speaking countries.In America, children use the form of “Mr. / Mrs. + surname” for addressing their parents friends,
29、 or addressing them with their names the same as addressing their parents.In US, even if a 10-year-old Child is introduced to an 80-year-old woman, he will not address her as “grandma” because in western countries, if you were old, it means you were “useless” (Xu Hong, 2006: 26). And it would be con
30、sidered as disrespect and rudeness to call people “grandma” and “grandpa” by strangers. Therefore, if using the family addressing to call strangers in English-speaking countries, it would cause confusion for they only use family appellation limited to family members.This function of appellation is u
31、sed frequently in China, while it is seldom used in other English-speaking countries. So, we should keep this difference in mind.2.2 Social appellationIt is a title that contains the entire interpersonal appellation except the family appellation. This reflects peoples symbolic relationship in societ
32、y (Dong Yinxiu, 2004: 21). And according to Dong Yinxius opinion, social appellation includes the following forms: title appellation, name appellation, respectful appellation and other appellation.2.2.1 Title appellationIt is a kind of appellation that addressing someone with his title and it is ver
33、y popular in China (Xu Hong, 2006: 26). And Dong Yinxiu (2004: 21) proposes that title appellation can be further divided into many kinds as follows.(1) Headship: Xiaozhang,Tingzhang, Changzhang, Jingli, etc.(2) Occupations:Yisheng, Hushi, Lishi, Kuaiji, Jiaolian, etc. (3) Office title: Chairman, Pr
34、esident, Minister, Dean, Kezhang, etc.(4) Post and rank: Professor, Advanced engineer, etc.Chinese people like to address someone by his post, especially to someone who has a high post.(5) Military rank: General, Captain, Colonel, etc.All kinds of above title can plus surname to call other people, w
35、hich is commonplace in Chinese. And the forms of address used in China are rather complicated but also quite interesting. For instance, Chinese people are always amused by the recent tendency to call “Mr. Li” instead of “Li Buzhang”, if he happens to be the leader of a bumen. On the other hand, “Mr.
36、 Wang” rather than “Wangke”, if she happens to be the head of a ke. If somebody is a chief editor, he will be called something like “Zhang Zhubian”. But there are no equivalent practice in the English-speaking world because there are rarely used title appellations in western country.Stated by Liu Li
37、shan (2006: 8), in English appellation, only a few occupations or titles would be used: the first is “Doctor”, which is common for those who have qualified in the medical profession and university professors who earned a doctorate degree (Ph.D). The second is “Teacher”. How to address teacher has lo
38、ng been a problem. Should it be “teacher” or “teacher Zhang”? Neither of these is in keeping with English custom. Should we simply follow the English custom and call the teacher “Mr. Zhang”? These would sound terrible to Chinese people if school-boys are doing this. What is more, we now, usually, ca
39、ll our teacher “Zhang Laoshi”, instead of his or her last name, but if you call a foreign teacher by his family name, then, he or she would be unpleased for it was impolite to address them by their family name. In US, the primary schools children will sometimes address an instructor as teacher (more
40、 often, though, they will use “Ms” or “Ms” plus the surname), but the term is not otherwise used to address anyone. University students address their instructors as professor or John. If an instructor has a Ph D, he may also be called “Dr” plus his surname.The third is “Boss”. “Boss” is an exception
41、 of the social appellation. Bosses are not addressed by their title and surname, but it can be addressed by their surname plus “laoban”. In informal conversation or in relatively friendly environments, it is common to call ones director “boss”, but remember that the word “boss” is not a title. If yo
42、u are an American addressing your supervisor, in most cases you will call him by his given name just as you address colleagues on the same level as yourself (Liu Lishan, 2006: 8). If the superior is several degrees above you in the organization hierarchy, you are expected to call the person “Mr.” pl
43、us surname. In America, the young employees are free to call older, even much older co-workers by their given names, which sounds not intimate to non-Americans, but it is so commonplace in the US that it could note nothing at all about their relations. However, in Chinese, the word “boss” can be use
44、d in two situations. One is that it is truly showing the relation between speakers. For example, A is an employer and B is an employee. Therefore, B should call A “boss”. The other is that it is not really showing the relation between speakers. For instance, A is a person going to a shop, no matter
45、where it is, to buy something. And always A would call the owner of the shop, whether young or old, male or female, say, “boss”, which is quite different from that of English.2.2.2 Name appellationEveryone in the world has some names: family name, given name, and nickname, which can be called by oth
46、er people under some situation. In Chinese, we get the following forms ( Net. 1):(1) Addressing ones name directly: Dahai, Xiaohua, etc.In Chinese, this kind is often used among classmates and workmates, to show the respect between speaker and listener.(2) Addressing surname and name directly: Liu D
47、ehua, Qian Zhongshu, etc.It is seldom used in China. However, sometimes, when doing something wrong, he/she would be called in this form to express the speakers anger and madness.(3) Nickname: Pingguo, Digua, Panzi, etc.Addressing ones nickname is a kind of informal appellation. For example, parents
48、 would call their childrens nickname no matter where they are. Similarly, it might be used on campus, but it is used between people you know well. If not, people would be angry with you when you call his / her nickname in some formal situations, because it is considered as disrespect and rudeness.Si
49、milarly, we have the following forms of name appellation in English (Net. 1):(1) Addressing the first name directly: Mary, John, David, Sophia, etc. This is the most common form and it can show the culture and custom of western countries as well.(2) Using affectionate form of appellation: Davy, Sonia, Mariana, York, etc.In western