Australian Review of Applied Linguistics - Volume 29, Issue 2, 2006

This article examines speakers’ perceptions of and attitudes towards address pronoun usage in Paris and Toulouse. The data on which this article is based come from a comparative project based at the University of Melbourne, Address in some western European languages, and were generated in focus groups in both Paris and Toulouse, as well as interviews in Paris. It is generally accepted that in France the informal pronominal address form tu is used within the family, with close friends and with youngsters, and that the formal address form vous is used by adults when addressing strangers. The findings presented here indicate that, outside these general tendencies, individual preferences and negotiation can inform the choice of address pronoun in different ways both within and outside the workplace, with individual variation more common outside the work domain.

Choice of address forms, a socially crucial feature in German communication, is context-dependent on situations (a) where the unmarked form of address is du (T), (b) where it is Sie (V), and (c) where the two systems (a and b) coexist. The first two situations are, apart from their fuzzy edges, rather clearcut. The third situation, however, appears anarchic and has a high embarrassment potential. In an empirical study based on 72 interviews conducted in three regions of the German speaking area, the three prototypical situations are explored. A number of potentially conflicting rules and preferences for ambiguity are isolated. These include individual preferences, network preferences and perceptions of social distance, based on factors such as relative age, emotional closeness of interlocutors, and perceived commonalities between them. In spite of the complex interplay of competing rules and preferences and the consequent embarrassment potential, German speakers appear to reject any imposition from outside of a particular address form. This study is part of a larger, Australian-based project comparing the address systems of French, German and Swedish.

This article explores variation in address in contemporary Swedish in Sweden-Swedish and Finland-Swedish. The research is part of a large-scale Australian project on changes in the address systems of French, German and Swedish. The present article focuses on results from 72 social network interviews conducted in Sweden (Gothenburg) and Finland (Vaasa). Both quantitative results (questionnaire part) and qualitative results (interview part) are presented. The findings suggest that the V pronoun of address – ni – is gradually disappearing in both national varieties. This tendency is clearly stronger in Sweden-Swedish; in spoken Sweden-Swedish V hardly exists any more, except for a controversial re-entry in communication between the young and middleaged and the very old in service encounters (c.f. Mårtensson 1986). Furthermore the results indicate that there is considerable variation between written (impersonal) and spoken Sweden-Swedish with a much higher acceptance for the V pronoun in written, impersonal contexts. The study demonstrates that national variation is considerable with much more use of V in Finland-Swedish.

This article examines the use and choice of address pronouns among Finnish and Finland-Swedish students in various situations. The study is based on a questionnaire on address usage distributed to university students in the city of Vaasa in Finland. The aim of the study is to investigate potential differences between the use of T and V in Finnish and Finland-Swedish and to compare the results with those of a recent study on address in Sweden-Swedish. The results reveal that the Finland-Swedish students use V somewhat less than the Finnish students. The Finland-Swedes also use V in fewer contexts, primarily in service situations and occasionally to strangers and public authorities. The Finnish students use V in the same contexts as the Finland-Swedish, but they also use V to older people.

This article examines the current usage of terms of address in the Western Ukrainian variety of the Ukrainian language. It investigates the use of pronominal (ty – intimate form; [Vy – polite, distant form) and nominal forms of address (such as first name, father’s name, surname, title, pan/pani (Mr/Mrs), tovaryš (Comrade) etc.) in Western Ukrainian, as well as strategies to avoid direct address, through quantitative (questionnaires) and qualitative (oral discussion) data. The data were analysed using both descriptive and interpretive methods. A set of factors that determine address choice in Ukrainian was isolated and a model was developed which reflects the hierarchical relationships and mutual influences between these factors. The factors were divided into key factors (age, style of upbringing, personal value system, gender, and political convictions) and factors of interaction (relative age, relative status, setting, social distance, and kinship). Combining different address habits and the weight of pragmatic factors in the choice of address forms, the analysis demonstrates that two tendencies currently exist. Some people are traditionalists who adhere to fairly conservative patterns of address, whereas others are brought up more liberally and tend to have a more relaxed attitude towards the choice of address terms.

This article focuses on a detailed description of patterns of address in Dili Tetum today. It outlines the complexities of the address system and points to considerable variation in its evolving presentday use. We find, amongst other things, that a speaker may use a range of address strategies even to the same addressee, and that the use of polite pronouns Ita and Ita-Boot appears to be spreading as the language extends into new domains not previously available to it.