A Comparative Study of the Sino-American Address Forms from an Intercultural Communication Perspective

Abstract

This paper briefly states the important functions of the researches on the address forms and the relations between language cultures and address forms of Sino-America, and emphatically narrates the different usages in three aspects of general, positional and kinship address forms. Meanwhile it also analyzes the different cases and expatiates on the historical and cultural causes which lead to those differences from an intercultural communication perspective. In this article, through categorizing and comparing, the author distinguishes the cultural differences from different Chinese and American address forms, and concludes that the address forms are passed to the first message of the other side, right call will make verbal communication an important condition for a smooth, not appropriate address forms will make barriers for communication, give some undesirable impression and adversely affect the future exchanges.