Language Use and Hierarchy

A Dyadic Study of the System of Address in Workpace Groups

Abstract

The system of address (e.g. Katie!; Good morning, Dr Smith!) is a relational phenomenon: unlike most other sociolinguistic variables, address forms do not, in the first place, signal speakers' identity, but rather the negotiated "sameness" or "difference" of the interlocutors' identity. As the dyad's choice between them is influenced by the group-specific order of value attached to human attributes, the binary basis of the system of address appearing in Hungarian on verbs (being on tu-terms vs. vos) makes it possible to quantify the value order of these characteristics, as measured by sociological and other variables. This paper classifies norms of address thus emerging, mainly as a function of the communicative orientation in the three studied groups to power and hierarchical structuring.