单选题
The Game of the Name Here comes John Smith
walking toward me. Even though be 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 tile American speech community, we have grown up learning the rules of
address at the same time that we were acquiring the grammatical vales 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 ad- dressed is a child, then almost all the rules that we
have unconsciously assimilated can safely’be ignored, and we use the simple
formula First Name. The child, in turn, addresses an adult by using the formula
The plus Last Name. But defining a" child" is not always easy.
1 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 Doctor, 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 arc 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 Daily) 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,
arc 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 eases, 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. Charlic) 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?"
单选题
According to the author the form of address is not based on ______.
单选题
Which formula is used when a young man addresses an elder person but
with the same rank?
A. FN.
B. NN.
C. TEN.
D. SI or SILN.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 当年轻人要称呼和自己有同样职位但比自己年龄长的人该用哪一种方式?
考查学生实践理论的能力。
首先弄清作者在文中提到的方式:First Name(FN);Title plus last Name(TIN);Social Identity plus Last Name;Social Identity;No-Name(NN).为:the young doctor can use the NN formula,phrasing his utterances adroitly Lo,avoid using any term of address at all.