John Partridge (Canterbury) p.40-52
2011 Issue 1
Abstract
This paper establishes that there is a general lack of casual terms of address in German as compared to English, and finds that this is not so much due to lexical gaps in German, although this appears to be partly true, as to different sincerity conditions for the use of such terms in the two languages, particularly phatic communion in English. Exponents of such function are examined, as is the role of the various second person vocative pronominal forms in German, and speculations are raised as to the nature of friendship and acquaintance and their linguistic reflexes in the two languages.