ADDRESS FORMS IN MODERN CHINA - CHANGING IDEOLOGIES AND SHIFTING SEMANTICS

This paper examines public address forms as a by-product of history, i n particular polite address forms like (1) tongzhi 'comrade', (2) shif u 'master', and (3) pengyou 'friend', xiansheng 'Mr.', and xiaojie 'Mi ss'. These terms are closely related to certain periods of Chinese his tory: tongzhi to the 1949 Revolution, shifu to the Cultural Revolution of 1966, and pengyou, xiansheng, and xiaojie to the Open Door Policy from 1978. It is maintained that as historical by-products these addre ss forms document changes in ideological focus and cause semantic shif ts reflected in their pragmatic meaning. Such semantic shifts, while p ermitting speakers to adapt to changes without having to introduce a p lethora of new terms into the address system, at the same time cause c onsiderable difficulty to some sectors of the speech community. Findin gs from a survey and participant observation show that this difficulty arises mainly from a system that continues to emphasize socialism but is oriented toward a free-market economy. There is a perceived need t o adopt terms that reflect the mood of modernization and change.