address (n.)

The general use of this term, in the sense of ‘the manner of referring to someone in direct linguistic interaction’, has provided SOCIOLINGUISTICS with a major field of study. Forms of address (or terms of address) have been analyzed between different types of participant in different social situations, and RULES proposed to explain the speaker’s choice of terms, e.g. governing the use of first names, titles, intimate PRONOUNS, etc. Social psychological concepts, such as power and solidarity, have been suggested as particularly significant factors in understanding address systems, i.e. the SYSTEM of RULES used by a speaker or group, governing their use of such forms as tu and vous (T FORMS and V FORMS).