A Concise Analysis of Semantic Changes in Address Terms - Taking“xi?oji?”and“tóngzhì”as Examples

• 作 者: CHEN Fei-fei
• 机 构: Graduate School, Tianjin Foreign Studies University,
• 出 处: 海外英语
• 发表日期: 2016年12期

Prevalent address terms are dynamic along the timeline of social development.Despite the newly-emerged forms like“meinü”and“shuaige”,meanings of“xi?oji?”and“tóngzhì”have also experienced a discursive history.And different meanings in different historical periods reflect changes in social life and the evolution of people’s mind,or precisely,people’s cognition.It gives a brief discussion of these semantic changes and probes tentatively some reasons both sociologically and cognitively.

Prevalent address terms are dynamic along the timeline of social development .Despite the newly-emerged forms like “meinü” and “shuaige”, meanings of “xi? Oji?” And “tóngzhì” have also experienced a discursive history. Different meanings in different historical periods reflect changes in social life and the evolution of people’s mind, or precisely, people’s cognition. It gives a brief discussion of these semantic changes and probes tentatively some of both reasons sociologically and cognitively.