Address Form of Children in Communication (Through the Novel “Southen Forest Land”)

Abstract

The article focuses on understanding children’s address forms through the novel “Southern Forest Land” from the following aspects: children's address terms to children and children’s address terms to adults. From the survey and classification results, we found that children's address in communication concentrates on two situations (family and community) with six thematic groups associated with two pairs of roles (upper-lower role pair and peer role pair Children's address terms to children have 2 forms of addressing and 5 forms of calling, while children's address terms to adults have 3 forms of addressing and 7 forms of calling. Analysis of the characteristics of address affirms that the language used by children is diverse, reflecting the entire spiritual life, innocence, and simplicity of children. It also reflects the honest, straightforward, warm, generous, and affectionate culture of the people in the Southern region.