Eduard C Hanganu

Forms of Address in Romanian: Their Social Semantics and Social Interaction Functions Eduard C Hanganu

This book examines forms of address in Romanian and their hierarchical structure that comprises four levels of social formality (neutral, informal, formal and very formal) and three social semantics (neutrality, solidarity and power). Spoken and written language use indicates that Romanian forms of address help to establish individual identities in the Romanian social context, create relationship levels within Romanian social groups, promote social interaction, and impact language communication events. The Romanian forms of address for the research have been collected through the examination of relevant Romanian literature that includes rural and urban forms of address in the spoken and written Moldavian dialect of the Romanian language. The forms of address compiled were tabulated into six classes (names, titles, kinship terms, pronouns, terms of affection and insults), and their occurrence and incidence rate were afterwards examined and discussed in their literary and social contexts, a process that allowed the socio-linguistic evaluation of their functions and communicative significance.