Leon2
The Game of the Name
By Peter Farb
Here comes John Smith walking toward me.Even though he is but a paing acquaintance, the American greeting ritual demands that I utter a few words to reaure him of my good will.But what form of addre should I use? John? Smith? Dr.Smith? A decision such as this is usually made unconsciously.
As native speakers in the American speech community, we have grown up learning the rules of addre at the same time that we were acquiring the grammatical rules of American-English.At first thought, it might seem a trivial pursuit to examine the ways in which we addre one another.But forms of addre reveal many aumptions we make about members of our speech community.
Our initial decision about the appropriate addre form is based on relative ages.If the person being addreed is a child, then almost all the rules that we have unconsciously aimilated can safely be ignored, and we use the simple formula First Name.The child, in turn, addrees an adult by using the formula Title plus Last Name (TLN).
But defining a “child” is not always easy.I addre my son\'s roommate at college by Uneven though he is an adult under the law.I, too, have the relative age of a child to a 75-year-old acquaintance who calls me Pete.
Let us aume that John Smith is not a child who can be addreed by FN but is either my contemporary or my elder.The next important determiner for the form of addre will then be the speech situation.
If the situation is a formal one, then I must disregard all other rules and use social Identity plus Last Name.John Smith will always be addreed as Dr.Smith (or sometimes simply as Doctor, with Last Name understood) in the medical setting of office or hospital.(I am allowed to call him if my status is at least as high as his or if we are friends outside of our social roles, but the rest of my utterance must remain respectful.)
We are also obliged to addre certain other people by their social Identity in formal situation: public officials (Congreman: Your Honor),educators (Profeor or Doctor),leaders of meetings (Mr.Chairman),Roman Catholic priests (Father Daffy) and nuns (Sister Anna),and so forth.By the way, note the sexist distinction in the formulas for priests and nuns.The formula for a priest is Father plus Last Name, but for a nun it is Sister plus Religious Name (usually an FN).
Most conversations, however, are not carried on in formal speech situations, and so the basic decision is when to use FN to TLN.A social acquaintance or newly hired colleague of approximately the same age and rank is usually introduced on an FN basis.“Pete, I’d like you to meet Harry.” Now a problem arises if both age and rank of cone of the parties are higher：“Pete, I’d like you to meet Attorney Brown.”
Attorney Brown may, of course, at any time signal me that he is willing to suspend the rules of addre and allow an FN basis.Such a suspension is his privilege to bestow, and it is usually handled humorously, with a remark like,“I answer quicker to Bruce.”
Complications arise when relative age and relative rank are not both the same.A young doctor who joins a hospital finds it difficult to addre a much older doctor.They are equal in rank (and therefore FN should be used) but the great disparity in ages calls for TLN.In such cases, the young doctor can use the No-Name (NN) formula, phrasing his utterances adroitly to avoid using any term of addre at all.
English is quite exceptional among the world\'s languages in this respect.Most European languages oblige the speaker to choose between the familiar and formal second person singular (as in the French tu and vous), as English once did when“thou”was in use.
This is the basic American system, but the rules vary according to speech situations, subtle friendship or kin relationships between the speakers, regions of the country, and so forth.
Southern speech, for example, adds the formula Title plus First Name (Mr.Charlie) to indicate familiar respect.Southerners are also likely to specify kin terms (as in Cousin Jane) whereas in most of the United States FN is used for cousins.Addre to strangers also alters some of the rules.A speaker usually addrees a stranger whose attire and behavior indicate higher status by saying sir.But sometimes speakers with low status addre those with obviously higher status by spurning this rule and instead using Mac or buddy—as when a construction worker asks a paing executive, socially identified by his attaché case, “You got a match, buddy?”
第二课 名字游戏
约翰·史密斯正朝我走过来。虽然他只是我的一个很平常的熟人，但按照美国人的问候习惯，我得说出那么几个字来（如：“你好！”或“早上好！”之类的话。）向他表示我的好意。然而，我该怎么叫他呢？叫他约翰？或是史密斯？或者史密斯医生？像这样的问题在平常，是不用思考的事情。
对于在美国土生土长讲美语的人来说，我们长大后，学会语法规则的同时也学会了称呼别人的规则。乍一想，我们会认为仔细去考察我们称呼的方式是一件不值得做的事情，然而正是这些称呼的方式揭示了我们对同一个语言社区的人们的主观看法。
首先，我们会用讲话者的年龄关系去判断使用的称呼是否合适。如果我们招呼的是个孩子，那么我们就可以毫无顾虑地忽略那些无意之中学来的规则，而简单地直呼其名（FN）。然而，孩子却要用“头衔+姓氏”的方式来招呼大人。
但“孩子”一词却不是那么容易界定的。我直呼其名地招呼我儿子的大学室友，即使他已经是法定的成人了。我也一样，相对一个叫我乳名（Pete）的75岁的老人来说，我也是个孩子。
假定约翰·史密斯不是一个可以直呼其名的孩子，他既不是我的同龄人，也不是我的长者，那么怎么招呼他就主要看语境了。
如果是在一个很正式的场合，我们就会用“社会身份+姓氏”的方式来招呼他，而不会考虑其他规则。这样一来，在与医学有关场合，如医生办公室或医院里，约翰·史密斯就会被称呼为“史密斯医生”（或者有时，在已知姓氏的情况下，直接叫他“医生”）（如果至少与他地位相当或者除开社会地位的因素我们是朋友，而且我对他的称呼又要保持一份敬意，这时我就可以叫他“Doc”）
在正式的场合，我们还不得不用社会身份来称呼其他的某些人：如出入公众视野的官员（议员；阁下），教育工作者（教授或博士），会议的领导（主席先生），罗马天主教的牧师（达夫神父）和修女（安娜姊姊）等等。顺便提一下，要注意，对牧师和修女的称呼差异中存在着性别歧视的倾向。对牧师的称呼是Father（父亲）+ 姓氏，而对修女的称呼却是Sister（姐妹）+ 教名（通常情况下就是名字）。
然而，大多数谈话都不是在正式的场合进行的。因此我们最基本的考虑就是什么时候直呼其名，什么时候用“头衔+姓氏”的方式。如果是一个社会上的熟人或刚刚雇来的一个与你年龄和级别相仿的同事，就有可能用直呼其名的方式介绍他：“皮特，过来见见哈里”如果那个人的年龄比你大，级别比你高，这样介绍也是没有问题的：“皮特，请过来见见布朗律师。”
当然,布朗律师任何时候都有可能向我表示愿意抛开那些客套的规矩, 让我直呼其名。 这种放弃是他的一种特权，通常用一种幽默的方式来处理。比如说句这样的话：“你如果叫我布鲁斯，我会反应快些。”
当彼此的年龄和级别这两个方面不是都相仿的时候，事情就变得复杂了。一个刚到医院来的的年轻医生就会感到不太好称呼一个年龄比他大很多的医生。他们级别相当（因此应该直呼其名），但是他们年龄的差异又要求他用“头衔+姓氏” 的方式打招呼。在这样的情况下，这个年轻医生就可以用避开姓名的方式打招呼，巧妙地措辞，完全避开那些称呼的形式。
英语在这方面是世界其他语言不可比拟的。大多数欧洲语言都要求说话的人对第二人称单数作出“随和用语”和“正式用语”的选择（比如法语就用“tu”和“vous”这两个词分别表示非正式场合和正式场合中的“你”）,就如英语曾经用过“thou”这个词一样。
上面所谈到的只是美国人打招呼的基本规则。根据说话双方微妙的朋友或亲缘关系，语境以及地区差异等因素，这些规则也有所改变。
例如，南方话就用“头衔+名字”的形式（如：查理先生）来暗示关系亲近。同时，南方人也会使用很确切的亲缘名称（如：简表妹），而在美国大多数地方，表兄妹常常是直呼其名的。 给陌生人打招呼时，这些规则也会发生变化。当那个陌生人的衣着和行为举止显示他的地位高一些的时候，说话的人就会用“sir”（阁下）去称呼他。但是，有时，一个地位低一点的人也可能忽视这个规矩，用“老兄“”“伙计”等语言去招呼一个明显比他低位高些的人——比如，当一个经理走过来，一个建筑工人凭社会经验从他夹着公文包看出了他的身份, 而他却这样打招呼:“你有火吗? 老兄!”
Escaping_to_Ireland_for_Christmas课文译文
