this paper reports the use of address terms including ‘you’ directed by young adult university students towards other family members. the data for this study was collected via questionnaire among 50 native speakers of Malay in Malaysia in 2016. All participants were students at Universiti Putra Malaysia and aged between 20-23 years old. the respondents were asked, among other things, in
English to indicate the second person form of address they used when addressing a range of interlocutors in a range of contexts. they were able to select from a range of options, i.e. Kin terms (Kt), Short Name (SN), Pronoun (Pr), Mixed Category (MC), and Full Name (FN) in the questionnaire. the Mixed category refers to the combination of two forms of address, for instance Kt+SN. this paper presents only the findings relating to the family domain. The results show an overwhelming
propensity to use kin terms, as a sign of respect, when speaking to other relatives. This occurs without exception with older adults, such as parents and grandparents. While relatives’ age and status are factors, gender however, plays no role. this study also revealed a striking pattern different from findings of other studies particularly in the treatment of siblings and cousins where cousins were the only group addressed with the prenominal ‘you’ meanwhile previous studies of address terms in other
languages indicated no distinctions in the address between the two.
Keywords:
Malay language, second person address forms, young-adult
Mansor, N. S. (2018). Addressing family members in the culture: practices of "young-adult" university students. Lenguas Modernas, (51), Pág. 63 – 76. Retrieved from https://byzantion.uchile.cl/index.php/LM/article/view/51912
