Difference Address Term Between Anglo and Malay

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Chart 1: Percentage Analysis of Address Term Usage by Anglo-Australian

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Chart 2: Percentage Analysis of address term usage by Malay-Malaysian

- Data Discussion

Based on the 11 corpus collected, the 15 address terms had been categorized under five types of address term which are i) Endearment terms, ii) Variant of proper names, iii) Kinship terms, iv) First Name (with title or without title) and lastly v) Solidarity. Table 1 summarized what researcher have collected which certain factors took into account while doing the analysis of data on usage of address terms by AA and MM which are age, social distance and nature of relationship.

Based on the charts above, it shows that AA is using endearment terms for 29% where MM for 25%. However, the percentage does not mean AA using endearment terms more than MM. In fact, the similarities between address term usage by AA and MM can be seen in the usage of endearment terms. Both ethnics are using endearment term towards their family members which they have low social distance, where mostly may have been used when the speaker is older than the addressee or when they have the same age (refer to Table 1). The other similarity that can be detected in Table 1, between married couple in Corpus 3 and 5, both are using endearment terms like ‘love’ by AA and ‘abang’ by MM. The endearment term that used by MM means brother in Malay, thus the endearment term can be kinship term as well in Malaysia. Based on the observation, researcher found out that the variant of proper names are used towards family members for both ethnics. Abbreviations are used by them as can be seen in Corpus 2 and 3; where for MM example is ‘Ana’, which is short form from ‘Farhana’ whereas for AA example is ‘Jezz’ where is short form from ‘Jeremy’. As shown in studies, abbreviations used by Australian have different categories and it reflects Australian attitude (Wierzbicka, 1986). The usage of consonant –z at the end shows the interlocutors are very affectionate of each other, thus it may normally use when they have low social distance (Wierzbicka, 1986). Furthermore, they may have similarity in usage of solidarity terms for low social distance like between friends based on Corpus 10 and 11. The usage of solidarity term by AA is 16% higher than MM. This is because the solidarity term like ‘mate’ is widely used by Australian (Alimoradian, 2014).

The difference between AA and MM can be seen by the usage of solidarity term. Based on Corpus 7, the term ‘mate’ is used by speaker that has high social distance with the addressee for instance, a business relationship in the market. Based on Alimoradian (2014), it is normal to use term ‘mate’ between AA older males, and young males and females. However concurrently, term ‘mate’ are less used by females too. Between MM by referring to Corpus 5, kinship terms tend been used even if they have high social distance to show respect and closeness. This was supported by Kirkpatrick (2002) in the background. Other differences can be detected is the address term used in high social distance relationship like student and teacher relationship. Based on charts, AA used 29% of first name term compared to MM only use 16% of first name term. AA tends to use first name as that is Australian culture to practice solidarity and closeness where MM uses first name as well but with title to show respect for someone older and power. There is similar difference detected in low social distance relationship like a parent of friend. MM tends to use kinship title like ‘auntie’ although they are not blood-related to show the respect title (Adams et al., 2011). However AA prefers to use first name to show the closeness (Wierzbicka, 1986). Although both of them have the same level of social distance relationship but due to culture, may have different way to express it.

- Conclusion

From observations, culture may affect the language usage by certain ethnics however it is not certain which aspects of culture that influenced the language. The difference is social distance; affect the usage of address term by AA and MM. With the difference in social distance, it able to show there are similarity and difference of usage address term by AA and MM. There are other different of factors that affecting it; may be the age and to whom and with what kind of intentions does the speaker intend to do. Hence, the choice of address term cannot be sure without real details in how address terms are used. As for the relationship between married couple probably need more examples to get the real usage address term in term of during formal and informal conversations. The research question could be answered better by expanding the research venue; instead of only do in Melbourne, research can be done in Malaysia as well to understand better for MM usage of address terms in their daily conversations.

- Reference List

Adams, K., & Gillogly, K. (2012). Everyday life in Southeast Asia. Retrieved from

http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=731388

Alimoradian, K. (2014). ‘Makes Me Feel More Aussie’: Ethnic Identity and Vocative Mate in

Australia. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 34(4), 599-623.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/072686602.2014.929083

Collins, P. (2012). Australian English: Its Evolution and Current State. International Journal of

Language, Translation and Intercultural Communication, 1, 75.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/ijltic.11

Jackson, J. (2014). Introducing language and intercultural communication (1st ed.). Retrieved

from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1596976

Kirkpatrick, A. (2002). Englishes in Asia (1st ed.). Melbourne: Language Australia.

Tan, S.I. (2013). Malaysian English. Retrieved from

http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1400890

Wierzbicka, A. (1986). Does language reflect culture? Evidence from