The Role of Gender and Age in the Selection of Address Terms in English

Abstract

For many years, the field of linguistics concentrated on the structure and form of language, ignoring the influence of social circumstances and language background.  The current study's main objectives are to determine the effects of age and gender on the choice of address terms in English Department classes at Panjshir Higher Education Institute. The hypothesis is that variation in the term of address is related not only gender of the interlocutors but also to their age. The mixed methods have been applied in organizing to study how addressers use personal pronouns regarding the gender and age of their interlocutor. For this study, thirty university students, comprising 15 males and 15 females, participated and were native-speaker of the Dari language. In this process, all of them were asked to fill out a posed questionnaire. The results showed that both men and women use address forms of formality (Soma) more frequently in addressing older people from both genders. In conclusion, age is more significant than gender in determining the pronoun in the address system of Dari.