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Abstract Abstract: The use of address terms embodies the interactional and pragmatic rules of the language and its culture. Therefore, it has been a research focus for decades in many branches of linguistics, such as pragmatics and sociolinguistics. Linguists have proposed a number of principles and maxims to account for the use of Chinese address terms, including “Address Maxim” and “Address properly, or don’t”. The transformation of Chinese society in recent decades raises a communicative dilemma in addressing and leads to avoidance of using address terms (“zero address”) on some occasions, which challenges the traditional maxims and theories of addressing. This study observed 900 cases of non-acquaintances’ encounters in the contexts of railway station, shopping mall and university campus. 289 cases of zero addressing were extracted and analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Results indicate that, firstly, zero addressing is typically performed in three forms, namely, second person pronoun greetings, straight forward zero address, and zero address with negative politeness strategies. Secondly, the use of zero address is primarily determined by the context of situation in which the conversation takes place although the education background and intention of the addresser also play a role. Based on the above findings, the principle of situationality is then proposed to account for the use of zero addressing.
Key words: zero addressing; dilemma of addressing; principle of situationality
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