Terms of endearment : An observational study on how strangers are addressed in Northern Ireland and Ireland

Abstract:  Abstract  Titel: Terms of endearment: A study on how strangers are addressed in Northern Ireland and Ireland Författare: Kristina SkagerströmEngelska C, 2009   Antal sidor: 16   Abstract: The aim of this study was to find out whether terms of endearment are used by native speakers of English while addressing strangers and if so, what are the reasons? Another aspect is if they use familiar body language while addressing a stranger. This study was carried out based on a number of observations in Northern Ireland and Ireland. Since the aim of the study was to see why terms of endearments are used the researcher needed the help of a male observer to see if the reasons were gender related. Nine restaurants of different social class were visited, nine stores of different social class, the observers spoke to nine taxi drivers, they visited nine hotels of different social class; and asked nine people for directions in the street.  The results showed that no young people addressed either of the observers with terms of endearment. There was no difference in social class. There was a big difference in how the male and the female observer were addressed by people over the age of 40. While the male observer was addressed very polite, the female observer was addressed with a very informal speech were the participants used terms of endearments such as "love" and touched her on the shoulder.  Nyckelord: Terms of endearment, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Observations