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  • Essay / The use of pronouns and terms of address in Kashmir

    The present research study was carried out within the larger framework of sociolinguists to unveil the usage of pronouns and terms of address in Kashmiri. Like any other sociolinguistic study, this study aimed to explore the social basis of the use of pronouns and terms of address. Regarding the use of pronouns, the only aspect investigated in this study was how their use is shaped by social variables such as age, gender, education, etc. Variation in pronoun use was therefore explored across all of these variables. The aim of the study of address terms was to explore the repertoire of address terms in Kashmir, classify them into different categories and then explain the usage of these address terms. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The research questions were: How is the use of pronominal in Kashmir based on extralinguistic variables and how is the use of terms of address in Kashmir influenced by the relationship between the interlocutors, social variables such as gender, age, educational and/or professional level and other factors associated with the participants. Using observation and questionnaire as the main research tools, sample address forms were collected from Kashmiri speakers. Regarding the results of the study on pronominal usage, the following points can be highlighted: The results of the study suggest that all factors that were taken into account for the survey (age, gender, location residence, education and relationship between the interlocutors), play an important role in the choice of one pronoun rather than another in the Kashmiri language. However, the impact of these variables on the choice of pronominal usage varies. Starting with the varying age of the speaker, the results suggest that age as a social variable has varying effects on pronominal usage in different domains such as family, workplace, random location, etc. The overall results show that the use of differential forms of the address pronoun and the reference pronoun increases with age and then decreases again. These results come from the study of three age groups roughly representing the three different stages of life. The results confirm that social pressures are highest between the ages of 26 and 45 and that people in this age group are guided by social norms. The activity of people belonging to this age group conforms to social norms and politeness is an important ingredient in the behavior of people of this age. Another aspect of this is the opening of social areas in this era which brings new responsibilities for people. The relatively higher use of non-deferential forms of pronouns in adolescence and old age can be attributed to two different reasons: less social pressure in the case of adolescents and a high degree of familiarity with people, in the case elderly people. Another variable playing an important role in pronominal choice is gender. In light of the results of this study, it was reported that men of all age groups, with varied social attributes, use TSI more than women. The results are in agreement with most previous studies, including Labov's pioneering work. The more frequent use of by women indicates their prestige-conscious nature, their reserved nature and their lesser interaction in public leading to the formality of their language. ResultsSimilar ones were found in the case of the reference pronominal. Comparing the results of the use of the pronoun among rural and urban people, we conclude that the use of the informal pronoun tsI is more frequently used by rural people while urban dwellers use yim and tim more frequently. The use of the informal forms of the pronoun of address and the pronoun of reference can be attributed to the close-knit structure of rural communities. The close nature of rural communities results in familiarity among community members, which is reflected in the more frequent use of the informal/colloquial form of the pronoun. The social variable of education is also considered to produce structured variation in the use of the pronominal. The results of this study show that education as a factor has a huge impact on pronominal usage. Educated people use deferential forms of the pronoun of address and reference pronouns more frequently than uneducated people. Regarding the relationship with the recipient, it has been found that pronominal usage varies a lot and that this variation caused by the relationship with the recipient is maximum. It has been noted that in the family domain, the use of I is predominant. In the domain of kinship itself, the use with consanguineous parents is mainly that of tsI while the is used more frequently with affines. As we move further away from the family realm, the only relationships in which I am overwhelmingly used are those of friends and classmates. Among all other speakers, the differential forms of pronominals are used more frequently. With regard to the findings of the study on address terms, the following points could be highlighted: In the case of address terms, the researcher's attempt to categorize address expressions in Kashmir can be considered as a pioneering effort to highlight the wealthy. repertoire of address terms on the one hand and the variability and enrichment of these terms on the other hand. Thus, the main objective of the present study was to draw the overall pattern of address terms that Kashmiri addressers could use to address their addresses. The categorization of address terms into thirteen categories does not imply that all categories are equal in terms of importance, frequency and usefulness. Each of the categories has its particular use for particular interlocutors and under certain conditions. The wide range of honorifics in Kashmir and the frequency of their use in all social domains with a wide range of people reveal the importance of courtesy in this language. This implies that courteous and respectful interaction is an important feature of the Kashmiri addressing system. This also shows that Kashmiri speakers are very conscious of their facial work. Another important feature of Kashmiri is the use of kinship address terms. Kashmir relies heavily on kinship relationships, which is particularly noticeable in the use of kinship terms for non-kin. The restricted use of personal names and singular pronouns of address on the one hand and the use of general and professional titles, honorific titles and terms of formality show that the sense of formality is also another important characteristic of Kashmiri culture and language in general and terms of address in particular. Borrowing new terms of address and refraining from using others over time, which is one of the characteristic features of dynamic languages, shows that the Kashmiri language is..