System of address forms in modern Turkish

Abstract

Although there exists a great variety of Turkish proper names, which was conditioned by historical multiculturalism of the Turkish society, there are also restrictions on their use as address forms, which are based on ancient beliefs. If we visualize contemporary Turkish society as a concentric model with the individual at the center, then his position in relation to his older and younger relatives, close neighbors and distant friends is unambiguously expressed by the choice of words for addressing them (proper names and their substitutes, including kinship terms), which, in turn, determine the choice of pronoun sen ‘you-singular’ or siz ‘you-plural/polite’ with the corresponding verb forms. This reflects historically existing social structure of the society. At the same time, urbanization and globalization processes, not fitting within the frames of traditional Turkish society, generate the necessity to abandon the standard forms and create new ones. Refs 3.

Keywords:

address forms in Turkish, Turkish proper names, kinship terms, address forms