PRAGMALINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF SYRIAN ADDRESS INVERSION

Remaining unnoticed behind the ordinary and typical use of address terms, address inversion, put forward by Renzi ]1968[, should be seen as a special type of reciprocity as it does not designate the addressee ]Braun 1988: 294[. The present paper attempts to shed light on how and in what contexts Syrian speakers make use of address inversion. The data of the present paper were elicited from twelve hours of Syrian Arabic television drama, Rouzana, in addition to ethnographical observation as well. Drawing on discourse analysis, cultural studies and aspects of address theory, the findings of this paper confirm the notions of reciprocity, as they are usually comprehended, do not apply to inversion. The results manifest that address inversion in Syria signals intimacy and authority mainly but it infrequently expresses reproof. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the Syrian address practices and can be useful if employed in cross-cultural pragmatics and second language teaching