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Abstract

The authors' basic questions were: Does the alleged universality of R. Brown's Invariant Norm of Address extend to German usage and is the structure of address exchange cross-culturally similar for Chinese, Korean, Greek, and German speakers? Reports were obtained from two age samples of 91 female and male German speakers residing in West Germany of actual address usage received from and sent to 27 categories of interactants. The results supported Brown's description of address exchange such that German may be added to the languages that support the claim for the universality of the rules of address. The authors then compared German and previously reported Chinese, Korean, and Greek usage to reveal substantial cross-cultural consistency. The article discusses briefly the emerging connection of studies of address exchange with P. Brown and Levinson's theory of politeness.

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Are the Rules of Address Universal?

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