Address Terms in Oscar Wild's "The Importance of Being Earnest" and "A Woman of No Importance"

Academic Paper from the year 2021 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, University of Mosul, language: English, abstract: This is a pragmatic study that explores the relationship between language and society. This study aims to analyse the phenomenon called address terms performed by the main characters in the selected English dramas under the study, namely: "The Importance of Being Earnest" and "A Woman of No Importance". This study has four main objectives: finding out the main types of addressing terms used by the characters in the dramas previously mentioned, their functions, the factors affecting their selection by the characters and the difference between the two genres, modern and classical, and effect in using the address terms. The theoretical framework that has been employed in the data-analysis is the Communication Accommodation Theory. The type of adjustment whether convergence or divergence, the way its components affect the communication, and the strategies that are used for adjusting. This study employed the mixed (qualitative + quantitative) content-analysis method since the data under the study are books and documents. Moreover, the findings are presented in narrative form and tables with numbers and percentages are used to support the analysis.