ADDRESS IN AMERICAN ENGLISH.

The article provides an example on how semantic analysis can be applied to the study of social structure. A large sample of usage is used to examine the norms of address in American English. The semantic rules that govern address are worked out from various collection of data including usage in American Plays, actual usage in a Boston business firm, and reported usage of business executives. Most common address forms are the first name and the title plus last name. The semantic distinction between these patterns is on the intimacy dimension with Mutual first name as the more intimate of the two patterns.