Address terms in The Thursday Murder Club movie

This study aims to identify the types of address terms used by the characters in The Thursday Murder Club movie and to analyze how those address terms are used based on the social factors influencing their selection. There are two research questions in this study: (1) What are the types of address terms used in The Thursday Murder Club movie? and (2) How are the address terms used in The Thursday Murder Club movie? This study employed a descriptive qualitative approach. Wardhaugh’s (2006) theory of address terms and social factors was used as the main theoretical framework. The researcher watched The Thursday Murder Club, downloaded the movie transcript, identified all utterances containing address terms, then classified the data into eight types of address terms and analyzed the social factors influencing their use. This study reveals that all eight types of address terms proposed by Wardhaugh (2006) are found in the movie, including first name, last name, title, title plus last name, pet name, nickname, kinship term, and some combination of these forms, with a total of 222 data. The findings also show that the use of address terms in the movie is influenced by eight social factors: degree of intimacy, particular occasion,family relationship, social status, transactional status, occupational hierarchy, age, and gender. Meanwhile, race is not found as a factor influencing the use of address terms in the movie. The findings indicate that the characters choose different address terms depending on their relationships with others and the situations in which communication takes place. Address terms such as first names, nicknames,pet names, and kinship terms are commonly used among characters who have close relationships, while titles, title plus last names, and last names are more likely to be used in situations involving social roles, authority, or professional relationships. The study also finds that some address terms are influenced by more than one social factor at the same time. Overall, the study shows that the characters choose their address terms based on how close they are, the situation they are in, and their social or professional roles, while race plays no part in the way the characters address one another in the movie.