Social Competence and the Rules of Address

Abstract

Are people able to recognise violations of the rules of address, thus revealing their knowledge of the rules underlying address exchanges? A sample of 128 male and female undergraduates judged 64 scenarios containing systematic violations of four rules drawn from Ervin-Tripp's (1969) model of the American Address System. Strong positive relationships were found between the degree of rule violation and the ability of the respondents to recognise the violations and to detect their emotional consequences. Perceived violations were also affected by the type of setting (academic vs. business) and the sex of the recipient. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for modifying Ervin-Tripp's model and their relevance to some issues in the study of communicative competence, such as distinctions between individually-and collectively-held knowledge and between knowledge and performance. It is suggested that future research assessing the rules of specific address systems also include the exploration of the higher order strategic rules that underlie such systems.