Innovative address terms: Linguistic tools for social reconstruction among urban Jordanian females

This research paper examines the sociolinguistic significance of address terms currently used by urban Jordanian females as a linguistic behavior that marks their resistance to the stereotypical image of women in a conservative society. It particularly investigates the introduction of new and innovative address term variants into their linguistic repertoire, identifying four main categories: nicknames, pet names, descriptive phrases, and innovative terms. The paper also explores how females’ usage of contemporary address terms is influenced by social variables such as generation and social class, aiming to understand the role of language in shaping social identity and challenging traditional norms. For this study, a purposive sampling of 32 informants was selected, distributed almost equally across generations, genders, and social classes and semistructured interviews were conducted to collect data. Semistructured interviews provide an access to the informants’ perceptions of and attitudes toward current address terms usage in their urban community; the open-ended questions are effective for gaining desired and meaningful insights into the case of change in the Jordanian address system which could cause some concern in certain groups of the population. The analysis is based on both variationist theory and the concept of social identity, which enhance our understanding of how new variants of address terms contribute to social construction and formation of identities. By linking these two theories, I highlight how variations in address term usage are not just random, but connected to social identities. The findings prove that urban Jordanian females, particularly from the younger generation, initiate linguistic change by adopting new, innovative address term variants, replacing and stigmatizing their traditional variants, moreover, females from both social classes participate in this linguistic change but in different directions. This evolvment of address terms over time has strong implications for intercultural communication.