a synchronic and diachronic approach to the change route of address terms in the two recent centuries of persian language

terms of address as an important linguistics items provide valuable information about the interlocutors, their relationship and their circumstances. this study was done to investigate the change route of persian address terms in the two recent centuries including three historical periods of qajar, pahlavi and after the islamic revolution. data were extracted from a corpus consisting 24 novels which are considered to better reflect social realities and various interpersonal relationships in different situations. the results indicated that persian address terms and types change through time in line with changes in society. developing new address terms over time which is the characteristic of dynamic languages show that persian language is dynamic enough to comply with the sociocultural changes in its speech communities. also, address terms can be clearly divided into positive and negative politeness. during the time, all positive address terms have increased in frequency while negative address terms have decreased indicating persian language is moving from formality to intimacy in relationship. furthermore, the results showed that change in address terms and types to a large extent is affected by different social factors, from among the most influencing are; religion, politics, education, gender-equity, social situations and interpersonal relations.