Address between power and solidarity in audiovisual material in the case of Grey's Anatomy

This study investigates cross‐linguistic variation in forms of address by examining the American prime‐time television series Grey's Anatomy , comparing the original English version and the German dubbing in season 1 (2005) and season 20 (2024). It seeks to determine whether shifts in address modes over the past two decades are reflected in these fictionalized medical settings. Particular attention is given to the translation strategies employed for the English pronominal address you into the German Sie or du , as forms of address serve to position interlocutors in relation to one another and to convey social attitudes. The analysis reveals a growing preference for informality in English but a consistent tendency toward greater formality in the German version, which reflects the ongoing gradual informalization of language in American English but not the one observed in German culture.