The proper use of address terms is of great importance to communicators. This study investigates the influence of context on speakers’ use of address terms through the analyses of all the address terms used by Pinger in the first 80 chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions from the perspectives of Sociolinguistics and Pragmatics.All the address terms used by Pinger are collected and categorized. Then the context is classified into background and situation contextual factors. Statistics analyses and examples in language materials indicate that the use of address terms is a complicated process of decision-making

which is influenced by various contextual factors. Background contextual factors are related to the stable states of speakers’ addressing. Situational contextual factors cause the changes in the speaker’s way of addressing a person.