title use in academic settings

[Maggie Ronkin]

Another deference indexical

A few years ago I was an Urdu student on a US-sponsored language
program in Pakistan. Part of learning Urdu was learning deference rituals,
and there were clear asymmetries in who uttered and received deference
entitlement indexed by the title “sahib”. [Incidently, I’m told that this
derives from Arabic for “friend,” not from the Raj!] I was to address male
tutors as FN (perhaps a concession to American-ness) or nom de plum +
“sahib”. They addressed me by FN. However, grad students and female
tutors (ahem) addressed one another by FN, except to mark exchanges
analogous to joking exchanges of “Prof.” among non-degreed grad students
in the USA. Nobody in this setting had a PhD, and the American grad
students were more highly educated by Western measures than their
tutors, on whom they were dependant—lots of room for play there.

Also evident to me beyond language school was resistance to using markers
of Urdu-speaking culture among associates who came from minority linguistic
and cultural backgrounds and/or viewed Urdu as “ghettoizing” in relation to
English. This put me in a bind in communicating with two very Westernized
male administrators, who did not have PhDs, although an American co-worker
did—and was “Dr.” + LN to me—and whom I did not want to address as
“Mr.”+ LN (too lowering in context, and rarely used), FN (too familiar at 
first)
or FN + LN, which is my impersonal default usage in the USA. I settled for 
FN
+ “sahib,” hoping I would be forgiven for using Urdu if I did so in an 
obvious
attempt to express appreciative deference to recipients who, afterall, were
looking after helpless me.

So, I tried out Dear “FN + sahib” in an email. The reply came quickly: “Dear
FN + sahiba.” I had not known the feminine form of the deference indexical
“sahib,” and was thrilled to discover symmetry in the system. I was even
more thrilled to continue to exchange FN + “sahib”/”sahiba” with the two
administrators. Somehow it was a perfect solution.

Maggie Ronkin

>From: Timothy Mason <tmason at club-internet.fr>
>To: linganth list <linganth at cc.rochester.edu>
>Subject: Re: title use in academic settings
>Date: 27 Jul 2003 13:04:54 +0200
>
>On Sat, 2003-07-26 at 05:00, Mike Salovesh wrote:
> >
> > I'm proud of my Chicago Ph.D., but uncomfortable if called "Dr.
>Salovesh".
> > "Ex-Professor" (I retired five years ago) doesn't sit too well,
>either. (It
> > could raise questions about how and why I was eliminated from the
> > professoriate.) I've not heard the title "Emeritus" used often enough
>to
> > have any desire to hide behind it.
> >
>
>Once a professor, always a professor - whether retired or not. Academic
>etiquette allows - even insists - that a professor should be addressed
>by his or her title forever if not longer. The same is true of many
>titles - M. Giscard d'Estaing is still referred to as M. le President -
>and also for armed service ranks - although some sneer at the ageing
>major.
>
>Best wishes
>
>Timothy Mason
>
>
>
>

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