First names

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 02:32 PM 4/13/02 -0400, you wrote:
>Beverly Flanigan wrote:
> >
> > One last comment on this tired old topic:  I'm listening to "Fresh Air
> > Weekend" on NPR (normally an idiotic show, but today the interviewee is
> > Donald Hall), and the interviewer (usually gross indeed) keeps addressing
> > the poet as "Donald Hall, you say . . . ."  I've noticed this before in her
> > speech and wonder if this is a way of avoiding either the too familiar FN
> > or the too formal TLN.  It also occurs in computer-generated mail that uses
> > the salutation "Dear Beverly Flanigan."
>
>I think it's different when radio interviewers use it. In most cases
>they're deliberately using both names so that a listener who joins
>the show in progress will know what's going on, which they wouldn't
>if the interview said "Mr. Hall" or "Donald" after the original
>introduction. (This is apart from the repeated "My guest today is
>poet Donald Hall....")
>
>Jesse "Mr." Sheidlower
>OED

You make a good point, but I just find it annoying.  With her last guest,
Henry Louis Gates, the interviewer addressed him by full name less, maybe
because it would take too long!

_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm