"Leader DeLay"??? What's up with that?

Beverly Flanigan flanigan at OHIOU.EDU
Sat May 14 21:45:58 UTC 2005


Forgot to mention:  I think it's Susan Ervin-Tripp's article on Forms of
Address, where she notes that in her normative region, California and
specifically Berkeley, students would first-name faculty.  One of our
present-day faculty, from UK via San Diego and Boston U, is David; a former
one, from Brigham Young, was Neil.

At 10:14 AM 5/14/2005, you wrote:
>An old study (source forgotten) relates "Dr." and "Professor" titles
>to prestige of institution. More prestige, less doctoring and
>professoring.
>
>dInIs
>
>>Sounds like more and more people want that honorific.   I've heard of
>>District Attorney Smith, but not Lawyer or Attorney Smith.  But my
>>brother-in-law
>>just told me that in the school his kids go to in Quakertown Pa (a Friends
>>School) Their teachers are "Teacher Annie" and "Teacher Beth."    In Germany
>>everyone loves a title--so if you're Professor Schmitt, then you're
>>wife is Frau
>>Professor Schmitt. Or the wife of that fellow mentioned earlier would be Frau
>>Professor Doktor Doktor General Friedrick August Freiherr von der Heydt.
>>My dissertation adviser didn't want to be addressed as Dr. or as Professor,
>>but simply as Mr. which always reminds me of George Washington
>>turning down the
>>stupendous titles they were trying to foist on him, and settling simply for
>>Mr. President.
>
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
>        Asian and African Languages
>Wells Hall A-740
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
>Office: (517) 353-0740
>Fax: (517) 432-2736



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