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

[Laurence Horn]

>----- Original Message -----
>>
>>LOL! I not only hear it, I say it! (I also say "Sir" - both of them often
>>in the courtroom).
>
>I've been thinking about that. I always use "ma'am" with respect. And I
>often use "sir" with respect. But sometimes I use "sir" as a means of
>providing distance or separation.

That's what "respecting negative face" is all about.

There's also been nice (if dated) work on "ma'am" vs. "dear",
"honey", and other terms of endearment (between strangers in
commercial exchanges), most notably an old (1980) paper by Wolfson &
Manes, "Don't 'Dear' Me" (in S. McConnell-Ginet et al. (eds.), Women
and Language in Literature and Society, 79-92.  New York: Praeger),
which explores age, sex, and regional differences (New England vs.
Southern U.S.) in the choice of terms of address.  Don't know if
there's been any follow-up since.

Larry


>As a lad I had a friend who grew up in a Virginia family. He called his
>father "Sir".
>
>D