Honorifics

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Stu
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Posts: 1314
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2003 8:25 am
Location: North Lincolnshire, UK

Re: Honorifics

Post by Stu »

denimini wrote:
stevelous wrote:Just remembered a strange situation regarding elected persons in local politics. Here we have a borough council, inept but thats another story, and the elected members are called Councilor and for men they are called plain councillor Smith, Jones or whatever their family name is. For unmarried female the same applies but married female councillors are called Councilor Mrs Smith, Jones or whatever. Stupid and as they have their names engraved on brass plaques expensive.
I was a Councilor for 12 years and no-one called me that, except in written correspondence from some other Government department (abrevated to Cr.) and the dreaded media which has the tradition of using just surnames anyway. The media would call female Councilors the same way as males; Councilor Smith, etc. Mayor was the same for males and females.
In the UK, a town councillor has a fair bit of clout in terms of influencing things, so if I were on a UK council, I'd make everyone call me that. :P It is usually abbreviated an "Cllr". I'd be quite happy to settle for "Mr" (or "Dr") plus my last name instead of just assuming I am fine being addressed by my first name. It really grates on me when companies do it as though I'm their friend and even worse if someone like a dentist does it while expecting me to use their title. The use of honorifics occurs across many cultures aside from our own, as we can see with the "san", "sama", "kun" and "chan" suffixes used in Japanese. To me, they facilitate a recognition of the relationship or interaction, and they verbalise politeness and I lament the fact that we seem to be abandoning them.
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