4.0109 Address: Accents, Power, Democracy, Gender (4/79)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 23 May 90 19:33:19 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0109. Wednesday, 23 May 1990.
(1) Date: Tue, 22 May 90 23:51 EDT (15 lines)
From: MERIZ@pittvms
Subject: Accents and Forms of Address
(2) Date: Wed, 23 May 90 10:00:26 BST (17 lines)
From: stephen clark <AP01%liverpool.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK>
Subject: Accents and Democracy
(3) Date: Wed, 23 May 90 15:16 -0300 (20 lines)
From: DENNIS CINTRA LEITE <FGVSP@BRFapesp.BITNET>
Subject: RE: 4.0097 Classes and Lectures; Forms of Address
(4) Date: 23 May 90 10:29:40 EST (27 lines)
From: "Dr. Ruth Mazo Karras" <RKARRAS@PENNSAS.UPENN.EDU>
Subject: addressing students
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 May 90 23:51 EDT
From: MERIZ@pittvms
Subject: Accents and Forms of Address
It may very well be that "we don't usually put people down by their
accents in the USA". Still, our claims to egalitarianism
notwithstanding, some accents remain more acceptable than others (in
corporate boardrooms, for example, or on network newscasts).
As far as forms of address are concerned, might not the widespread
practice of addressing secretaries by their first name be viewed as a
variation on the master/servant relationship?
-Diana Meriz
meriz@pittvms.bitnet
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------29----
Date: Wed, 23 May 90 10:00:26 BST
From: stephen clark <AP01%liverpool.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK>
Subject: Accents and Democracy
I haven't been following the discussion about how to address students,
staff and vice-chancellors, so I don't know what lies behind Kessler's
sudden declaration that Great Britain is not a republic (true) nor yet
a democracy (he/she must have a different definition of democracy than
mine). It's true that - in England (which is not the whole of Britain) -
accents tend to identify class and locality, and that this can cause
problems. But so what? Most of us like hearing different accents, and do
our best to imitate at least a few of them because we like them. My own
natural accent carries Staffordshire/Teeside vowels inside an Oxford
matrix: the Oxford bit gets despised at times, but not the vowel sounds.
Stephen Clark
Liverpool University
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------38----
Date: Wed, 23 May 90 15:16 -0300
From: DENNIS CINTRA LEITE <FGVSP@BRFapesp.BITNET>
Subject: RE: 4.0097 Classes and Lectures; Forms of Address (64)
I would like o take issue with KESSLER at UCLA on his statement:
"Well, GB is not a republic, nor a democracy, and we dont usually put
people down by their accents in the USA....."
First, I don't know kessler's definition of a democracy, but having lived
quite a few years in a military dictatorship in Brazil, and 5 odd years
in the UK, I can assure him that GB, as he calls it, is most certainly
a democracy by anyones definition (except, it seems, by his). As to not
putting people down by their accents, it does not seems that Mr. Kessler
has had any contact with East Coast prep schools and the Ivy League
brigade (I did both) where accents are very much taken as a marker of
a person's social standing.
Standard disclaimers apply, (I am neither american or british)
Dennis
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------24----
Date: 23 May 90 10:29:40 EST
From: "Dr. Ruth Mazo Karras" <RKARRAS@PENNSAS.UPENN.EDU>
Subject: addressing students
Apropos of addressing students, Kessler writes that graduate students
deserve friendly intimacy if they are of the same gender. I am
certainly glad that the male professors with whom I worked closely in
graduate school didn't share that attitude. This view would deny a
great many female (and some male) graduate students the sort of working
relationships that can make the difference between a worthwhile
educational experience and a miserable slog.
Obviously his caveat stems from a concern about accusations of sexual
harassment. This is a real problem (both the existence of actual
harassment, and the possibility of innocently meant comments being
taken as harassment). It can, of course, exist between members of the
same gender as well. And I would be very surprised if female students
ever feel harassed when a male professor is treating them exactly as he
treats his male students--the problem of misinterpretation arises when
a professor thinks that friendly collegial intimacy with women requires
different behavior from that with men. If we (faculty) don't know how
to be friends with graduate students (or colleagues) of the opposite sex
without creating an impression of impropriety, it's about time we
learned.
Ruth Mazo Karras
University of Pennsylvania