forms of address

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 115863


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lexical74" <lexical74 at y...> 
wrote:

Brian:
> JKR is systematic enough in her application of forms of address to 
> make them an interesting discussion topic.  

Geoff:
I have been following the discussions on forms of address with 
interest and thought, as a UK observer, I would add some information 
to the mix. I hope this will not be too long a treatise and that its 
relevance to Harry's world will be clear. I am looking at inter-pupil 
relations, those between pupils and teachers and interaction between 
staff in terms of a UK scenario.

First, it needs to be remembered that addressing other folk in the 
UK, especially in a formal situation, is an organic thing; it is 
changing with the years. There are no rules fixed in stone since the 
date of the inception of Hogwarts which necessarily apply. My input 
will be from several angles: as a pupil in a boys' grammar school as 
a teenager, working in an office for a year before going to college, 
as teacher for 32 years in a South London secondary school and 
finally working with a church in a mixed group and a boys' club – an 
environment with which I am still involved.

As a pupil in a grammar school, I was in a day environment but with a 
number of routines which were similar to a public residential school. 
Between small groups of friends, Christian names might be common, 
mixed with nicknames and diminutives of surnames, i.e. "Jones" 
becoming "Jonesy", "Smith" becoming "Smithy" and "Morrison" 
becoming "Mole" as examples. Nicknames could be culled form a variety 
of sources. I had at least three. I had come from the North of 
England two years before going to this school and still spoke with a 
strong Lancashire accent. To the poor Cockneys of my area, they were 
unable to distinguish the accent so, for some years I became "Scot"!! 
With the advent of the Goon Show, I inevitably became "Min" 
or "Minnie" but after the breaking of the 4  minute mile barrier in 
1954, I was known for the remainder of my school career as "Roger".

Pupils who were not known or slightly familiar to us were known by 
their surnames. Staff would invariably be addressed as "Mr. X" 
of "Miss Y" – regardless of marital status and if you were speaking 
to them without using their name, "Mr." or "Miss" would be the norm. 
Informally among ourselves, staff might be referred to by 
surname/nickname/first name (If known).

There has never been any tradition in the UK of a pupil using a staff 
member's first name in such a situation.

Working in an office as a junior clerk, the situation certainly in 
this organisation was fairly informal. Most staff used each other's 
Christian names. The exception was the office boss who 
was "Mr.Farley" to everyone except a couple of the staff who were 
contemporary with him and who had worked with him over many years who 
were on first name terms. There was also one clerk, near to 
retirement, who was only known either as "Mr.Woolston" or "Wooley". 
The only time a surname-only situation happened was if someone was 
referring to a third party of lower rank, e.g. "I will ask Johnson to 
do this for me" as a sample.

In my teaching days, there was a tendency for us to refer to older 
staff by their surnames until we had had our feet under the table for 
a year or so when we joined in the usual set up of using everybody's 
first names in private and the "Mr./Miss" convention with pupils. My 
school was an all-boys school for 8 years and then became mixed. 
Initially, we used only surnames, unless a Christian name was needed 
to distinguish a pupil; we had 13 Smiths in my first year(!!) so we 
had to have Ralph Smith, Peter Smith etc. After the girls arrived, 
using both names became the norm for several years but, by the end of 
my teaching there, I personally tended to use first names only as far 
as possible. Likewise, in my church connections, my wife and I, as 
leaders, encourage an all-first name environment.

Looking through my notes above, I hope this will highlight why I find 
it odd that Professor McGonagall addresses Dumbledore just by his 
surname. It smacks of the office set-up of a senior speaking to a 
junior and certainly not of two colleagues of approximately equal 
standing. I would have been quite offended had any of my teaching 
colleagues spoken to me as "Bannister" and that would have included 
the Headmaster.

I hope this lengthy ramble makes sense and adds a little more to the 
image of UK residents as eccentric!

Geoff
Enjoy views of Exmoor and preserved 
West Somerset Railway steam at:
http://www.aspectsofexmoor.com