Summary of Honorific Titles
in British English and American English
by Julia B. Yuryeva

     Julia Yuryeva, a PhD student of the department of foreign languages, People's Friendship University of Russia (RUDN), overviewed the difference of the usage of honorific titles in two variations of the English language - British (BrE) and American (AmE). She also took an attempt to explain it on the basis of relationships, culture values and politeness. There are several methods which were used to acquire necessary information: observation, questionnaries and interviewing. The first finding made by the author is that in both BrE and AmE address forms including a title are used only in formal situations. Then, it was revealed that speakers of both BrE and AmE tend to avoid honorific titles (sir, miss, madam) and use them in order to attract addressee's attention and when the addresser does not know him/her. So far, the only difference between the variations considered is pronunciation of the title 'madam'. In British English, it is pronounced clearly, distinctly and in its full quality - [madəm]; at the same time, it sounds [me:m] in American English. However, this title is not widespread there as well as 'Lady'. The use of 'Ms.' and 'Mrs.' has overcome a significant change at the last ten years. If earlier 'Ms.' was implied only on unmarried girls and women, nowadays they use it to address girls under 18 and if they don't know whether a woman is married or not. But if a married woman officially takes her husband's last name, addressers should call her with 'Mrs.' In BrE, they can't use honorific titles without a surname or with a name only, while American speakers may address their interlocutors with a honorific title not calling their names. All in all, the usage of honorific titles in British and American variations of English has drastically reduced during the last decade, and the difference between the variants overlooked is not significant.