The one thing that may have made medieval salutations easier for letter writers is that social rank appeared to be, at least in many cases, relatively easily discerned. For example, the Pope was at the top of the food chain and thus had as universal salutation that could always be used (Letter Writing 499 5.4). Even lesser men had titles that could help to establish their social rank. This isn't to say that problems might not have persisted: what if two people had roughly equal social rank but one clearly had more wealth and power? Would one be subordinate to another or not? I wonder if letter writing was often accompanied by a grinding/gnashing of teeth when these scenarios emerged.
What strikes me as particularly interesting is that we still operate within hierarchies in modern society: the rules are just more blurred. For example, how should a student go about writing a salutation in correspondence to a professor? Do you use his/her first name? Do we call him/her doctor (if applicable)? We're (or at least I am) still left gnashing our teeth in much the same way a medieval letter writer might have been in ambiguous situations. Even videos that attempt to clear up the confusion can be confusing (see the video below). And that's both frustrating (because we'd rather not cause offense) and awesome (because the trend continues).
The title of the video you posted was the first indication I've had as to how letter writing and the rhetoric we use in letter writing in modern-day writing. The letter writing reading was painful for me, just because I couldn't see how it related to how we write now. However, every time I write an email to a professor, I never know how I should address it. Partially because many of my professors are so informal, that I don't need to call them "professor." Similarly, some of my professors want us to call them "Dr." However, it becomes hard to keep track of who wants to be called what, and when.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I find it obnoxious when professors require that you call them "Professor" or "Dr." I get that it is a sign of respect, but I think that forcing people to call you something is the first way to lose their respect. I have respect for my parents, but I don't call them Dr. Webb and Dr. Hecker. I call them "Dad" and "Mom" because if I called them anything different, they would view it as me being sassy and disrespectful. I also have this whole thing where if I'm paying to be somewhere, I get really annoyed if the person who's salary I'm supporting tells me that I HAVE to do something that I don't want to without any rhyme or reason.