What do you call the process of formally addressing someone by using honorifics?

Solution 1:

English has, in practical terms, lost its T-V distinction. To be sure there are different registers, but they are indicated by things like adherence to standard as opposed to dialectical English, or using more indirect or deferential language. It is not conveyed by the choice of a separate set of pronouns as in many Indo-European languages (or in languages like Korean and Japanese, a separate set of all kinds of other words as well). You could thus ask how are you? of both a toddler and the prime minister equally appropriately. (Of course, You was originally the polite form.)

As for honorific titles, we do use them in more formal settings and especially with members of more elite circles (e.g. Doctor, Reverend, Professor), but that is simply an expression of respect and/or distance, not the employment of a distinct variety of English. I always say the only people who address me as sir or mister are those trying to sell me something.

Academics may speak of honorific speech or linguistic honorifics as a concept, but as modern English does not exhibit it, such terminology is not widely understood. Rather, in my experience the subject mostly comes up in terms of learning foreign languages: when to use the plain or direct or familiar form as opposed to the respectful or honorific or polite form, and so on. Often, the term is language-specific, like warning that Höflichkeitsform can be taken as distancing, or relief that the vosotros form is not used in Mexico or Central America.