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Date Posted: 14:44:21 09/17/07 Mon
Author: Deep Diction
Subject: Re: 1984
In reply to: Trys 's message, "1984" on 07:53:11 09/17/07 Mon

>I thought that Orwell's proposition was cracked when I
>read it as a young teen. After taking a degree in
>linguistics, I still think it's cracked.
>
>The value of political correctness, if it has one, is
>that it does point out to us which of our attitudes
>might need further consideration. But language alone
>doesn't have the power to change our cultural
>disposition toward a gender, race, ethnicity,
>religion, or anything else.
>
>If you don't believe that, then let me ask you two
>simple questions. How many euphemisms can you think
>of for a toilet? Now how many can you think of for a
>chair?
>
>We try to find more polite ways to express notions
>that are uncomfortable, embarrassing, or otherwise
>unacceptable. But a receptacle for excrement will
>always be what it is, and we're not likely to change
>our attitude toward it simply because we call it "the
>powder room." We use that term to indicate that we're
>aware that "toilet" and the concepts it implies have
>cultural taboo.
>
>Is the term "African American" more than a euphemism?
>When we use it, are we really not just expressing the
>notion that prior racism and discrimination practices
>should be unacceptable? But what happened to
>make them unacceptable? It wasn't simply the
>term itself. Otherwise, you guys wouldn't be able to
>come up with a thousand other words for penis in five
>seconds flat.
>
>The cultural attitude shifts, and the language
>reflects it. Not the other way around.

I think language has enormous potential to affect cultural attitude. People are HEAVILY influenced by language. Especially during election season. People hear a phrase over and over again on TV, and they start to believe it, regardless of whether they've done any actual research on the subject. They just get brainwashed through repetition.

I went through the first couple grades of elementary school assuming all Polish people were stupid, because Polack jokes were popular back then. I had no reason to believe that other than the jokes, and nobody ever came out and explained the joke like "it's funny because Polish people are stupid"... I just made that deduction based on the linguistic construction of the joke.

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