Ірина Грачова
(Вінницький державний педагогічний університет
імені Михайла Коцюбинського)
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IN LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY
The issue of the role of political correctness in language is not completely resolved. Political correctness is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a social one. The manifestation of the principles of political correctness in language is an eloquent example of society’s conscious influence on language.
The fundamental work that gives a comprehensive description of political correctness is the work of R. T. Lakoff “Political correctness and hate speech“, where the author characterizes politically correct lexical items as linguistic means created by the lower groups of society to denote themselves, providing them with a sense of equality, helping to overcome stereotypes [3, p. 91].
- Allan in his work “Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language” expresses a critical position on the phenomenon of political correctness, namely views political correctness as an act of freedom speech abuse and common sense and argues that political correctness distorts language [1, p. 93].
Politically correct lexical items are used to avoid discrimination on racial, gender, material or other grounds. Thus, a certain task of politically correct vocabulary is an attempt to level this difference, to smooth and embellish the unpleasant issues.
One of the means of linguistic discrimination is labeling based on stereotypes that already exist in society. Political correctness involves many types of discrimination. One of the most common types of discrimination is racial discrimination. The problem is particularly acute in the United States, where a significant part of the population is dark-skinned and has recently experienced a large-scale migration from Asia and South America. One of the most vulnerable groups in society is people with physical and mental disabilities, as they face all sorts of difficulties caused by living conditions created by people who do not have these disabilities.
The fight against gender discrimination is one of the newest social trends. For a long time, society has been dominated by men, and women have been characterized as the “weaker sex.” This has led to a number of linguistic changes that political correctness is trying to combat.
Lookism, or discrimination based on a person’s appearance, is also becoming widespread in society. Recently, attention has been drawn to ageism, or discrimination based on age. This type of discrimination is mostly found in the workplace, but it is also often reflected in language.
Social discrimination has many subtypes, motivated by various factors, including an unprestigious profession, such as a janitorial job, belonging to a sexual minority, poverty, and much more. The language usually reflects this with the help of stable labels that are conditioned by social stereotypes, such as “poor”, “broken home”, “gay”, “prostitute”, “queer”, and others.
Let’s consider gender political correctness. The feminist movement has made significant achievements in influencing the English language. And not only in the United States, but in all variants of English. One of the most notable politically correct innovations is the use of “Ms.” by analogy with “Mr.”, which does not define a woman’s marital status as married (“Mrs.”) or single (“Miss”). This address has entered the official English language and is used in official documents [2]. Also, morphemes in words denoting a profession or occupation that retain the meaning of gender are gradually being replaced by words that do not. For example, the suffixes –man and –ess. Words with these suffixes are replaced by the suffix –person or other morphemes or lexical units:
chairman > chairperson; fireman > fire fighter; postman > mail carrier; stewardess > flight attendant; headmistress, headmaster > headteacher.
The words “woman“, “women” are increasingly being written as “wommon“, “womyn” or “wimmin” to avoid associations with the suffixes -ma, -men. However, these spellings have not yet been universally approved and are still found only in feminist publications.
When the gender of the speaker or the person being spoken about is unknown, the combinations “he/she”, “his/her” and “him/her” or the plural pronoun “they”, “them”, “their” are used instead of the previously used pronouns “he”, “his”, “her”.
For example: “Everyone must take care of his health > Everyone must take care of his or her (his/her) health > Everyone must take care of their health”.
Proponents of political correctness usually motivate euphemization by concern for the feelings of vulnerable groups, veiling the negative side, and the desire for social equality.
СПИСОК ВИКОРИСТАНИХ ДЖЕРЕЛ
- Allan K. Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 316 р.
- Amos O. Why so many sexual harassment cases in US, not UK? Owen Amos // BBC News. URL: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42070575.
- Lakoff T. Political correctness and hate speech. New York: Harper & Row, 2000. Р. 86-117.