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STUBBORN_WORDS

                                                  January 7, 2003
                                     Last edit:   October 9, 2003

A corollary of the "language is thought"
doctrine is the notion that you can
eliminate unenlightened thinking by
elimiating words with unenlightened
connotations.

   (This is one of the main
   things people complain
   about under the heading      CORRECT
   "political correctness".)


                               A popular doctrine because:

                               (1) it gives you something easy to attack.

                               (2) having anything to complain
                                   about publically helps call
                                   attention to a cause.

                               (3) humanities-types care a lot
                                   about words, and like the idea
                                   that they're powerful.

                               (4) re-emergence of belief in
                                   word magic incantations.

                                   They might consider          EXCEPTION
                                   another idea that
                                   Korzybski pushed:

                                          "The map is not the territory,
                                          the word is not the thing itself."


     It's interesting how
     often this manuever
     totally fails: the
     old connotations chase
     the new term.



     An excellent example
     is the creation             (IHCOYC XPICTOC of
     of the euphemism            alt.gothic reminded
     "special" in place of       me of this one.)
     "retarded"... with the
     immediate result that
     "special" became an
     insult among all school
     children with
     connotations exactly
     like the word it was
     supposed to replace.


   The one that I like though:

   Once upon a time, we called all
   pre-menopause human females
   "girls".  In contrast all
   sexually active males were just
   "men".

     Then there was a push to
     use word "woman" for
     adult females. It was
     largely successful, at
     least in print.

       But if you actually listen to
       the way people talk, in casual          Now: another peculiarity
       language it's not "men and              of "standard" english was
       women", it's more like "guys            that the third person
       and girls".                             masculine was also used in
                                               the general case:
                                                                      
                                               "Suppose someone wrote a     
                                               book, and he did it like     
                                               this."                       
                                                                            
                                     Then there was a push to              
                                     insist on spelling out "he
                                     or she" in the general case.

               Again, this was largely                 This issue really
               successful, at least in                 bothered me at one
               print usage.                            point.  I thought
                                                       the "his or hers"
      But once again, listen to people                 language was too
      talk... what they often do is                    clumsy, and technically
      press the *plural* into service                  unnecessary if you
      in the singular case:  "Suppose                  understood the rules
      someone wrote a book, and they                   of standard english.
      did it like this."
                                                        I favored sticking
      And what often happens, is                        with the standard
      that everyone uses "guy"                          over non-standard
      as the informal third person                      tweaks.
      general pronoun:
                                                        I gave up on this
         "Suppose some guy                              crusade when I
          wrote some                                    realized that in
          book like this."                              this case the
                                                        language police had
                                                        really suceeded:
             So the crusades of                         they changed the
             the language police                        standard.
             have had some limited       
             success in written                         To the extent
             formal usage, but                          that there *is*
             other forms keep                           a standard for
             popping up in the                          english, clearly
             informal use.                              the third person
                                                        general rules
                There's some odd                        are different now.
                cultural need for
                the second sex to                            And hardly
                be thought of second?                        anyone was
                                                             really using
                And it doesn't                               the "official"
                just disapear                                rules: ergo
                if you attack                                they didn't
                the symptoms.                                really exist.






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