Òèìîøåíêî Î. Ñ.
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Íàö³îíàëüíèé òåõí³÷íèé óí³âåðñèòåò Óêðà¿íè
«Êè¿âñüêèé ïîë³òåõí³÷íèé ³íñòèòóò»
³ìåí³ ²ãîðÿ ѳêîðñüêîãî
«Importance
of teaching politically correct language»
Politically
Correctness (abbreviated PC) is a kind of code, which is designed to eliminate
any type of discrimination.
Political means in
line with prevailing political thought or policy.
The subject
of politically correct language
links wide range of issues such as historical, cultural, social, and
linguistic.
Therefore,
if teacher involves students in a research on political correctness at the level of language, they will
definitely gain a diverse knowledge.
In recent
years, PC vocabulary has expanded its boarders, but historical background of
political correctness took root in 1970, when hot debates on PC speech
occurred. At that time, feminist movement made the 1st attempts to
diminish differences between men and women in society. They criticized the existing language and culture as
‘male-dominated’.
The history of society, as the feminists argued, was
written from the male point of view HIStory not HERstory.
In 1980s,
many native-speakers of English became sensitive to biased terms and phrases
that exist in the language, and English was considered to be full of
male-dominating patterns.
Therefore,
sexist language was opposed by modern non-sexist
or inclusive language that suggested
gender equality and neutrality.
Utterances
like Every teacher plans his lessons referred to teachers in
general and words with stem “man” (eg: mankind, chairman) were used to denote
both sexes. Also, HE has been traditionally used to denote a sexless person,
making it a neutral pronoun
That’s why Val
Dumond in his “The elements of non-sexist
usage” writes that pronouns present one of the greatest challenges for avoiding
sexism in language.
He
suggested omitting the pronoun whenever possible. Also, a plural form can be
employed.
Instead,
after EVERYBODY, EVERYONE, ANYBODY, ANYONE, SOMEBODY, SOMEONE, etc. one of the
plural pronouns THEY, THEM, and THEIR is often used: • Does everybody know
what they want? • Somebody's left their coat
here. • I hope nobody's forgotten
to bring their passport with them.
Some people
prefer to use HE OR SHE, HIS OR HER, or HIM OR HER in speech and writing.
Even in
traditional correspondence the use of “Dear Sir(s)” as a universal
form of address to an business organization or to an individual when (His? Her?
Their?) sex is not known has come under fire.
Therefore,
letters to organizations which are usually formal could use a “To:” line with the name of organization or department.
These are
the examples of inclusive language and avoiding these words and phrases means
using PLC, for example: the suffix -ess
in names of occupations such as ACTRESS,
HOSTESS and WAITRESS shows that the person doing the job is a woman and
nowadays is avoided.
Instead you
can use ACTOR or HOST or a neutral word, such as SERVER [AmE] for waiter and
waitress. Neutral words like ASSISTANT, WORKER, PERSON or OFFICER are now often
used instead of -man or -woman in the
names of jobs.
Neutral
words are very common in newspapers, on television and radio and in official
writing, in both BrE and AmE. While talking about jobs some people prefer to
put MALE/FEMALE before the occupation: a MALE secretary / nurse or a FEMALE
doctor / barrister / driver / writer.
However this is now not usually used unless you need to emphasize which
sex the person is. Sometimes woman is replaced by wommyn/womyn in order to get
rid of the hated participles.
In late
1980s, the rules of political correctness began to be applied to a broad range
of issues - such as race, age, sexual orientation, abilities, even
discrimination of estate. Age
discrimination (Ageism) - changing attitudes about aging made people aware
of words that reinforce stereotypes (decrepit, senile) and the need to avoid
mentioning age unless it’s relevant. Racial
discrimination (Racism) -Black/Negro/colored are replaced by African-American,
Escimo – by Native Alascan. Discrimination
of estate - words that describe financial status of a person are replaced to
avoid unpleasant associations (poor man
– economically exploited/differently advantaged). Discrimination of the human race - MAN and MANKIND have
traditionally been used to mean ‘all men and women’. Discriminations of people with disabilities or illnesses (Ableism) - most
of PC vocabulary as to this group is formed by adding prefix -challenged
to displace acceptable handicapped or
disabled. Disabled - were replaced
by physically challenged, Blind people were called visually challenged; The deaf were called people with hearing
impairments.
Politically
correct changes are occurring in English as a reflection of the ideas of
tolerance and inclusion. In order to produce competent users of English, we
should direct our students towards exploring this phenomenon and give them
opportunity to become proficient users of tolerant and inclusive terms in
particular situations.
Literature:
1. Ëîêêåò Á. Çà ñòðîêîé ñëîâàðÿ – Èíîñòðàííûå
ÿçûêè â øêîëå, 2007, ¹5, ñ.100.
2. Longman Dictionary of
English Language & Culture – Harlow, Essex, 1992.
3. Sensitivity: avoiding
offence. - Macmillan English Dictionary for advanced learners. - 2006, LA16-LA17.