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Is political correctness just another part of language change?

oneill

How would you answer/structure the answer to this question?

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Reply 1

zedeneye1

what language change?

Reply 2

oneill

The way in which language changes over-time! For instance the words we use nowadays; in 40 years or so, we might not use them.

Reply 3

Hylean

Depends on what you mean by "language change". If you mean how language structurally, grammatically, etc. changes then no, it's not. Political correctness is a social change which has an affect on the way we use language, so if you mean "language-use change" then yes, it would be.

Reply 4

Kiss

If you compare it with 'Newspeak' from '1984' then no, it is an imposed ideology which is used to censor things.

Reply 5

Vlad Mackevic

If this is an essay title, I would structure it this way:

1. Introduction

a. Define PC - establish a definition, a point from which you will work.
b. Political correctness is a hot topic - point to some books issued on the subject, numerous articles, a catchphrase "PC gone mad", etc.
c. But what is PC? Is it an imposed strategy (certain governmental officials invented it and now other officials are supposed to use it), and therefore a social phenomenon, or is it a linguistic phenomenon?

2.main body

You need to extract the main concepts: PC and language change are what i call The object of the study. You have to analyse them;

You have defined PC. Now define language change (Language change is the phenomenon whereby phonetic, morphological, semantic, syntactic, and other features of language vary over time. - Wikipedia).

The context of the study is NOW because PC is a modern phenomenon.

The method of the study is literature analysis, which you will have to perform, to answer the question. Moreover, if it is an essay, you will have to provide a balanced opinion, i.e. arguments both for and against the claim that PC is part of language change.

so, let;s begin

a. A very short paragraph about the history of PC - how it appeared, when it appeared (you would need to research that)
b. Talk about PC as a method of avoiding speaking about someone's inferiority. For example, a binman is called a refuse collector, or a recycling manager; a plumber is called household communications engineer; a plump person is called a person with eating disorders; and so on.

c. Do people actually talk like this? The easiest way to find out is to look at Google and search for some PC terms. No doubt you will find many PC terms, but, in context, they are mostly being ridiculed.

d. Neverltheless, we have to admit that despite the fact that some PC terms are plainly ridiculous, others are common courtesy and politeness. For example, replacing the N-word with 'black' and then with 'African', 'Carribean' or other, is fine. Moreover, it is entering our language and staying there. 'Firefighter' instead of 'Fireman' is also fine with us.

However, calling the blackboard, 'the chalkboard' is ridiculous because no black people will be silly enough to get offended at the word 'blackboard'.

3. Conclusion

As it can be seen, PC is both a social and a linguistic phenomenon. Naturally, when we hear PC terms on TV all the time, they enter our language, first artificially, and the become naturalised; Whatever the source of influence is, language does change. Still, where does it actually change? is it the common language of Joe Public, or does this PC-speak belong only to the domain of newspapers and policy officials? You can only find the answer by researching.

here are some interesting articles to start with:

http://hereisthecity.com/2011/10/07/11-cases-of-political-correctness-gone-mad/
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad

P.S. if you are interested in essay writing, I am issuing a book called From Confusion to Conclusion, or How to Write a First Class Essay this October. If you want, send me a private message, I can tell you where you can buy it or download extracts and bonus content for free, including essays with detailed analysis of their strong points.

Thank you in advance.

Vlad.

P.P.S. This structure is very schematic - if you want a more in-depth consultation, I can do it by private message. Best of luck :smile:

Is political correctness just another part of language change?

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