Category: linguists and society

Scientists of all kinds speak out in the media on issues that affect society.  What is the linguist’s obligation?  Two language-based issues roil our society, year after year: (i) political correctness/language control; and (ii) the politicization, indeed weaponization of language to persuade and mislead large groups of people (includes such topics as fake news disinformation, propaganda, truth/lies, and much more).  Why are linguists silent?  Because they all live in academic halls of stifling political correctness?

Stop the pronoun craziness

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The babble of political correctness

Politically incorrect speech is neither red nor blue.  It is red, while and blue.  It is American.  Repression of speech leads to repression of thought.

This is a message that the p.c. crowd — in the media, in the universities – needs to hear again and again, because they don’t get it, especially when a Presidential candidate (Warren) announces “her” pronouns on the debate stage, and a teacher is fired for not using the student’s preferred pronouns.  It is not enough, the argument goes,  to have pronouns of two genders, when there are so many other genders.  We need more pronouns!

Stop the pronoun craziness full post

(1290 words, 1 image, estimated 5:10 mins reading time)

On baby talk and language change

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Kinds of lingo

Linguistics is concerned with who says what to whom, and why. Why do groups of people adopt their own manner of speaking? There are many answers.

 

Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy?  I don’t know and I don’t care.

William Safire

 

I admire John McWhorter so much for the breadth of his accomplishments, his accessibility to the media, his eloquent lectures.

I recently saw a video clip in which he pegged Trump’s speech as characteristic of primitive humans just getting their “language chops” together.

On baby talk and language change full post

(1069 words, 1 image, estimated 4:17 mins reading time)

Words, maps, territories, and the political abuse of language

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From mind to thought (and from there to the speech and auditory organs)
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The truth is what most people believe.  And they believe that which is repeated most often.

Paul Josef Goebbels

Here is the text of a letter I sent to the Manchester NH Union-Leader (published 6/21/19):

March 19, 2019

Dear Editor,

Let me add my voice to the chorus of people outraged by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s  comparison of immigrant confinement to concentration camps.  This is worse than obscene and ignorant.  It is an utterly irresponsible use of language.  As a linguist, I am appalled by the deceptive reducing of two vastly different entities to a single point of comparison — confinement.

Words, maps, territories, and the political abuse of language full post

(750 words, 1 image, estimated 3:00 mins reading time)