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<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=468034115-22022005>This is a very interesting question and it has been
posed to me several times in the last years.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=468034115-22022005>Two or three years ago, some days before the 8th
March, one female journalist called me to ask my opinion about the insertion of
sexist expressions in dictionaries. I answered her, without hesitating, that
lexicographers were supposed to be objective about the facts they were
describing and then I thought that all those expressions were to be described
with no marks at all. She was very upset, and although she insisted, I was
completely sure of what I thought to be right at the moment. My answer was based
on the fact that I am most of all a Linguistics professor and hence I look at
the lexicon mostly as a study object to be described as "scientifically" as
possible.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=468034115-22022005>Yet, last year I was talking to a Brazilian
lexicographer who was doing a dictionary for children in schools, funded by
the Brazilian government, and she told me how she had some difficulties to deal
with racist terms: basically, after great discussion, it was decided not to
include them in the dictionary. At the first moment I was very puzzled with that
suggestion, claiming that lexicographers were not supposed to decide what is or
isn't politically correct, that the idea of politically correct changes, etc.
She then called my attention to the following fact: in dictionaries for
scholars, if we keep these kind of expressions, we are contributing to keep them
in the language for future generations; if we simply don't insert them, maybe we
may prevent them to be kept in the lexicon.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=468034115-22022005>I think then that first of all we have to think about
the public of the dictionary we are writting and about its goals. I keep
thinking that a general language dictionary has to keep those expressions and
I do not even consider myself able to decide what is or is not politically
correct in society. However, in learning dictionaries, specially for children, I
believe we should not introduce such expressions.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=468034115-22022005></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=468034115-22022005>Margarita Correia</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=pt dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Mensagem original-----<BR><B>De:</B> Thapelo Otlogetswe
[mailto:thaps@yahoo.com] <BR><B>Enviada:</B> terça-feira, 22 de Fevereiro de
2005 13:16<BR><B>Para:</B> lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com<BR><B>Assunto:</B>
[Lexicog] stereotypical beliefs and lexicography<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>How would such derogatory information be represented in dictionaries?
"Its all Greek to me", may not be as offensive as "work like a Black" and I
would think that "work like a slave" would also be less offensive. And does a
lexicographer have a responsibility in challenging steretypes through
dictionary entries? Or his role should be better seen as that of a scientist
from without looking in as it were, merely describing the uses of
language that he sees. But does impartiality really exist in these
matters or one is either challenging the status quo or endorsing it (a
Terry Eagleton position in the later chapter of Literary Theory )? Put
differently, are certain entries like 'work like Black' racist when used
by racist communities and also racist when entered and discussed by
lexicographers? In this case the lexicographer guilty of participating in the
development and sustainance of racist views. On the other hand, would it be
accurate to leave them out from a dictionary?</DIV>
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