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<div>Dear Claire, </div> <div> The widescale tagging of new meanings to old words is I think a sign of a new style of prescriptive lexicography based on political correctness. If a dictionary claims to portray what a word means according to popularity of use, then it is open to all sorts of changes from pressure groups and interested parties. I believe that language shapes our perception of society. At this rate we should start thinking, as behoves people interested in lexicography, in coming up with a list of neutral terms. Spanish seems to be making up for lost time when it comes to new meanings added to existing words. We have "madre biológica" which is a type of mother, i.e. the one who actually gave birth to the child as opposed to, I imagine, mothers who don't give birth to a child.<BR><BR><B><I>Claire Bowern <bowern@rice.edu></I></B> escribió:</div> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px
solid"><!-- Network content --> <DIV id=ygrp-text> <div><BR>> A more important question is whether such redefinitions of “marriage†(in<BR>> this case “husbandâ€), which I reject from my Christian convictions, will<BR>> ever enter the law (marital law) and the dictionary.<BR><BR>This has come up a lot in the US over the last few years, with laws <BR>seeking to *define* marriage as between one man and one woman (the <BR>phrasing is one I'm reproducing from memory, but it's almost always <BR>framed that way). There was a vote in Texas within the last year that <BR>wrote this definition of marriage into the Texas constitution. These <BR>debates have, for the most part, been based on the
assumption that the <BR>legal and lexicographic definitions of marriage are the same, and that <BR>the issue is simply one of morals (which it isn't, by any means). There <BR>was a post or two on Language Log (www.languagelog.<WBR>org) about the <BR>wording of the legislation and semantics.<BR><BR>Incidentally, I got married in Cambridge, Massachusetts shortly after <BR>the legislation allowing same sex marriages was passed. Some of the many <BR>forms we filled out at the council office had "Party A" and "Party B" <BR>where "husband" and "wife" had been, while at least one had "husband" <BR>and "wife" crossed out and Party A/B substituted.<BR><BR>Claire<BR></div></DIV><!--End group email --></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><p>
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