political correctness

[Svetlana Malykhina]

I am not quite sure that the topic is still relevant for the person who initiated this discussion, asking for some suggestions for a thesis, but I find the discussion on PC thoughtful and full of ideas, and have to admit it has helped me in my research. 
 
Dear John, thank you for your question. What I am posting is not a direct answer (which I don't have yet) but an input for this issue.
 
http://www-ki.rada.crimea.ua/nomera/2007/058/yazyk.html
 
I am sending out a link to a media report of the Constitution Act of  autonomous Republic of Crimea. Just in case if you lack of time to read the whole piece, I am giving a short summary. The local Constitution ensures the right to receive instruction in pre-school educational institutions in young students’ native language (presumably Ukrainian). The reporter, to my opinion, fairly enough, points out that collocation “native language” (“mother tongue”) is a descriptive label rather than a legislative term. 
The term "legitimate language" is a treacherous one. This brings up the whole topic of a complex and nuanced model of relations between Russian and Ukrainian languages in linguistically and culturally heterogeneous community, such as Crimea or Kharkiv, Donetsk etc. These areas have retained a strong local identity while are influenced but not dominated by either Russian imperial or Ukrainian national ideas.  
Another example, for which I didn't find quotes, but one can find quite a lot, is an application of terms/labels “majority” and “minority” in the documents on Russian and Ukrainian ethnic groups and their rights. The notion "identity" is also ambiguous and controversial one, since one can talk about national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural etc. Also, one of the issues to be addressed is how Ukrainian/Russian or those who speak both languages affirm their identity. I consider these examples as PC related.
Correct me if I am wrong. Thank you. 
As to the sexist language, I don't have enough material to make any assumptions.
 
 
 


      

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