politically sensitive labels

[Geoffrey Nunberg]

Two excellent sources for the origins and subsequent development of
'liberal', 'conservative', etc. are:

Ronald Rotunda, _The Politics of Language: Liberalism as Word and
Symbol_, U. of Iowa Press, 1986.

David Green, _The Language of Politics in America: Shaping Political
Consciousness from McKinley to Reagan_, Cornell, 1987. (This in
particular is an invaluable book for anybody interested in the
development of 20th c. political language in America.)

I had an article on the more recent (since 1970) uses of 'liberal' in
the American Prospect, 9/1/03; it's available online at

http://www.prospect.org/print/V14/8/nunberg-g.html


Geoff Nunberg

>My thanks to several contributors for helpful insights on the US use
>of "liberal" and other terms. My point was not, of course, that the
>US "has a monopoly on politically sensitive labels" - such a view
>would indeed be naive, but it's not what I wrote. I am interested in
>the uses of political-affective labels in the US in ways which differ
>from uses elsewhere and which aren't documented in lexicographic
>resources: for instance, James Laundau's observations on the decline
>/ shift of "progressive", or Laurence Horn's comments on who will
>associate themselves with "Conservative" and "Liberal". These can
>indeed be studied as factual matters, as Fred Shapiro notes of "civil
>liberties": a term which looks as if it has been picked up and given
>a new direction by a particular part of the political spectrum.
>
>I can't find any relevant entries in LLBA or other relevant
>bibloiographic databases. I'd be grateful for any bibliographic
>guidance.
>
>Roly Sussex
>
>--
>
>Roly Sussex
>Professor of Applied Language Studies
>Department of French, German, Russian, Spanish and Applied Linguistics
>School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies
>The University of Queensland
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>AUSTRALIA
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