[Lexicog] stereotypical beliefs and lexicography

[Fritz Goerling]

MensagemCould you conceive of marking certain words as "sexist" in a general
dictionary which are considered as "sexist"
by certain people, like:

mankind, man-made, manpower, manslaughter, manhole

Fritz Goerling





  I can add a story in a different direction.
  When I worked in Tetum-Portuguese dictionary with Luís Costa, (Tetum is
the vehicular language spoken in East-Timor) we decided to include unpolite
names of sex organs and corporal functions, as we thought that it could be
usefull for instance for Portuguese doctors to communicate with their
pacients. However, all those entries were marked as unspite and they only
contained a remission to the polite equivalent term.
  It's worth saying that the dictionary was mostly thought of as a way of
preserving East-Timor culture (it was started long before the process of
independence, in 1995) and, if the independence of the country ever
occurred, as a way to promote cooperation with Portugal.
  Well, I can tell you that, in spite of the way we treated those terms, our
iniciative was very criticized in East-Timorese society, specially within
Church members, who considered very shocking to see such words in the
dictionary.

  Margarita
    -----Mensagem original-----
    De: Chaz and Helga Mortensen [mailto:chaz_mortensen at sil.org]
    Enviada: terça-feira, 22 de Fevereiro de 2005 17:23
    Para: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
    Assunto: Re: [Lexicog] stereotypical beliefs and lexicography


    Friends,

    In regard to Wayne's comment below and to Margarita's experience with
the journalist, I would have to agree. I went through the same questions in
regard to sex organs and related vocabulary. I asked a N. Embera pastor if
these should be included in a dictionary and he, without hesitating, said,
"Yes, because we need to know all the words in our language."

    -Chaz

    On Feb 22, 2005, at 11:21 AM, Wayne Leman wrote:


      Where do we draw the line, Fritz? My own thinking on the matter is
that we do not draw the line. My preference for lexicography is to be
exhaustive, and I prefer that for dictionaries also. But I believe we can
mark rascist entries as being rascist, vulgar entries as vulgar, xenophobic
entries as xenophobic, etc. If a term or phrase is used in a rascist manner
by speakers of a language, that fact is part of its lexical information and
deserves to be in a dictionary.

      Wayne
      -----
      Wayne Leman
      http://committed.to/fieldtesting
      Wayne and Thapelo,

      Where do we draw the line? If we have a politically correct
dictionary,
      certain entries will be marked sexist, racist, or homophobic or not
even
      be mentioned. Of course, there are dictionaries of certain
subcultures,



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