[Lexicog] stereotypical beliefs and lexicography

[Fritz Goerling]

MensagemOlá, Margarita,

Like you I do not consider the examples I mentioned as "sexist".  But some
groups have a problem
with terms including the word/syllable "man" in the English language and
consider the use of e.g.
"mankind" instead of "humankind" as "sexist." Well, some salute the flag of
inclusive language, others
don't.
You seem to have a healthy self-esteem as a Portuguese, like many Austrians
I know who even get a kick
out of the many jokes the Bavarians (from my part of Germany) tell about
them. I think we all know
and feel when a joke is good-natured teasing or a nasty put-down.
At one time, two of the most insulting terms that could be used against  a
person were nigger and kike.

Those who once bore the brunt of the aforementioned insults have all the
right to label those who hurl

them as racist and anti-semitic.

Tchau,

Fritz




  You focus one point I would like to have expressed before and that only my
deficient English expression prevented me for doing.

  I don't consider expressions as the one you mention being strictly sexist.
They are facts of the language. When I talked about sexist expressions, I
was thinking about things like "sexo fraco / sexo forte" to refer to,
respectively, female and male people.
  I also do not consider that saying from something "It's Greek to me" is
offensive to the Greek people: I can argue that if they do difficukt things,
it's because they are intelligent, more intelligent than we are.
  I also don't feel offended by expressions about Portuguese people like the
French "Les portugais sont toujours gais", or by the many jokes Brazilian
tell about us.
  Of course I consider offensive expressions about Jews (we also have them
in Portuguese!) or about Black (we have many of them!), because they attempt
against human basic principles, like freedom, honesty, etc., and they remind
us historical facts which are shamefull (like slavery, expulsion of Jews
from Portugal during the 16th century, nazism, etc.).

  But of course these are all very personnal ways of seeing things, they
vary across cultures, they vary with time, social class, etc.
  This is why I previously said that, as a lexicographer, I don't feel apt
to decide alone what is or is not correct in the society I live in.

  Margarita
    -----Mensagem original-----
    De: Fritz Goerling [mailto:Fritz_Goerling at sil.org]
    Enviada: terça-feira, 22 de Fevereiro de 2005 20:19
    Para: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
    Assunto: RE: [Lexicog] stereotypical beliefs and lexicography


    Could 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






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