[Lexicog] Mother (was: First Lady)

[Michael Nicholas]

Dear Fritz,
   I think the problem is one of a basic word - mother. Any differences, like foster, step etc are tagged on to the word in English. What is happening here is that the word itself is nowmodified by "biological" and thus it is not the base word just another variant. It is rather like a company that manufactures plastic trees talking about plastic tress and wooden trees. !
  Michael

Fritz Goerling <Fritz_Goerling at sil.org> escribió:
              Michael,
  
  I am interested in the question to what extent language shapes (our perception of) society or the other way round. That is the old Sapir-Whorff hypothesis. I agree with the word “to shape”, but would reject a stronger word like “to determine.” How far can language- engineering go, what power do dictionary-makers or politicians have to impose language use?
  
  Your example of “madre biológica” makes me think about what is a prototypical “mother.”
  What is evoked in our mind by the stimulus “mother?” I think it is universally valid that the mother is sacred. From the religious point of view, Jews, Christians and Muslims might think of “Eve”? For some it is “Mary”? Adherents of non-monotheistic faiths or atheists might have other ideas of an Über-mother.
  If we associate ideas of “caring, nurturing” with a mother, than a caring female foster parent deserves more to be called “mother” than an uncaring, callous “biological mother.”
  In German we call such a cruel mother “Rabenmutter” (raven mother). Bert Brecht, the German playwright wrote a play entitled “Mutter Courage”, the model of a very committed, courageous woman. A great motherly type of woman might be called the “mother of the nation.” Why can one say in English “mother church” but not “she mothered a movement?”
  Why do we say in German “Muttersprache” (mother tongue) but not “Mutterland” (we say “Vaterland” = fatherland)? 
  What uses of “mother” have to go into a contemporary dictionary which claims to reflect usage? “Fatherhood” and “motherhood” (and other traditional family terms like “husband” which we discussed already) are being redefined in certain circles. Will these redefinitions make it into a dictionary of general usage or rather be found in a “politically correct” dictionary which, when the political climate changes, will be a thing of the past?
  
  Fritz Goerling
  
          Michael Nicholas wrote
  




     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.




  

         

 		
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