[Lingtyp] Pronouns, politeness, political correctness

Wed May 10 14:18:18 UTC 2023

Dear Christian – I should preface this by saying that I don’t know what caused your request for people to refrain from asking to be addressed with their pronouns of choice. It’s very possible that I’m once again missing some earlier parts of this thread. I tried to recover all parts of it that had ended up in my spam folder, but it is entirely possible that I missed something and as result am misunderstanding your request.

With that said:

You can choose to look upon this matter as an instance of political correctness, but might I suggest that there is another aspect to it: simple politeness.

Suppose somebody insists in calling/addressing you (as) Chris. You find this obnoxious and ask them to stop. They ignore you and continue calling you Chris.

Would you not agree that this behavior is simply rude? I definitely would.

Now the policy you are suggesting, if I understand correctly, would amount to asking people to refrain from even publicly objecting to being addressed in a rude manner. So anybody who feels offended by how they are being addressed or referred to should just either “suck it up” or leave this board?

Apparently, you believe that it is more constructive to not call out rude behavior and (allow people to) quietly suffer it.

I on the other hand feel that it would be more constructive if everybody tried to refrain from being rude. If people are apparently being rude without realizing it, respectfully point it out to them. And if they still insist in their rude behavior even after it has been pointed out to them, call them out for it.

So it seems we have different views of how to best maintain politeness in public forums.

Best – Juergen

Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)
Professor, Department of Linguistics
University at Buffalo

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From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Christian Lehmann <christian.lehmann at uni-erfurt.de>
Date: Wednesday, May 10, 2023 at 3:20 AM
To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] what is designated by a complement clause
Am 10.05.23 um 09:01 schrieb Sebastian Nordhoff:
On 5/10/23 08:22, Christian Lehmann wrote:

In order to keep the constructive atmosphere in  which our communication takes place and which is a presupposition for the success of this list , I would request that everybody abstain from insisting on political correctness.

some people might have a communication preference to not be referred to by "he".
You have a preference of not being reminded of these preferences of theirs (unless I have misread your message).

Since you request that other people adapt to your preferences,
No, this is not what I request. I request that nobody should insist that others adapt to his preferences, in this and in similar respects.

Best wishes,
Christian
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Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
Rudolfstr. 4
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christianw_lehmann at arcor.de<mailto:christianw_lehmann at arcor.de>
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https://www.christianlehmann.eu<https://www.christianlehmann.eu/>

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