[Lingtyp] Pronouns, politeness, political correctness

[Christian Lehmann]

Dear colleagues,

I should, first of all, say that it was not my intention to start a 
discussion on political correctness on this forum. On the one hand, it 
is pretty clear that, among all genuinely linguistic issues, this is the 
one which engages most people emotionally, which  means that a rational 
and constructive discussion is very hard to conduct. On the other, one 
may ask why this would be an appropriate topic for LingTyp. So, to 
repeat, the only thing that I requested was that people refrain from 
criticizing or commenting on other people's usage if political 
correctness is at stake. It seems that nobody among those who have taken 
up the topic is really against this request.

This being said, it seems also clear that the issue involves a number of 
problems that are of linguistic interest (although not necessarily of 
typological interest). One is the question brought up by Maïa: Do we 
have a right to determine our name? And further: Do we have a right to 
determine how our people (our ethnos), town and our country are called? 
(Remember that political correctness has often required speakers to 
stick to the most recent redenomination realized by locals.)

Another is the question of politeness brought up by Jürgen: If I use an 
expression that some people find politically incorrect, at the same time 
sincerely and  credibly assuring interlocutors that I mean no harm (and 
if required, distancing myself explicitly from pejorative or otherwise 
negative connotations that some people associate with it), is it then me 
who is impolite or is it those people who insist that I speak otherwise?

Again, these are issues of pragmatics rather than typology. But we 
typologists are not really that narrow-minded; so if people want to take 
it up, go ahead.

Best,
Christian
-- 

Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
Rudolfstr. 4
99092 Erfurt
Deutschland

Tel.: 	+49/361/2113417
E-Post: 	christianw_lehmann at arcor.de
Web: 	https://www.christianlehmann.eu
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