POLITICAL CORRECTNESS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF USED TERMINOLOGY IN THE ASPECT OF GENDER LINGUISTICS

ABSTRACT

The article discusses the specifics of the formation and use of terms (feminitives) in the aspect of polycorrectness, in order to avoid manifestations of discrimination and verbal abuse. The author highlights the analysis of the politically correct vocabulary regarding women in modern English and Russian. Today, the 21st century is so closely involved in the topic of gender studies. That elevates him on the world stage. Gender linguistics is engaged in similar researches. The subject of study of gender linguistics is the speech behavior of a person, depending on whether he belongs to the male or female sex, the presence of gender asymmetry and the category of gender in the language. A central concept in gender studies is that it is not the physical or biological differences between men and women that are important, but the social and cultural significance society attaches to these differences.

Keywords: «political correctness, feminism, feminitives, discrimination, gender, language, terminology».

Introduction

Such an understanding as feminist linguistics or language criticism took its beginning in the middle of the twentieth century as a new direction in the middle. The word "feminism" comes from the Latin word "femina", which translates as "woman". The term "feminism" itself is used to describe the cultural, political and economic movement aimed at ensuring equal rights for both sexes.[1]

Since the late 1980s, feminist movements have shown that talking about "women" and "men" in idiosyncratic, generalizing terms is already problematic. Gender as a category intersects and permeates other categories of social identity such as sexuality, ethnicity, social position and geography.

What does feminist linguistics set for itself:

1) the main object of research is the linguistic behavior of men and women,

2) an uneven representation of persons of different sexes in the language is considered a manifestation of sexism;

3) one of the main goals of feminism is to achieve linguistic equality.

Highlighting the main tasks of feminist linguistics emphasized the importance of the linguistic aspect in political correctness.

Political correctness is a term for language practices designed not to offend or otherwise embarrass vulnerable groups of people (national minorities, LGBT people, people with disabilities, and so on).[2]

Political correctness is a phenomenon that appeared in the United States almost simultaneously with the new women's movement.

Political correctness affects almost all areas of our life, and sometimes without noticing it, we use the terminology of this rich separately existing language. You can talk about racial, gender or political correctness. So, for example, N. Tolstoy in his article "Political Correctness" indicates that they did not want to publish it in one of the American publications for using A. S. Pushkin's quote «Потомок негров безобразный»- «The ugly descendant of blacks».[3]

It has long been known that language and culture are two closely interrelated aspects in any of its manifestations. The ongoing changes in culture have a direct impact on its language. Today, one of the most widely used languages in the world is undoubtedly English, the reason for this is the very changes in the public sphere of society.

As the Russian linguist S.G. Terminasova mentioned, “The political correctness of the language can be expressed in the desire to find new appropriate language expressions in order to replace those already existing expressions that can hurt the dignity, feelings of a person, thereby infringing on his human rights with straightforwardness in relation to gender or race, social status or appearance. "[4]. Also S.G. Terminasova advises to replace the term "political correctness" with "linguistic tact". Since, he believes that the presence of the word "political" can show insincerity, in the choice of words for political reasons. After all, this should first of all personify the desire to show concern for human feelings, the desire for tact and a good attitude towards others.

L. V. Tsurikova gives the concept of political correctness as “a behavioral and linguistic phenomenon that reflects the desire of native speakers to overcome the discrimination existing in society and perceived by society against various members of this society” [5].

Based on the above analyzes, we can conclude that politically correct vocabulary can be divided into:

• politically correct language regarding racial and ethnic minorities;

• politically correct language about women;

• politically correct vocabulary in relation to socially vulnerable groups of the population.

It is worth noting that feminist movements from the historical period to this day have won and continue to win major victories at different levels of the language and in almost all varieties of English, starting with American, which is why gender-neutral vocabulary has become so widespread in society. This wave is also reflected in the Russian language.

The study of newspaper and magazine articles reveals the most common innovations in the English language, proposed by supporters of feminist ideology and the political correctness movement. Such designations of a person and humanity as a whole are widely used, such as human/human being and humankind/humanity.

For example:

• «A five-year project to reconstruct a genealogy of the world's populations and the migration paths of early humans from their ancestral homeland in Africa will be started today by the National Geographic Society and I.B.M., the society said in a statement»;
• «The philosophy of human rights addresses questions about the existence, content, nature, universality, justification, and legal status of human rights» ;
• «When he arrived in Haiti, four people who say they were victimized by his regime promptly filed legal complaints charging him with crimes against humanity»).

If we consider options for gender-based politically correct euphemisms with the addition of feminine affixes.

Euphemisms - (from the Greek ἐυφήμη “gloriousness” ← other Greek εὖ “good” + φήμη “speech, rumor”) is a word or a descriptive expression that is neutral in meaning and emotional “load”, usually used in texts and public statements for replacement of other words and expressions considered indecent or inappropriate. In politics, euphemisms are often used to soften certain words and expressions in order to mislead the public and falsify reality. For example, the use of the expression "interrogation with passion" instead of the word "torture", "action" among the Nazis for the veiled name of mass executions, etc. [6]

More often in English, feminitives are formed in two ways:

• By adding a suffix to a noun

• Replacement of the suffix denoting belonging to the masculine gender.

1. -ess ( waiter – waitress, founder – foundress, host – hostess, count – countess, ambassador – ambassadress, benefactor – benefactress, hunter – huntress, poet – poetess, actor – actress);
2. -ine/ina (chorist – chorine, tsar – tsarina, signor – signorina, ballet-master –balerina);
3. -ette (suffragist – suffragette, bachelor – bachelorette, pedagogue – pedagoguette, poet – poetette, usher – usherette, brunet – brunette, astronaut – astronette, cosmonaut – cosmonette).

The formation and functioning of feminitives is closely related to the phenomenon of linguistic political correctness in relation to the use of gender words, in particular, especially the names of professions, problems of word formation and intercultural differences in the use of gender-neutral words.[7]

The formation of paired feminitives in languages ​​is provided by various linguistic means:

1) the presence of word-formation types with the meaning of femininity in the field of formation of nouns, i.e. words with the meaning of a female person, motivated by masculine nouns with the meaning of a person (учитель – учительница, steward - stewardess);

2) the formation of complex words (медсестра, медбрат, chairman, chairwoman);

3) the use of phrases (женщина-врач, woman worker)

Changes have also been made to the various names of professions and

posts containing the "sexist" suffix "man". In English, such lexemes as businesswoman/businessperson/businesspeople, congresswoman/congresspeople, spokeswoman/spokesperson/spokespeople, chairwoman/chairperson/chairpeople have become widespread. For example:

• «This places Kathleen Tattersall, the chairwoman of Oqual, the new independent body that is in charge of maintaining the standards of England’s examination, assessment and qualification system, in the position of both cheerleader and potential critic»;
• « US Congresswoman Scanlon Carjacked at Gunpoint After Meeting in Philadelphia - Statement »;
• « Russian FM Spokeswoman Zakharova Reveals Things She Can't Do Without in Her Work ».

Conclusion

The above lexical units are widely used not only in newspapers and magazines, but also in colloquial speech and literary works.

The appearance of feminitives became a logical step in the linguistic evolution of man, and all experiments to create politically correct terminology turned out to be equally successful.

The similarity is due to linguistic factors - the possibilities of the two language systems in the formation of feminitives and gender-neutral words in various ways (suffix, word formation and the use of word combinations). The English language strives for political correctness and the use of gender-neutral words, this is due to the social ideology of equality that has developed in English-speaking societies. The prevailing ideology and moral norms have led to the fact that they have become the basis for the formation of the language policy of states.[8]

Today, in the modern Russian language, the use of a variety of feminism is becoming noticeable, and even if this is still at the level of a trend, with the help of the media and other communications, the level of use of feminitives can be raised to the required level, and then can be introduced into the language norm.

Reference:

1. Боженкова Н. А., Черкашин А. Н. Проблема образования феминитивов в русском и английском языках // Актуальные вопросы изучения мировой культуры в контексте диалога цивилизаций: Россия – Запад – Восток: мат-лы Междунар. науч.-практич. Конф. «Славянская культура: истоки, традиции, взаимодействие. XVIII Кирилло-Мефодиевские чтения». Ярославль: Ремдер, 2017. С. 163-167.
2. Вязовцева, В. В. Проблемы политкорректности и феминизма в современной культуре / В. В. Вязовцева. — Текст : непосредственный // Молодой ученый. — 2020. — № 50 (340). — С. 561-562./ https://moluch.ru/archive/340/76340/, 15.11.2022- (дата обращения: 14.11.2022).
3. Глинская М.Д. Особенности употребления политически корректной лексики в отношении женщин в современном английском языке./ https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/osobennosti-upotrebleniya-politicheski - (дата обращения: 15.11.2022).
4. Терминасова С. Г. Язык и межкультурная коммуникация//Учеб. пособие. -М.: Слово/SLOVO, 2000. - 624 с.
5. Цурикова, Л. В. Политическая корректность как социокультурный и прагмалингвистический феномен : коллектив. моногр. / Л. В. Цурикова ; под общ. ред. Л. И. Гришаевой. - Воронеж : [б. и.], 2001.- С. 94-103.
6. 'Politically correct' definition. Кембриджский словарь./ https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki- (дата обращения: 14.11.2022).
7. "Euphemism". Webster's Online Dictionary. Archived from the original on 2007-07-28./ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism-(дата обращения 14.11.2022).
8. COCA. Corpus of Contemporary American English./ http://corpus.byu.edu/coca - (дата обращения 13.11.2022).