“Political Correctness” Implication in Addressing Translation

Abstract:In America， the 1960s’ Civil Rights Movement brought forth a new trend of thought: Political Correctness (PC). The use of PC language is far beyond a single linguistic matter. This paper explores the implication on translation transition in addressing from the semantic perspective and Systemic Functional Linguistics， and finds out the significant cause-that is， the principle of PC pushing behind.

Keywords:political correctness translation transition addressing

1 Introduction

In recent two decades， changes occurred to certain addressing， for instance， physically challenged was replaced by the handicapped/ the disabled; mentally challenged by the lunatic/ the insane; financially challenged by the deprived/ the less well off; visually challenged by the blind; follically challenged by the bald; and those offensive language such as Oriental， Asiatic， Chinks， Kikes， Dagos， Polack， Jap were also replaced by Asian， Chinese American， Jewish American， Italian American， Polish American， and Japanese American.

Why did such changes happen? This paper， selecting one pair out of those addressing-physically challenged vs. the disabled， traces the fact from perspectives of Semantics and .

2 Discussion

2.1From Semantic Perspective

According to G. Leech in his Semantics， “It is “denotative\" in that it is concerned with the relationship between a word and the thing it refers to. Philosophers use connotation， opposite to denotation， to mean the properties of the entity a word denotes. And affective meaning is what is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker/ writer.\"

As explained in Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary (Extended Fourth Edition)， the term \"disabled\" in its denotative meaning， means \"unable to do something， esp. by making a limb or limbs useless\"/ \"suffering from a serious physical or mental disability\". Meanwhile， its connotative meaning conveys the fact that this kind of people are already not able to do something， esp. the kinds of things which should be done/ made by a limb， and they have already lost the ability desperately. As this connotation conveys some kind of \"not able\" it totally desperate the dream of \"able\" without care and consideration of the feelings of the target person it refers to， and this will affect the affection of the person involved. From the affective angle， the speaker/ writer can be assumed to be very passionless and objective to the target person this term refers to， and seems to have less sympathy. While the word challenge， in denotation， means \"test the ability of (sb); stimulate\" so that \"the physically challenged\" refers to the kind of people who are tested or stimulated in physical. The connotation of it conveys that the person involved is just demanded or tested by physical capability， but not received the ruthless verdict of “not able” and this， to large extent， offers a sort of comfort and consideration to the target person it refers to. From the affective angle， this type of addressing is more humane， with more sympathy to people’s feeling.

2.2 From Systemic Functional Linguistics Perspective

In Systemic Functional Linguistics， \"tenor refers to the participants in a discourse， their relationships to each other， and their purposes. Field refers to the subject matter or content being discussed.\"

From the tenor and field angle， we could observe the fact that in public speaking， if the politician or public speaker addressed some of the audience he/she is speaking to， as \"the physically challenged\" instead of \"those disabled\" it would possibly gain great amities by this kind of remarks， for he/she treats the people as he/she would treat his/her family， and more importantly， this would reduce the political bias and attain friendly relationship among all races of people.

Based on the discussion above， it is very easy to find out that the physically challenged' addressing is more sensitive than the disabled'， and it can acquire more common ground with the target readers/hearers， thus much more reduces the political prejudice and isolation， just because it sounds more sympathetic， more humane and friendly.

3 Conclusion

Such translation transitions in addressing discussed above does reflect the imperceptible changes of social awareness， and this trend of addressing could be concluded as political correctness， aiming at acquiring equal rights and freedom in ways of politics， culture and religion， against hegemony and racial discrimination and gender bias . Also， in cultural sense， it could be referred as cultural sensitivity-the ability to correctly understand， respect and successfully deal with the people of other cultures.

PC in American English shows people withdraw from various kinds of language discriminations. The use of politically correct language is far beyond a single linguistic matter， but influenced by the right of free speech and the times. It is also the reflection in language of American conception “Live and let live”.

References:

[1]Leech， G. 1981[1974] Semantics: The Study of Meaning， 2nd edn. Harmondsworth: Penguiin.1981.

[2]Tenor (linguistics) From Wikipedia，the free encyclopedia. 2009-4-25.

[3]肖安法.政治上正確的語言[J].四川教育學院院報，2007，(5):91-94.