University of New Hampshire's Bias-Free Language Guide

[Richard]

A work in progress - semantics noodling out loud at the university level.

Starting a Conversation about Word Choice

The following bias-free language guide is meant to serve as a starting point about terms related to age, race, class, ethnicity, nationality, gender, ability, sexual orientation and more. It is not meant to represent absolute requirements of language use but, rather, offer a way to encourage us to think critically and reflectively about the terms and phrases that many people use regularly in conversation and writing.

Our hope is to encourage thoughtful expression in terms that are sensitive to the diverse identities and experiences in our community. Language is an incredibly complex phenomenon that often reflects and affects our identities. There is wide diversity among us in usage and understanding of language based on our age, place of origin, culture and class, among other identities. This guide is not a means to censor but rather to create dialogues of inclusion where all of us feel comfortable and welcomed.

We invite your feedback, including suggestions, edits and additions. Thanks for reading and thanks for careful consideration when you speak.

And so it goes...

Richard

[PSM]

Originally Posted by Richard

A work in progress - semantics noodling out loud at the university level.



And so it goes...

Richard

And that's a good thing? Just how much taxpayer grant money goes towards "noodling" over thought control?

Pat

[Surf n Turf]

And you thought it was fiction
SnT

The Appendix of 1984 stands as Orwell’s explanation of New-speak, the official language of Oceania. Although Orwell felt that these ideas were too technical to completely integrate into the novel, they support the novel’s stance on language and thought in relation to the public’s acceptance of governmental control.
Newspeak is the official language of Oceania, scheduled for official adoption around 2050, and designed to make the ideological premises of Ingsoc (Newspeak for English Socialism, the Party’s official political alignment) the only expressible doctrine. Newspeak is engineered to remove even the possibility of rebellious thoughts—the words by which such thoughts might be articulated have been eliminated from the language. Newspeak contains no negative terms. For example, the only way to express the meaning of “bad” is through the word “ungood.” Something extremely bad is called “doubleplus ungood.”

Newspeak’s grammar is arranged so that any word can serve as any part of speech, and there are three different groups of vocabulary words. The A vocabulary contains everyday words and phrases, as Orwell says, “for such things as eating, drinking, working” and so on. In comparison with modern English, these words are fewer in number but more rigid in meaning. Newspeak leaves no room for nuance, or for degrees of meaning.

The B vocabulary of Newspeak contains all words with political or ideological significance, specially tailored to engender blind acceptance of the Party’s doctrines. For example, “goodthink” means roughly the same thing as “orthodoxy.” The B vocabulary consists entirely of compound words and often compresses words into smaller forms to achieve conceptual simplicity: the English phrase “Thought Police,” for instance, is compressed into “thinkpol”; “the Ministry of Love” becomes “miniluv.”

The C vocabulary encompasses words that relate specifically to science and to technical fields and disciplines. It is designed to ensure that technical knowledge remains segmented among many fields, so that no one individual can gain access to too much knowledge. In fact, there is no word for “science”; as Orwell writes, “Ingsoc” covers any meaning that such a concept could possibly have.

The particularities of Newspeak make it impossible to translate most older English (oldspeak) texts into the language; the introduction of the Declaration of Independence, for instance, can be translated only into a single word: crimethink. Furthermore, a great many technical manuals must be translated into Newspeak; it is this bulk of translation work that explains the Party’s decision to postpone the full adoption of Newspeak to 2050.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/1984/section11.rhtml

[Peregrino]

I think PSM and S&T have accurately interpreted the intent of the UNH tome.

“He who controls the language controls the masses”. – Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals

[Trapper John]

Originally Posted by Peregrino

I think PSM and S&T have accurately interpreted the intent of the UNH tome.

“He who controls the language controls the masses”. – Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals

Absolutely Correct! I keep hoping that I will awaken to realize this is all just a bad dream.

[Guy]

Send these so called African-American over to Africa for month...

SOBs will come back yelling: "I'M AMERICAN!!!!!!!!!"

[Box]

I found out that I am now able to hyphenate !!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, according to new political correctness guidelines...
...I am now a European-American


On a related note:
isn't it neat that the word, "non-hyphenated" has a hyphen
...the word "hyphenated" does not?

Sort of sets the stage for the spirit of hyphenated-aMEricans

[SF_BHT]

Originally Posted by Guy

Send these so called African-American over to Africa for month...

SOBs will come back yelling: "I'M AMERICAN!!!!!!!!!"

You are so right!!!!!!

I refuse to use that term. If they call me white I will call them black.

We are all supposed to be Americans..... No need for color labeles.

I am just stupid as I try to look at people as the same until they show that they are pieces of shit then they get a label......

[Box]

So would it be bad to call someone a fat, old, lazy, crippled, gender confused, gay, homeless person?

...just curious

[Trapper John]

Originally Posted by Billy L-bach

So would it be bad to call someone a fat, old, lazy, crippled, gender confused, gay, homeless person?

...just curious

Well, until you got to the homeless part I thought you'd just call 'em Hillary!

[SPEC4]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

How about me. I am tired of being called a Hillbilly, I prefer the term Apppalation

I had a 6th Group teammate from West Virginia, educated to a GED , he preferred
"Mountain William"

[Hand]

[QUOTE=SPEC4;589143]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

How about me. I am tired of being called a Hillbilly, I prefer the term Apppalation

I had a 6th Group teammate from West Virginia, educated to a GED , he preferred
"Mountain William"

In today's world, educated TO a GED no longer applies...

A delighted House Education Chairman Brooks Coleman, R-Duluth will be on hand at noon today when Gov. Nathan Deal signs House Bill 91, which retroactively grants high school diplomas to an estimated 9,000 Georgians who did not earn one because they failed a portion of the now discarded Georgia High School Graduation Test.
The House Ed Committee allowed ex members to vote on a critical measure this week.

Today, the governor signs a bill enabling 9,000 Georgians to qualify for their high school diplomas.

Coleman sponsored HB 91 bill, saying it would be the most important piece of legislation his committee passed this year.

The test dates to 1991, when the Legislature voted to phase in an exit exam that would put some teeth into the rising rhetoric of holding students accountable for basic academic achievement. But the exam was eventually deemed inadequate and was replaced by the End of Course Test (which is being replaced this year by Georgia Milestones).

There was also doubt the test meant anything in terms of what students learned or didn’t learn in high school.

I guess today, if you feel like you earned something, it should be given to you.

[Sigaba]

FWIW, the bias free language guide referenced in the OP seems to have disappeared from the UNH website.

MOO, the discussion of the guide in this thread represents the types of lost opportunities that are occurring with increasing frequency in circles frequented by the American political right.

Specifically, IRT the passage quoted in post #2, above.

Our hope is to encourage thoughtful expression in terms that are sensitive to the diverse identities and experiences in our community. Language is an incredibly complex phenomenon that often reflects and affects our identities. There is wide diversity among us in usage and understanding of language based on our age, place of origin, culture and class, among other identities. This guide is not a means to censor but rather to create dialogues of inclusion where all of us feel comfortable and welcomed.

IMO, the passage is an invitation to all Americans to reflect upon how language is used to marginalize groups whose lives and careers afford them sensibilities and mindsets that are outside of more common/shared experiences.

Americans have a centuries' old tradition of marginalizing economically, socially, culturally, and politically members of the armed services following wars--especially ones that were unpopular and costly. In the face of unremitting vitriol that is exemplified by many comments in this thread toward "diverse identities and experiences," will more civilians be motivated to take a more thoughtful approach to the ways they write, talk, read, and think about members of the armed forces and veterans?