Category: Language

Terror? Murder? As the Dead Mount, a Debate Persists

December 3, 2015

“Is it terrorism when a gunman sprays bullets in an elementary school or an African-American church or a Planned Parenthood clinic? What about at an office holiday party? Does an attack on a military recruitment center automatically qualify? What if a suspect is an American Muslim? Does he or she have ties to designated terrorist groups or are assumptions being made based on religion, even without firm evidence?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/us/terrorism-debate-san-bernardino-shooting.html

The curious grammar of police shootings

November 18, 2015

You’ll often see a similar grammatical device when a police officer shoots someone. Communications officers at policy agenies are deft at contorting the English language to minimize culpability of an officer or of the agency. So instead of  . . .

. . . Mayberry Dep. Barney Fife shot and killed a burglary suspect last night . . .

You’ll see . . .

 . . . last night, a burglary suspect was shot and killed in an officer-involved shooting.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/07/14/the-curious-grammar-of-police-shootings/

Paris, Beirut, and the Language Used to Describe Terrorism

November 18, 2015

“Not all media coverage is created equal, and sometimes the difference is in a few words.”

“As in Paris, the attacks in Beirut were the deadliest in decades, committed by the same medieval perpetrators from outside. And yet major American and European media outlets did not treat the two incidents similarly, which in turn, I suspect, contributed to an environment in which terror in Paris spurred Facebook to action in a way bloodshed in Beirut didn’t.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/11/paris-beirut-media-coverage/416457/

How Texas Teaches History

October 21, 2015

An interesting article on a familiar topic but this article delves into the use of language to obfuscate historical truth. Below is a passage from the article about some of the phrasing from a textbook commonly used in Texas.

Families were often broken apart when a family member was sold to another owner.

“Note the use of the passive voice in the verbs ‘were broken apart’ and ‘was sold.’ If the sentence had been written according to the principles of good draftsmanship, it would have looked like this: Slave owners often broke slave families apart by selling a family member to another owner. A bit more powerful, no? Through grammatical manipulation, the textbook authors obscure the role of slave owners in the institution of slavery.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/opinion/how-texas-teaches-history.html?_r=0

How To Say “This Is Crap” In Different Cultures

October 20, 2015

“Managers in different parts of the world are conditioned to give feedback in drastically different ways. The Chinese manager learns never to criticize a colleague openly or in front of others, while the Dutch manager learns always to be honest and to give the message straight. Americans are trained to wrap positive messages around negative ones, while the French are trained to criticize passionately and provide positive feedback sparingly.”

https://hbr.org/2014/02/how-to-say-this-is-crap-in-different-cultures/

The Killing of Osama bin Laden

October 20, 2015

This was a really interesting article about the story about Osama bin Laden’s death. This investigative piece contradicts the “official” government account of the events and paints a very troubling picture of how the events unfolded and were subsequently reported on.

This story raises interesting questions about how history is written. What actually happened here? Can we ever really know? Whose accounts and reporting can we trust?

With regards to ethics…was this killing ethical? Was the subsequent potential cover up ethical? What if it saved lives? Protected sources? How do we judge?

With regards to language…do we call this an assassination? A murder? Homicide? Or a justified killing in a larger war? What are the implications of each of these terms?

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden

Mark Zuckerberg and the End of Language

October 19, 2015

“These strategies for circumventing language are examples of what the philosopher Slavoj Zizek has called the ‘crisis of symbolic efficiency.’ Somehow, words no longer seem trustworthy or adequate as ways of representing experience. They don’t grasp the truth firmly enough; they slip and slide around. Best to find some more reliable way of communicating  experiences between one brain to another.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/09/silicon-valley-telepathy-wearables/404641/?mc_cid=af192e18ce&mc_eid=34e2887073

How to speak without bias, according to the ‘Bias-Free Language Guide’

October 14, 2015

How does the language we choose affect the way things are perceived? When is it necessary for us to reevaluate the words and phrases we find acceptable as a society? What do the changes mentioned here actually accomplish?

Why would you want to change the word “rich” to the phrase, “people of means”? Does the shift in language more accurately describe a particular situation or reality? Does it simply shift words around without actually adding or accomplishing anything? Does the word “rich” have a negative connotation that you want to avoid?

This video would be funny if it were meant as a joke but this was a serious attempt at discussing the use of language. Looking at it in a TOK context is instructive and gives us a lot to consider.

“After attracting attention from conservative blogs last week, the University of New Hampshire has taken down its ‘Bias-Free Language Guide’ from its website.”

Publisher Promises Revisions After Textbook Refers to African Slaves as ‘Workers’

October 5, 2015

“It talked about the U.S.A. being a country of immigration, but mentioning the slave trade in terms of immigration was just off,” Ms. Dean-Burren said in an interview. “It’s that nuance of language.”

“This is what erasure looks like,” she added.

“This program addresses slavery in the world in several lessons and meets the learning objectives of the course. However, we conducted a close review of the content and agree that our language in that caption did not adequately convey that Africans were both forced into migration and to labor against their will as slaves.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/us/publisher-promises-revisions-after-textbook-refers-to-african-slaves-as-workers.html

What is phubbing, and it is ruining your relationships?

October 5, 2015

This is an interesting story for a few reasons. First, I always find it interesting when a new phenomenon requires the invention of new language. In this case, the word Phubbing is the synthesis of phone and snubbing to describe a phenomenon that didn’t require a word ten o fifty years ago because the thing didn’t exist.

This is also an interesting issue because it gives us some insight into contemporary problems in human behavior created by technological changes.

“According to new research, the act of phubbing, or phone snubbing, is a very real epidemic in the United States, and aside from being rude and inconsiderate, may also come with a few more insidious results.”

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/what-is-phubbing-and-is-it-ruining-your-relationships/