This document discusses language, power, and political correctness. It examines issues with imprecise language like vague, overgeneral, and ambiguous terms that can lead to misunderstandings or disputes. Different types of definitions are outlined, including stipulative, persuasive, lexical, and precising definitions. Strategies for constructing good lexical definitions are provided. The document also discusses emotive language, euphemisms, and political correctness.

1. Linguistics 21:
Lecture 5: LANGUAGE, POWER, AND
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

2. What’s wrong with this?
1. No cruising on this street.
2. Headline: Need Plain Clothes Security: Must
have Shoplifting Experience
3. Weather forecast: Cloudy with a chance of rain.
4. Headline: Advice to Teachers and Parents on
Drugs
5. He ate his cheesecake with relish.
6. Sign: Dogs must be carried on escalator.

3. Precision:
• To communicate clearly
• To defend one’s claims without room for
confusion or misinterpretation
• To assess the truth of premises presented to
us in the arguments of others

4. Imprecise Language
• Vague – Vague words have meanings that are fuzzy
and inexact, and thus have debatable applications.
• Overgeneral – Overgenerality occurs when language
is too broad and unspecific.
• Ambiguous – Ambiguity involves words (‘semantic
ambiguity’) or sentences (‘syntactic ambiguity’) that
have two or more distinct meanings in a particular
context.

5. Vague? Overgeneral? Ambiguous?
7. With her enormous bottom exposed to the sky,
Ellen watched Titanic slowly sink.
8. Bob told Devlin he was hot.
9. Headline: Former Concentration Camp Guard
Helps Burn Victims
10. 3 + 5 x 3 = ?
11. Headline: British Left Waffles on Falkland
Islands.
12. She cannot bear children.

6. Vague? Overgeneral? Ambiguous?
13. Politician: We need a tax code that is fair to working
families. I intend to introduce appropriate legislation
that achieves this end.
13. Parent: Where are you going?
Kid: Out.
Parent: When will you be back?
Kid: Later.

7. Vague? Overgeneral? Ambiguous?
13. Headline: Teacher Strikes Idle Kids
14. Cricket rule: It is unfair for any member of
the fielding side to waste time.
15. Headline: Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian
Takes Over
16. Never withhold herpes infection from a
loved one.

8. DISPUTES
• Verbal dispute: occurs when people appear
to disagree on an issue but actually have
simply not resolved the ambiguity of a key
term.
• Factual dispute: occurs when opponents
disagree not over the meanings of words but
over the relevant facts.

9. Verbal Dispute or Factual Dispute?
1. Tracy: Sue is really religious. She reads her Bible and
prays every day.
Mark: She isn’t religious, She never goes to church.
2. Paul: This is a maple tree. I know because it’s just like
the one in my backyard.
Amy: Bull! Maple trees don’t have acorns!
3. Mike: We better leave now. Coach said the game
starts at 1:00.
Linda: We have plenty of time. The game starts at 4:00.

10. Verbal Dispute or Factual Dispute?
4. Prosecutor: The defendant was neither legally
insane nor coerced when he shot Frank Smith,
mistaking him for a porcupine. Thus, the defendant
acted freely.
Defense attorney: Your honor, my client shot
Frank Smith accidentally, not intentionally. So my
client did not act freely.
5. Ben: Ty Cobb has the highest single-season
batting average -- .420.
Ned: Wrong as usual, sports fan. Rogers Hornsby
hit .424 one year.

11. TYPES OF DEFINITIONS
• Stipulative Definition – definition that articulates
what it is you mean
–Buddy-dumped means dropped from a
person’s Facebook Friends List.
• Persuasive Definition – definition meant to
persuade, often slanted
–Tic-tac-toe means a mindless game for bored
children.

12. TYPES OF DEFINITIONS
• Lexical Definition – definition of the way the term is
standardly used in the language.
– Pastel means a color having a soft, subdued
shade.
• Precising Definition – definition to make a vague
word more precise
– Class participation means attending class,
listening attentively, asking and answering
questions and participating in class discussions
and activities.
NOTE: Most critical thinking contexts call for lexical
definitions!

13. Stipulative, Persuasive, Lexcial, Precising?
1. Funky two-step means the funny dance
Peppermint Patty does in the Charlie Brown
Christmas Special.
2. Oar means a stout pole, widened and flattened
at one end into a blade, used as a lever to propel
a boat.
3. Philosopher means a deluded dreamer who
spends his or her life attempting to answer
questions that can’t be answered.

14. Stipulative, Persuasive, Lexcial, Precising?
4. Litter-butt means a person who throws lighted
cigarette butts out car windows.
5. Affluent means, for purposes of this sociological
study, having an annual family income of
$250,000 or greater.
6. Labyrinth means an intricate structure of
intercommunicating passages, through which it
is difficult to find one’s way without a clue.
7. Democracy means rule by the ignorant masses.

15. Stipulative, Persuasive, Lexcial, Precising?
8. Circler means someone who spends an
inordinate amount of time circling parking lots,
looking for the closest possible parking place.
9. Chronically tardy means being late to class five
or more times in any quarter or three or more
times in any two-week period.
10. Garden means a plot of ground, usually near a
house, where flowers, vegetables, or herbs are
cultivated.

16. Stipulative, Persuasive, Lexcial, Precising?
11. Intoxicated, for purposes of driving a car in this
state, means having a blood alcohol ration of
0.08 or higher.
12. Chathead means a person who stays glued day
and night to Internet chat rooms.
13. Indolent means having or showing a disposition
to avoid exertion; lazy; slothful.
14. Republican Party means a political organizaton
of patriotic, civic-minded citizens dedicated to
preserving the cherished freedoms of all
Americans.

17. STRATEGIES FOR DEFINING
• Ostensive Definitions
– Chair means that.
• Enumerative Definitions
– River means the Mississippi, Thames, Nile, etc.
• Definitions by Subclass
– Poem means sonnet, limerick, haiku, epic, ode, etc.
• Etymological Definitions
– Automobile comes from the Greek auto and the French mobile.
• Synonymous Definitions
– Loquacious means talkative.
• Definitions by Genus and Difference
– Buck means a male deer.

18. WHICH STRATEGY?
a. Ostensive
b. Enumerative
c. Sub-class
d. Etymological
e. Synonymous
f. Genus and
Difference
1. Poet means a person like John
Keats, Ezra Pound or Ann Plath.
2. Sagacious means wise.
3. Moon means that. (pointing)
4. Beverage means a drinkable liquid.
5. Faith comes from the Latin verb
fidere, meaning ‘to trust.’
6. Bird means robin, cardinal,
sparrow, starling and the like.

19. Rules for Constructing Good Lexical Definitions
• Don’t make the definitions too broad or too narrow.
– Automobile means a vehicle with four wheels.
– Sibling means a brother.
• Convey the essential meaning of the word being defined.
– Horses are animals ridden by Napoleon at Waterloo.
• Provide a context for ambiguous words.
– A walk, in baseball, is a base on balls.
• Avoid slanted definitions.
– Universal health care means a socialist program of medical insurance for
everyone.
• Avoid figurative definitions.
– Advertising is legalized lying.
– Slot machine means a one-armed bandit.
• Avoid Needlessly obscure definitions.
– Mouse means a quadrupedal mammalian ….
• Avoid circular definitions.
– Gambler means a man who gambles.

20. DEFINITIONS
1) Romantic comedy
2) Tet
3) Poet
4) Mariachi
5) Fanatic
6) Super star
7) R and B
8) Advertising
9) Liberal
10) Racism

21. DEFINING KEY WORDS
1. You just caught your significant other carrying on a
sexually explicit dialogue with someone in an
electronic chat room. Has your significant other
‘cheated’ on you?
2. One of your professors thinks women are far superior
to men in every way – intellectually, morally,
emotionally, etc. Is your professor a ‘feminist’?
3. The cheerleaders at SJSU have petitioned to have
cheerleading listed as one of the school’s sports
teams. Is cheerleading a ‘sport’?

22. What’s Wrong?
a. Too broad
b. Too narrow
c. Lacking in
context
d. Figurative
e. Slanted
f. Obscure
g. Circular
1. Epistemology means the systematic
study of epistemological issues.
2. Lawyer means a scum-sucking scavenger
licensed to practice law.
3. Spouse means wife.
4. Guard means either of two players
stationed in the back court.
5. Architecture means frozen music.
6. Rectangle means a geometrical figure.
7. Deodorant means a preparation for
masking the malodorous secretions of
the apocrine sudoriferous glands.

23. What do these words mean?
• Agraffe (n.)
• Basorexia (n.)
• Bombilate (v.)
• Cachinnation (n.)
• Cruciverbalist
• Dentiloquent (adj.)
• Farctate (v.)
• Gambrinous (adj.)
• Gongoozler (n.)
• Jentacular (adj.)
• Lalochezia (n.)
• Mammothrept (n.)
• Misocapnist (n.)
• Nudiustertian (adj.)
• Pandiculate (v.)
• Pyknic (adj.)
• Qualtagh (n.)
• Runcation (n.)
• Sciapodous (adj.)
• Tasrantism (n.)

24. EMOTIVE LANGUAGE:
Slanting the Truth
• Denotation – literal meaning
• Connotation – the images and feelings that
are associated with the word
• Example: “Little Saigon”

25. Identify the Emotive Language:
1. From an ad for a home: Charming, cozy three-bedroom
Cape Cod in an older neighborhood, wall-to-wall
carpeting throughout, lower-level recreation room
opening onto large deck, modern kitchen, new roof,
garage, needs some tender loving care.
2. From a personal ad: DWF, mature, petite, attractive,
spiritual, intelligent business professional, occasional
drinker, enjoys quiet evenings, serious movies, and long
novels.

26. Euphemisms and Political Correctness
• Euphemism: mild, comforting, or evasive words that take
the place of harsh, blunt, or taboo words.
– Bodily functions: the facilities, restroom, ladies’ room,
powder room
– Firing: down-sizing, right-sizing, career transition
program, normal payroll adjustment, reducing
duplication, strengthening global effectiveness
– Jobs: custodial engineer, meat cutter, administrative
support coordinator, sales associate, customer service
representative
– Military: collateral damage, expendable resources, soft
targets, friendly fire, strategic redeployment,
sharpshooters.

27. Political Correctness
• The use of language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as
seeking to minimize social offense in gender, racial,
cultural, sexual orientation, handicap, and age-related
contexts. The term is almost exclusively pejorative,
connoting “intolerant” and “intolerance,” while the usage
politically incorrect, denotes an implicitly positive self-
description. [Wikipedia]
– ‘urban’
– ‘economically disadvantaged’
– ‘chemically dependent’
– ‘weight challenged’

28. Emotive language
• What are some examples of emotive
language?
• Are there circumstances in which emotive
language is warranted or acceptable?
• What are some examples of when you use
emotive language?
• What is the response of people who hear it?

29. Sound Symbolism
• The association of certain sound with specific
qualities
– For example, the [gl-] sound is often associated
with light or shininess
• Gloss, gleam, glow, glisten, glimmer, glitter, etc.
• Corporations conduct research to determine
what qualities are associated with which
sounds

30. A Little Articulatory Phonetics

31. Types of Sounds
• Obstruents – sounds made with a blockage of air
in the vocal tract
– For example, [p], [t], [k]
– Harder,. More masculine
– ‘Clorox’
• Sonorants – sounds made with a ‘smooth’ or
resonant quality
– For example [š], [ž], [m]
– Softer, more feminine
– ‘Chanel’

32. Some Phonetic Concepts
• Voiced vs. Voiceless – whether or not the vocal
cords are vibrating
• Labials – sounds made with the lips
• Dentals – sounds made with the teeth
• Stops – sounds involving a total blockage of air
flow in the mouth
• Fricatives – sounds made with a ‘friction’ sound
as the air passes through the mouth

33. Pick a Brand Name
a. Which headache tablet sound faster?
Pavil Bavil
b. Which computer sounds more compact?
Gortan Kortan
c. Which car sounds faster?
SarrantTarrant
d. Which computer sounds more compact?
Syndron Zyndron
a. Which car sounds faster?
Faldon Valdon
a. Which computer sounds faster?
Taza Paza
a. Which car sounds more dependable?
Basiza Vazia
a. Which computer sounds more dependable?
Gamza Damza

34. Answers
a. Which headache tablet sound faster?
Pavil Bavil
b. Which computer sounds more compact?
Gortan Kortan
c. Which car sounds faster?
Sarrant Tarrant
d. Which computer sounds more compact?
Syndron Zyndron
a. Which car sounds faster?
Faldon Valdon
a. Which computer sounds faster?
Taza Paza
a. Which car sounds more dependable?
Bazia Vazia
a. Which computer sounds more dependable?
Gamza Damza

35. Size, Speed & Dependability
• Voiceless stops [p, t, k] = speed better than voiced stops
[b, d, g]
• Voiceless stops [p, t, k] = smallness better than voiced
stops [b, d, g]
• Fricatives [v, f, z, s] = speed better than stops [b, p, d, t]
• [z] = smallness better than [s]
• Voiced fricatives [v, z] = speed better than voiceless
fricatives [f, s]
• Dentals [d, t] = speed better than labials [b, p]
• Stops [b, p, d] = dependability better than fricatives [v, f,
z, s]
• [d] = dependability better than [g]

36. Sound Symbolism in Your Daily Life
• Identify examples of sound symbolism among
the products you own, use, or have heard.
– Automotive products
– Health and beauty care products
– Electronics equipment
– Banking and financial services
– Food and beverages
– Clothing and accessories
– Etc.

37. Language, Euphemisms and Critical
Thinking
• Critical thinkers should strive to be aware of
imprecision in language, euphemisms that
conceal reality, and sound symbolism that
evokes connotations, and they should make
every effort in their own writing to use words
that are accurate and precise.