Taking precautions: A kids wears a mask to protect himself from swine flu.‘Swine flu’, the word used to describe the killer viral infection, has been named the most politically incorrect word of 2009 by Global Language Monitor, a group that studies word usage. |
'Swine flu', the word used to describe the killer viral infection, has been named the most politically incorrect word of 2009 by Global Language Monitor, a group that studies word usage. "Though hundreds of millions know of the current pandemic as swine flu, various governments and agencies for political motives ranging from protecting pork producers to religious sensitivity have chosen to address the virus by its formal name, influenza A(H1N1)," the GLM said. 'Flush toilet', 'green revolution', 'minority' and 'saint' follow 'swine flu' in the list that was prepared from a proprietary algorithm by tracking the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the blogosphere, as well as accessing proprietary databases. The terms 'politically correct', 'oriental', 'founding fathers', 'black sheep', and 'senior citizen' complete the top 10. "Once again, we are seeing that the attempt to remove all bias from language is itself creating biases of their own," said GLM's chief word analyst, Paul JJ Payack. "At this point it is becoming increasingly difficult to engage in any form of public dialogue without offending someone's sensitivities, whether right, left or centre," he said. The GLM analysis also said that 'minority' is a politically incorrect word as "talking about minorities is considered insensitive to the community since this can make them feel, well, like minorities". "The term politically correct, itself, is now politically correct," the GLM said, adding "be careful how you use it". In the US, the word 'oriental' is considered offensive to Asians because the term is based on the geographic relationship of Asia from a Western perspective. "In Europe (and in most Asian nations), however, 'Oriental' is acceptable," the GLM said. 'Founding fathers' was another incorrect word in the list. "Though all the signers of the American Declaration of Independence were men, this is considered sexists in some quarters," the GLM said, adding it is better to use the term founders. 點擊查看更多雙語新聞
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語言研究組織全球語言監(jiān)測機構(gòu)(GLM)日前公布“2009年政治錯誤用語”排行榜,用以描述(最近流行的)致命性流感病毒的“豬流感”一詞居榜首。 全球語言監(jiān)測機構(gòu)稱:“盡管起初人們都知道眼下的流感為豬流感,但各國政府和政治性機構(gòu)或是出于對豬肉生產(chǎn)商的保護,或是出于宗教敏感性的考慮,后來將其正名為學名‘甲型H1N1流感’?!?/font> “抽水馬桶”、“綠色革命”、“少數(shù)民族”和“圣人”位居“豬流感”之后。全球語言監(jiān)測組織使用一種專用數(shù)學模型來追蹤詞和短語在全球紙質(zhì)和電子媒體、互聯(lián)網(wǎng)和博客圈中出現(xiàn)的頻率,并通過訪問專項數(shù)據(jù)庫編撰出了該榜。 躋身該榜前十位的詞匯還包括“政治上正確”、“東方”、“創(chuàng)始之父”、“害群之馬”和“老年人”。 全球語言監(jiān)測機構(gòu)的首席詞語分析員保羅?JJ?帕亞克說:“我們又一次看到,試圖摒除語言中存在的所有偏見的做法,結(jié)果是制造出了另外的偏見?!?/font> 他說:“現(xiàn)如今,在參與任何形式的公共對話時做到不觸犯任何人的‘神經(jīng)’越來越難,無論是右派、左派還是中間派。” 分析還指出,“少數(shù)派”在政治上是一個錯誤用語,“說少數(shù)派被認為是對這一群體的漠視,因為這會讓他們感到自己是少數(shù)派。” 全球語言監(jiān)測機構(gòu)說:“‘政治上正確’這個詞本身現(xiàn)在在政治上也正確了”,“但在運用時要小心”。 在美國,“東方”一詞被認為是對亞洲人的冒犯,因為這一說法是基于以西方的視角來看待亞洲的地形關(guān)系。 全球語言檢測機構(gòu)說:“不過,在歐洲(以及亞洲大部分國家),‘東方’一詞可以被接受?!?/font> “創(chuàng)始之父”也犯了“政治錯誤”。 全球語言檢測機構(gòu)稱:“雖然美國《獨立宣言》的所有簽名者都是男性,但在某些地區(qū)該詞被認為帶有性別歧視意味,”因此用“創(chuàng)始人”一詞更好。 相關(guān)閱讀 (英語點津陳丹妮 姍姍編輯) |
Vocabulary: proprietary: exclusively owned; private 專有的 blogosphere: the set of all weblogs on the Internet 博客圈 |