roseembolism (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
roseembolism) wrote2008-05-21 05:44 pm
roseembolism) wrote2008-05-21 05:44 pm
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Changing the Language the Easy Way...
In a recent debate on gender-neutral language and whether it's a good idea to try to change a language, someone noted that top-down language changes rarely work well. He pointed out that the Chinese goverment has tried to insert a female third person pronoun into Chinese in order to get the "he" "she" distinction. He noted it hasn't caught on so far.
I figure that's probably because they're going about it the wrong way, via government mandate. A better way would be to use that new pronoun in an uproariously funny Coca-Cola advertising campaign. then have it picked up in a movie by a heartthrob or a comedian. Done properly, it will first duck into the language as a bit of trendy slang, and get used by kids as a self-referential coolness, and within a generation it will be in all the Chinese dictionaries.
'Cause if you really want to change a culture's way of speaking, one should go to the experts. IMHO. IYNWIMAITYD. LOL.
I figure that's probably because they're going about it the wrong way, via government mandate. A better way would be to use that new pronoun in an uproariously funny Coca-Cola advertising campaign. then have it picked up in a movie by a heartthrob or a comedian. Done properly, it will first duck into the language as a bit of trendy slang, and get used by kids as a self-referential coolness, and within a generation it will be in all the Chinese dictionaries.
'Cause if you really want to change a culture's way of speaking, one should go to the experts. IMHO. IYNWIMAITYD. LOL.
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