COMM 229 - chap 5

terministic screens

filters composed of language that direct people's attention away from some things and toward others

patriarchal universe of discourse (PUD)

a "universe of discourse" is a cultural model of reality that people use daily to decide how to act and what to say in specific contexts ; when the model of reality is one in which a patriarchal system dominates, then that model tends to hide that exercise of male privilege

language as violence

forms of speech like hate speech (racist, homophobic, sexist, anti-semitic language) that cause harm

marked and unmarked terms

occur when someone combines an indicator of a person's sex (or race or other identity ingredient) with a noun in some cases, but not all

deverbing of woman

occurs because today, in contrast to the verb man, the word woman is seldom thought of as a verb at all

semantic polarization

occurs when two parallel concepts are treated as though they were opposed, like "opposite sexes"

semantic derogation

occurs when two terms ought to represent parallel concepts, but one term is derogatory while the other is not

resignification

refer to the linguistic practice in which you reject a term's existing meaning's normative power, expose how the term's meaning was constructed, and attempt to change its connotation

semantic imbalance

refers to an overabundance of terms to describe something related to one group but few terms existing to describe the other

moving over

refers to the conscious choice to silence oneself and create space for others to talk

developing a new language

refers to the creation of vocabulary, phrases, and idioms to describe social reality

lack of vocabulary

refers to the dearth of words to describe some elements of reality

strategic essentialism

refers to the intentional embrace and foregrounding of an identity ingredient as definitive of a group's identity for a political purpose and has two important characteristics 1. the so- called essential attributes of the group are defined by the group members themselves 2. even as group members engage in essentialism, they recognize that it is always an artificial construct

naming

refers to the practices surrounding how proper nouns (names) are assigned to people

trivialization

refers to the use of diminutives to refer to a disempowered group member

he/man language

refers to the use of masculine pronouns and nouns to refer to all people

falsely universal we

rhetors use the collective we in political discourse to make it seem as though they are speaking about everyone when really they are representing a particular few and making invisible distinct other

talking back

the expression of our movement from object to subject - the liberated voice

truncated passives

the use of the passive verb allows the agent of action to be deleted (or truncated) from the sentence