Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 4/15/85; site ubvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!prls!amdimage!amdcad!cae780!ubvax!tonyw From: tonyw@ubvax.UUCP (Tony Wuersch) Newsgroups: net.politics,net.nlang Subject: Re: One for our side Message-ID: <348@ubvax.UUCP> Date: Thu, 31-Oct-85 14:46:11 EST Article-I.D.: ubvax.348 Posted: Thu Oct 31 14:46:11 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 3-Nov-85 15:16:19 EST References: <973@decwrl.UUCP> <12580@rochester.UUCP> <1587@uwmacc.UUCP> <1385@ihlpg.UUCP> Reply-To: tonyw@ubvax.UUCP (Tony Wuersch) Organization: Ungermann-Bass, Inc., Santa Clara, Ca. Lines: 28 Xref: linus net.politics:11120 net.nlang:3376 In article <1385@ihlpg.UUCP> tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum) writes: >there is no word in the English language for inhabitant of the United States >other than American. I can understand how Latin Americans and Canadians >might not like this, but it is a fact. I'll be damned if I'm going to >call myself a Unitedstatesian (ugh!). It is unfortunate that the same >word, American, has more than one meaning, but it takes someone like jeff m. >to convert this into a sign of US hegemony over the West. Spare us. >-- >Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL ihnp4!ihlpg!tan It's natural for people who are on top to defend ambiguities in language that favor them by saying "there is no word other than" the ambiguity. It's also natural for people who aren't on top to criticize ambiguities in language which they perceive as threatening. That there's "no other word than American" in English (I dunno, just use more than one word, maybe) for an inhabitant of the US means that there's very little rhetorical defense against people who use "American" as a buzz word for national destiny, etc.. Again, no surprise that the language is built so that anti-nationalistic sentiments can't be expressed in simple language. Languages in most countries are social constructions codified by national official agencies. Re hegemony: the weapons given by a language for rhetoric are often enhanced by some physical ammo. Tony Wuersch {amd,amdcad}!cae780!ubvax!tonyw