Ron,

You're right. I'm being irresponsible. I haven't read "The Bell  
Curve", but am basing my claims on secondary sources.

I fortuitously came across a reference to political correctness and  
language just now. It sums up objections to so-called politically  
correct language nicely:

“What many people dislike, specifically, is the politicizing of their  
words against their will ... Choice has altered the value of the  
terms and removed the option of political neutrality.”

This is from Deborah Cameron's excellent book "Verbal  
Hygiene" (notice the lack of comma before the title here; not  
needed). The book also has a chapter on grammatical correctness as a  
form of verbal hygiene, verbal hygiene being ways that language has  
to be controlled to serve the interests of one or another group.

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Ph. D.
Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Dept.
Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Ofc. tel. : 805-756-2184
Dept. tel.: 805-756-2596
Dept. fax: 805-756-6374
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

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