Abstract
The paper deals with the issue of political correctness which is one of the key study objects of sociolinguistics. The author emphasizes the fact that politeness must be an essential component of any communicative act. Especially important it is for politicians whose primary goal is to make their message understood and accepted. However, if politicians do not show respect of their recipients’ views and values through their speech, their message will never be positively received. The paper illustrates that aggressive and disrespectful language can never be excused, even if it is used for the purpose of building up an informal atmosphere or close rapport with the audience. Thus, politicians, teachers, or other public figures must always remember about political correctness and formality which they must follow when communicating with their audience. Moreover, the use of the politically correct language can assist in developing more profound communicative skills and help speakers avoid stereotypes and clichés.
Being polite in choosing your words and behaving gently will help you earn other people’s respect. Thus, it would be undoubtedly relevant to consider the importance of such polite attitude for politicians. From my point of view, there is a close relationship between politeness and political correctness (PC) because they both concern society and its principles. The use of language that contains politically correct or neutral terms introduced in speech instead of aggressive and impolite ones will surely have a positive impact on what people will think about the speaker. If politicians want to maintain their political status in the community or make it even more significant, they should use politically correct words and pay special attention to what they say as well as how they express their ideas. The importance of political correctness makes politicians think hard before any speech in order to choose appropriate language means. Moreover, using politically correct terms may help many of them send the message about their beliefs and values as well as the type of behavior they prefer. All this makes it easy for the recipient to understand the message in the right way and, as a result, either respect or disregard the politicians’ ideas. As a student of sociolinguistics, I would definitely support my point of view by applying the theory of politeness and using only politically correct language.
Many linguists studied politeness within the theories of politeness. According to Geoffrey Leech, theories of politeness concern the way how speakers appear to be polite in respecting their recipients’ wants, needs or their personal characteristics, recognizing other speakers’ obligations, and acknowledging other people’s opinions and feelings. However, all this can be also found in using politically correct language because neutral words applied with a view of being politically correct require the speaker to be polite to his/her audience and show professionalism in choosing to speak the language which has nothing to do with aggressiveness, offense ,or threat of any kind. Such a speaking strategy will make listeners pay attention to what is said and, as a result, both parties will be satisfied and respect each other.
Another point that connects the PC language and politeness is that in both cases the speaker becomes more polite when he/she pays attention to hearers and listen to their desires and needs trying to reach an agreement with them. Speaking in such a polite way it will be much easier for politicians to send their messages to their audience since the audience will be more willing to accept it. American presidential elections of nowadays provide vivid examples both of people who choose to be polite and use the PC language and of people who don’t. For instance, some candidates are trying to show their desire in being polite by listening to their audience and choosing PC words in their speech which makes their audience respect them, follow them, and vote for them. On the other hand, some candidates are absolutely opposite to them. They are trying to win by speaking in an aggressive way, using slang and inappropriate words as well as by showing their racist views. They are threatening a certain part of the community and banning them to stay in the United States. Even though the final goal of such speakers is revolutions of some Arabian nations in the Middle East, it does not give the candidates a right to treat their own nation aggressively, punish them for not listening to impolite speeches which offend feelings, values, and needs. It confirms that using politically correct language implies respect for true values expressed through speech. The audience will undoubtedly prefer to listen to speeches filled with peaceful intentions rather than aggressiveness.
An interesting example is given by Brown and Levinson. They say that one university woman-lecturer used informal expressions at the seminars with the intention of creating an informal atmosphere. However, most researchers would agree that it should be considered inappropriate and impolite because staff members should use nothing but formal language. The same concerns those politicians who do not use politically correct language when they speak to other politicians or to communities. The others will definitely consider any kind of offensive language to be an act of impoliteness. People in any society expect to their leaders to be examples of loyalty and respect. They want to see the politicians’ regard for their people’s views, values, feelings, customs, traditions, and needs. Moreover, they are looking for professionalism in them, part of which political correctness is.
So, as far as politeness is concerned, it must be emphasized that it helps to develop communication skills and builds bridges between politicians and their people. When politicians decide to use the PC language, they set politeness as their primary goal and, therefore, try to choose the best and the worthiest data from both spoken and written varieties of the language. In addition, the politically correct language attributes to the speaker’s speech higher value because it allows avoiding stereotypes and clichés as well as assists in developing the idea of differentiating the ways used to speak to different groups of people without any racism or other kind of offence. Therefore, politicians should learn to be attentive and respectful to their audience. They should always bear in mind their people’s demands and respect these demands. Politeness is really a vital part of any person and it is not very hard to be put into practice.
