Politically incorrect?

[Nevadaref]

Rut makes a good point that terms and words mean different things to different folks. Unfortunately, one cannot know the jargon of a particular group unless the individual is either part of that group or studies it.
The default is the standard definition, and yes, even those do change as he points out. Language is an evolving device of communication.
In many cases, what someone says is not what is understood. When that happens we must identify which party is at fault for the miscommunication. Should we point the finger at the one using the nonstandard definition of a term or the one using it out of its expected context within a particular social circle?

[BillyMac]

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." (Neil Armstrong, July 21, 1969)

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." (Neil Armstrong, July 21, 1969)

He left out wimmen.

Neil Armstrong shoulda been horse-whipped for saying that!

Horse-whipped, I tell ya!

Whipped with a horse!




Stoopid monkey thread.....

[Welpe]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." (Neil Armstrong, July 21, 1969)

An interesting bit of trivia is that he actually flubbed what he originally was going to say. He meant to say "That's one small step for a man..."

I guess he got a little caught up with the whole being the first person to step on the moon and all that.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Welpe

An interesting bit of trivia is that he actually flubbed what he originally was going to say. He meant to say "That's one small step for a man...". I guess he got a little caught up with the whole being the first person to step on the moon and all that.

Speaking the line, he accidentally dropped the "a", from his remark, rendering the phrase a contradiction (as man in such use is synonymous with mankind). Armstrong later said he "would hope that history would grant me leeway for dropping the syllable and understand that it was certainly intended, even if it was not said – although it might actually have been." It has since been claimed that acoustic analysis of the recording reveals the presence of the missing "a". A digital audio analysis conducted by Peter Shann Ford, an Australia-based computer programmer, claims that Armstrong did, in fact, say "a man", but the "a" was inaudible due to the limitations of communications technology of the time. Ford and James R. Hansen, Armstrong's authorized biographer, presented these findings to Armstrong and NASA representatives, who conducted their own analysis. The article by Ford, however, is published on Ford's own web site rather than in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, and linguists David Beaver and Mark Liberman at Language Log were skeptical of Ford's claims. Armstrong has expressed his preference that written quotations include the "a" in parentheses.

[Juulie Downs]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

When that happens we must identify which party is at fault for the miscommunication. Should we point the finger at the one using the nonstandard definition of a term or the one using out of its expect context within a particular social circle?

Why does there have to be a fault? mis communication, per se, is almost never a "fault" issue, it's simply a breakdown in the wiring.

That being said, I don't think feminist objections to using "man" to refer to any human being have anything to do with miscommunication, but that's not a point I'm going to argue. And it certainly was not my point when I was discussing it several years ago. Just saying...