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In the novel, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, I come across the word “Homicidal Mania”, a word used for diagnosing the protagonist Raskolnikov’s condition after he commits the murder. So when I searched for the meaning of this word, I found some closely associated meaning but nothing definitive. An online source like Wikipedia now uses the term “Homicidal ideation” since the term is more medically approved. The word “Homicidal Mania” is now an anachronism within today’s medical jargon. Words within the system of Language evolve and dissolve sporadically, it is not always consistent. Some words lose its value while some gets modified and replaced according to the social and political demands within the linguistic world. Words might become obsolete or undergo re-appropriation due to two reasons: one is stigmatization and the other is inaccuracy or misinterpretation. So what name do we have for words that have been deliberately replaced or re-appropriated to conceal reality? If ‘political correctness’ is a language designed to avoid offending marginalized people in terms of gender, race, and disability. What term should be used for words that are “Neutralized” in everyday system of language? The type of languages that are used for disguising uncomfortable truths to make it more palatable, perhaps, this phenomenon is best described as ‘Soft Language’.
A phrase coined by George Carlin, an American Comedian. Soft language is basically a euphemistic expression that ‘conceals reality’ and as Carlin puts it, “take the life out of life”. In the 1990s he uses this expression to expose American culture’s use of language to neutralize the efficiency of certain words. Now the usage of soft language has erupted to other parts of the world as well, people prefer using softer language to gently address bits of reality that are considered harsh or uncomfortable. Carlin gives an example of how the two syllable word “Shell Shock”, a simple, honest and direct language used for soldiers exposed to intense warfare was called “battle fatigue” in the World War II, a four syllable word. Today the same term has undergone reform and is popularly called “Post-traumatic stress disorder”, an eight syllable word. If George Carlin addressed this problem in the 90s, imagine the amount of transformation language has undergone all these years. Today, in this tech driven world, this practice has amplified creating a battleground of censorship for not using soft language and political correctness. Some other words that fall under the radar of soft language are “poor” and “homeless people”. Instead they are addressed as “economically disadvantage” or one should say “someone who is experiencing homelessness”. The whole dynamics of language have started to shift; these words have been neutralized that carried direct meaning and strong lexical value, it had always been self-sufficient in itself, requiring no other alternatives. But now language has entered into the domain of fragility where precision is sacrificed for language sensitivity. A recent study shows sensitivity towards language is an emerging and engaging expression among the youths in India. This sensitivity of language varies depending whether it involves soft language or political correctness. Although both carry the same weight of sensitivity, political correctness still has more inclination towards the marginalized side. In the west, with the uprising of “Woke mentality”, the word ‘queer’ is considered a slur in both academic and political spaces however, in India; it is a widely accepted term that is used to refer the third gender community and bears no negative connotation. However, terms like sweeper, prostitute, cripples are considered derogatory even in the Indian context. Also words like chinki, Kancha (a reference to North-eastern people) and Bhaiya (mostly referred to North Indian migrants in metropolitan cities) are some stereotype nicknames carrying derogatory and racist undertone. Therefore, neutralization of language can be debated over its cultural and social relevance since it implies a vast amount of prejudice to a community or a race as cited above.
The reshaping of everyday expressions, that is associated with “soft language” has also emerged as an extension of “political correctness”: both a social construct to dull uncomfortable truths. On the other hand, it also raises concern since language shifts from being the tool of expressing truth to obscuring it. This language control aligns more with Orwellian Newspeak, where words are eliminated or re-appropriated. Orwell introduces it as a political tool of Oceania that is used for manipulating and controlling the masses. The use of prefix and antonyms to neutralize or conceal the true meaning of the word, such as cold becomes unwarm or unhot, dark is unlight and bad is ungood , their objective is adding positive connoted words to words that can trigger negativity. However, language control through expunge, seizes the freedom of expression from the people. Language should be accessible to everyone so one can articulate thoughts or ideas that have a definitive meaning; this is the true meaning of ‘language determination’. In Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid tale , a simple game of scrabble, that involves rearranging random words to derive word that has meaning is considered ‘voluptuous’ in fear of instigating rebellion. Thus, language is conditioned to the desired framework of the system that is in the position of power. The answer is simple; it all comes down to regaining control. One who controls language controls the narrative. Especially, in the world of media, the use of soft language and political correctness is extremely operational. One of the reasons is the threat it poses due to censorship. Yet some mainstream Medias uses political correctness and soft language to their benefit, simply because use of appropriate Jargons help build trust among their viewers. They do not investigate the real nature and intention, if this language tool is rightly deployed. In recent years, we have witnessed a sudden surge of sensitivity towards cases of racism and gender equality and social media acts as the benefactor to bring these issues into the spotlight within minutes. So usage of language appropriation especially among those in control of media works in their favor targeting these communities. In the west, gender pronouns such as he/she have been re-appropriated into they/them which viewed grammatically are incorrect but since the recent commotion of gender-neutralization these communities prefer this pronoun over the correct ones. This gender-linguistic discourse have been widely criticized and debated since it lacks potential in both semantic and lexical level. Yet some mainstream media houses and power mongers uses their preferred pronoun to address the LBGTQ community not out of righteousness but merely as a political strategy on their part.
While language has become softer over the years, it also downplays and conceals the real issue. The world at large prefers ‘language fragility’; with an objective to numb the stigmatization that these languages represent. Due to this, over the years our resilience towards language tolerance has weakened. With globalization, this usage of soft language and political correctness has added fumes over the internet birthing movements like ‘Cancel Culture’. Cancel culture, a term that refers to bearing the consequence for using inappropriate words or action. This practice of cancelling involves digital activism and mass outrage across the social media platforms, like Twitter and Facebook. J.K.Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, is presumed to be one of the prominently cancelled individual for her alleged ‘transphobic’ commentary. This ‘Cancelling’ trend marks a new epoch of language expression- one of sensitivity and fragility, where voicing one’s opinion could possibly lead to boycott, public humiliation or digital ostracism. In recent years, Language has succumbed to the panoptic gaze; hence, the trick to freely express our opinion relies on carefully choosing soft and political correct words. It is for a fact, language builds a more friendly community if discriminatory words are made inclusive. But on the other hand this practice creates a more sensitive domain, as seen from this example where words like ‘dead’ are re-phrased as ‘un-alive’ across social Media. Such negated words sometimes serve a purpose of drawing attention on certain issues that demands fairness.
On a positive note, it is also important to recognize that meaning attached to language is not timeless, since it keeps evolving with society and ideology. Hence, language is shaped by the culture, society and worldview of each period. The language residue left from historical narratives changes or are re-appropriated overtime and maybe, soft language and political correctness are linguistic tools forged to challenge language hegemony by reshaping meaning or perhaps, freedom of expressing words is actually at stake. Which one should we decide on?