In my final publication, I argued that it’s unsuitably awkward for the phrase “plagiarism” to be utilized each to the stealing of others’ concepts and the copying, maybe by chance, of boilerplate textual content with out citing its supply. To the extent that almost all would take into account the previous an egregious transgression and the latter extra of a lazy misstep, English would profit from utilizing a unique time period for it.
It additionally bears mentioning that the way in which we use and course of the phrase “plagiarism” teaches a few classes about language and society extra broadly. For one, the phrase will be taken as a actuality examine towards a distinguished concept regarding language. Put merely: Sure, particular vocabularies can channel the way in which that we predict, however solely to a restricted extent.
The concept language influences thought is named the Sapir-Whorf speculation. One among its titular proponents, Benjamin Lee Whorf, famous for instance that within the Hopi language, the phrase for the water that you simply drink is completely different from the phrase for water in nature, similar to in a lake. To him, this distinction steered that the Hopi course of actuality in a different way from English audio system, and that extra broadly:
Customers of markedly completely different grammars are pointed by their grammars towards various kinds of observations and completely different evaluations of externally related acts of remark, and therefore will not be equal as observers however should arrive at considerably completely different views of the world.
Psychologists have since proven repeatedly that variations in how languages’ vocabularies label expertise do situation very small variations in thought patterns. In Russian, as an example, there may be not one phrase for blue, however two: one for darker blue and one for lighter blue. An experiment has proven that this does make Russians, when introduced with a gradation from darkish to mild blue, a tiny bit extra delicate to the transition level between the 2. Having express labels for the 2 shades alerts one a tad extra exactly to the distinction between them.
However once more, these are very small variations in notion. No experiment has demonstrated that variations in language have an effect on our minds so profoundly as to lead to considerably completely different world views. It’s tradition — i.e., actuality — that does that, not the specifics of how narrowly or broadly a phrase occurs to use.
Our prior dialogue of the phrase “plagiarism” demonstrates this. Simply as English having a single phrase for darkish blue and light-weight blue doesn’t forestall us from telling the distinction in coloration between a navy blazer and a robin’s egg, the truth that “plagiarism” covers each concept theft and careless slicing and pasting doesn’t imply that we will’t inform the distinction between the 2. Actually, we course of it fairly readily, and our disagreements over that distinction drove a lot of the controversy over plagiarism by the previous Harvard president Claudine Homosexual.
Nonetheless, the previous few years have seen an uptick in options that we use new phrases to discuss with issues and, particularly, folks, the intent being to refashion how we understand them. On the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork, for instance, an in depth set of options is making the rounds amongst volunteers. One such suggestion is that volunteers say that individuals “have” a incapacity fairly than that they “endure” from it. The same advice on a related record (since taken down) from Brandeis College’s Prevention, Advocacy and Useful resource Heart emphasised person-first language to such a level that one must discuss with earthquake victims as individuals who have skilled an earthquake. In each circumstances, the concept is to keep away from essentializing folks as victims or victims.
The issue with terminology like that is that as a result of the correspondence between phrases and actuality is barely ever approximate, these novel methods of talking wouldn’t have an effect on our understanding of the world. To say that somebody “has” a incapacity hardly distracts us from the truth that the particular person, inherently, suffers due to it — that is baked into the very idea of incapacity whether or not we utter the verb or not. Equally, saying that somebody skilled an earthquake won’t ever change our notion that an individual whose dwelling was decreased to rubble is a sufferer. (By no means thoughts that it’s unclear what the profit can be if it truly did.)
Our dialogue of “plagiarism” can also be helpful, nevertheless, in that it demonstrates that there are occasions when readability makes the addition of a brand new phrase or phrase to our vocabulary helpful. For instance, there was a time only a few many years again when there have been no established phrases for “sexual harassment” or “date rape.” Folks usually understood “rape” and “sexual assault” to be violent assaults by strangers. What we now name date rape was typically dismissed by society as “not the true factor.”
The thought was embedded in our language in addition to our tradition. Any fan of previous performs and flicks has seen ladies depicted as warning one another with a click on of the tongue about males who’re “all arms” or the like. One of many cringiest Broadway songs I do know of is within the 1951 Phil Silvers automobile “Prime Banana,” when a lady sings a tune, “I Fought Each Step of the Means,” about what we now know as date rape, however brushes it off as one thing she merely needed to endure. It’s much better that we now have clear labels for what occurred to that character. (In a merciless irony, the actress who sang the tune, Rose Marie, noticed it and her different numbers reduce from the movie model after she refused the producer’s advances.) The next adoption of the phrases “date rape” and “sexual harassment” clearly hasn’t made such acts go away. But it surely has facilitated their dialogue, condemnation and prosecution.
The same instance is raised by the acronym ADOS, for American Descendants of Slavery. The motion bearing this identify advocates making a distinction between Black folks with ancestry inside the USA and Black folks with ancestry within the Caribbean and Africa however not the USA. Their proposition is that if the federal government ought to ever grant reparations for slavery, they need to go solely to ADOS, fairly than to all People of African genetic descent. Though I’m unenthusiastic about reparations as an idea, I agree with this recreation plan if they’re ever granted, and really feel {that a} new, non-acronym time period distinguishing the native-descended subset may very well be helpful — actually higher than on-the-fly hacks like “Black folks from right here,” “actual Black folks” and the like.
I ought to notice that among the ADOS concept’s most fervent supporters have fostered outright divisiveness between the 2 subsets of Black People and have been linked to anti-immigration activists. I can not stroll alongside them. Nevertheless, if this divisive pressure fades and what stays is an express time period for Black People descended from slavery, it will likely be helpful to any variety of discussions. I dispute claims that every one Black People should march below the identical label as a result of pores and skin coloration means experiencing racism no matter whether or not one’s roots are in Ghana or Gary, Ind. Racism is an unnecessarily gloomy and unconstructive keystone for a racial self-conception, particularly within the twenty first century.
The messiness of the time period “plagiarism” that we mentioned final week, then, reveals us that to talk is to be ever conscious not solely of Webster’s-style definitions, however of the buzzing richness of context. And it additionally reveals that at instances it nonetheless will be helpful to bolster that context by including extra, useful labels to our current stockpile. There’s, as all the time, a world in each phrase.
