I don't think what I wrote has anything to do with "pomo", but I can understand why you or others might think that. I think "pomo" is making a much stronger claim, e.g. that _reality_ is itself social; not just language.
But you're, sadly, probably right about the futility of encouraging people to jump off the euphemism treadmill!
I don't think what I wrote has anything to do with "pomo", but I can understand why you or others might think that. I think "pomo" is making a much stronger claim, e.g. that _reality_ is itself social; not just language.
But you're, sadly, probably right about the futility of encouraging people to jump off the euphemism treadmill!
I think it might still be possible to 'jump off' the euphemism treadmill even while accepting that language changes. It sure seems like the euphemism treadmill is the consequence of deliberate 'prescriptivist' changes; not 'organic' change like slang.
I also think there's a kind of 'art' in, e.g. 'tracking prototypes', that prevents "the relational nature and inherent uncertainty of language" from _perfectly_ unmooring one from _any_ connection to an underlying reality. In practice, even 'pomo fanatics' are probably almost entirely 'practical' and unremarkable when using language outside of academic or 'intellectual' circles.
I don't think what I wrote has anything to do with "pomo", but I can understand why you or others might think that. I think "pomo" is making a much stronger claim, e.g. that _reality_ is itself social; not just language.
But you're, sadly, probably right about the futility of encouraging people to jump off the euphemism treadmill!
Those are good points!
I think it might still be possible to 'jump off' the euphemism treadmill even while accepting that language changes. It sure seems like the euphemism treadmill is the consequence of deliberate 'prescriptivist' changes; not 'organic' change like slang.
I also think there's a kind of 'art' in, e.g. 'tracking prototypes', that prevents "the relational nature and inherent uncertainty of language" from _perfectly_ unmooring one from _any_ connection to an underlying reality. In practice, even 'pomo fanatics' are probably almost entirely 'practical' and unremarkable when using language outside of academic or 'intellectual' circles.