Ethnophaulisms in the Chinese language as a reflection of racial and ethnic Identity: Issues of political Correctness

Kozhemyakina Valeriya Alekseevna ORCID: 0000-0001-6639-2172 Senior Lecturer, Intercultural Communication and Translation Department, Volgograd State Socio-Pedagogical University 27 Lenin Ave., Volgograd, 400005, Russia kozhemyakinavaleria@vspu.ru

Introduction

This study is carried out at the intersection of sociolinguistics and communication theory and is part of a major study covering issues of political correctness in Russian, Chinese and American cultures. The aim is to identify the national–specific features of the origin of the politically incorrect vocabulary of the Chinese language, expressing racial and ethnic affiliation, in comparison with the Russian and English languages. The novelty of the scientific research lies in the fact that ethnopholisms in Chinese, Russian and English are considered in connection with the problem of political correctness, which was not previously the object of a comprehensive comparative analysis. The theoretical basis of the research is represented by: works dealing with issues of political correctness in the dynamics of its development ^{[1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6]}; works in the field of ethnolinguistics reflecting the main problems of the influence of expressive ethnonyms and ethnopholisms on modern public discourse ^{[7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16, etc.]}.

Methods and principles of research

The research material was expressive ethnonyms selected by the method of accessible sampling from dictionaries ^{[17; 18; 19]} in the amount of 38 lexemes.

A number of methods are used to analyze practical material:

1) an accessible sampling method for selecting research material from lexicographic sources, as well as contexts from linguistic corpora;

2) definitional analysis to identify the meanings of ethnonyms;

3) contextual analysis to determine the connection of the studied units with their environment, to identify connotations.

Political correctness and race, ethnicity

Modern English-language public discourse is oversaturated with news reports about cases of discrimination in various categories of identity: racism, sexism, edaltism, etc. Discrimination, as a social phenomenon characterized by infringement of human rights and interests, has existed for a long period of human history ^[20]. Since the emergence of States, people have been discriminated against on a variety of grounds. However, despite the fact that the term has existed since the 1640s in the sense of distinguishing between something, the connection with race in the meaning of the word was fixed only in 1866 ^[21]. There are two groups of signs of the concept of "discrimination": natural and social ^[22]. The first category includes physiological and psychological characteristics of a person: congenital (race, gender, skin color, genetic characteristics) and acquired (ability to work, health, disability).  The second group of signs includes a person's spiritual and intellectual existence (religion, religion, political and other beliefs), a person's belonging to a certain group (ethnic, national, ancestral, social origin, belonging to national minorities, as well as place of birth, country of origin, citizenship and language), as well as a person's position in society (material, economic, property, estate and other status, legal and social status) ^[22].

The concept of discrimination has a close relationship with the phenomenon of political correctness, which has become one of the most important issues of modern society at the beginning of the XXI century. Political correctness is a sociolinguistic phenomenon based on the exclusion from the discourse of linguistic and non-linguistic means that contribute to discrimination of minorities by any categories of identity (race, gender, age, etc.). Race and ethnicity are significant categories of social identity, on the basis of which the manipulative function of political correctness can be implemented ^[1], since "the formation of an ethnically marked identity" is a multidirectional, multicomponent process and is used by "interested circles" ^{[7, p.5]}. As a result of the implementation of the manipulative function, the true purpose of the statement is replaced by a false one, which forms an opinion in society in the spirit of a favorable politically correct ideology. This is what W. Lind ^[6] writes about, referring to deconstruction as the basic principle of the ideology of political correctness. Rethinking the usual meanings leads to the formation of new layers of taboo vocabulary in the discourse, as well as the emergence of politically correct analogues.

Race and ethnicity are the dominant themes in the framework of political correctness issues. Ethnonyms, being one of the types of onyms, perform a "nominative function and individualize the so-called objects" ^{[23, p.34]}. Emotional, evaluative and symbolic associations fixed in the lexical meaning of an ethnonym are used as a tool regulating the manipulative potential of political correctness. Expressive ethnonyms in the space of public discourse make it possible to form an image of a nation that is not necessarily reliable, but advantageous from the point of view of politics.

The key factors in the formation of pejorative nominations of racial and ethnic identity are the historical, geographical, cultural or social aspects of the life of a particular people, since the specificity of the meaning of any ethnonym is to preserve the "spatio-temporal and informational characteristics" associated with a certain ethnic group ^{[23, p.33]}.  Thus, in different cultures, their own designations of ethnic groups can be formed, justified by different characteristics from each other, due to different degrees of historical and social contacts. This factor also justifies the degree of expressiveness of the ethnonym, its emotional coloring, which can vary from light irony to insult ^{[24, p.98]}. 

Expressive ethnonyms that have a discriminating character can be designated by the term "ethnopholisms". Ethnopholisms combine two key factors that give us the right to classify them as politically incorrect vocabulary: ethnic component and pejorative ^{[25, p.120]}. In this study, we understand ethnopholism as "a derogatory emotional and evaluative name for representatives of racial, national or ethnic groups" [26. It is given according to: 25, p.120]. Next, we will consider the main ethnopholisms existing in the Chinese language, in a comparative aspect with Russian and English.

Political correctness and Non-political correctness: Ethnopholisms in the Chinese language

Ethnonyms in Chinese are distinguished in connection with various associations. However, not all of them can be attributed to ethnopholisms, some have lost their invectivity over time, and therefore are used to impart light irony or even in a neutral context. For example, some researchers believe that the word (foreigner is a prefix before the names of respected persons + abroad) has a reduced connotation of "incompetent, stupid foreigner" despite the absence of this meaning in semantics. The neutral synonym fixed in the letter, in this case, is the word ( (foreigner – dosl. a foreign person). However, we, as well as other scientists ^{[12; 27; 28]}, hold a different opinion that neither , nor ?, do not carry a negative component. Today, both variants are increasingly found in public discourse, for example, in the language of the media, as well as in colloquial speech. The negative context can be caused only by the personal subjective rejection by foreigners of the indication of their alienness.  Note that in English, this characteristic can be conveyed by the words outlander / foreigner (foreigner), while the former will also have a relationship with the word outsider, which, based on the possible meaning of the word, introduces a negative, albeit implicit, shade of discrimination“a person who is not liked or accepted as a member of a particular group, organization, or society and who feels different from those people who are accepted as members” (a person who is not recognized as a member of a certain group, organization or society, one who feels different from people included in such a group) (Translated here and further by our. – VK). In Russian the language equivalent can be considered the words foreigner / foreigner / foreigner, which according to the dictionary ^[29] are synonyms and do not have negative connotations.

In the history of each nation there are ethnopholisms associated with the difficult nature of relations between the contacting countries, as well as races or ethnoses living on the same territory. For China, such neighbors will be Mongolia, Japan, Korea, India and Russia.

China and Mongolia are connected by a rich historical past, in which there are many periods of both good and bad relations. The Chinese call Mongolia – (Outer Mongolia), thus focusing on its isolation and difference from (Inner Mongolia) – the Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. The Mongols call the Chinese (reckless + injure) or (merchant, friend). According to etymology, the word comes from the word from the Shanxi dialect. The meanings of the parts of the lexeme do not contain negative components, but the pejorative coloring is formed due to the historical context, according to which during the reign of the Qing Dynasty, the Mongols were in a lowly position, so the Han Chinese in Shanxi and Hebei provinces in China often mocked them. As a result, the following description of the Han people appeared: – (there is no such evil (crime) that I would not go for) ^[30]. The second lexeme is accompanied by the context of trade relations, when the Mongols began to apply this word to dishonest Han merchants who buy good fur from the Mongols at low prices. It should be noted that the Russian-language obsolete ethnonym "hodya", which corresponds to this lexeme, is known in the Far East and formed from the same , does not have an obviously pejorative connotation ^{[31, p. 139]}. Both ethnopholisms are taboo in the speech of modern Chinese, because they are offensive in nature. In relation to the Mongols, there is also an outdated ethnopholism in the Chinese language / (literally bad Mongol), expressing contempt for the Mongols and other northern nomads ^[32], but now it has fallen out of use.

I would like to emphasize that the common historical past is not always a prerequisite for the formation of a certain meaning in a language. Thus, in English, a negative context is also associated with the ethnic nomination Mongol/Mongoloid, which led to a ban on the use of this word and the marking “offensive” in dictionaries. In addition to ethnicity, this lexeme was the name of a person with Down syndrome, used from 1860 to 1965 in connection with a study conducted by J. L. Down "Observations on an Ethnic Classification of Idiots" ("Observation of the ethnic classification of Idiots"), in which the author describes that most of his patients, "congenital idiots are typical Mongols" ("congenital idiots are typical Mongols") ^[33]. Despite the difficult historical ties with the Tatar-Mongols, there is no pejorative connotation in the word Mongol in the Russian language – this is a nomination for a person representing the main population of Mongolia, unlike the Mongol lexeme, which is not only a nomination for any representative of the Mongoloid race, but also a jargon to describe an "underdeveloped, stupid person" ^[34], however, is not taboo in the language.

Japan and China have some tense moments in the history of their interaction, for example, one of these is the Second Sino-Japanese War. It can be assumed that the presence of such "sharp corners" is reflected in the language in the form of ethnopholisms. For example, an outdated example is (wako) – the name that the Chinese used from the XIII to the XVI centuries to designate Japanese pirates, smugglers who ravaged the shores of China and Korea. However, it has not been used for a long time, instead of it, there are contemptuous designations such as "Japanese". It is worth noting that the lexical component (devil), formed as a result of the abbreviation from (overseas devil) – a form that arose at the end of the XIX century to describe enemies who arrived from overseas ^{[12, p.58]}, is also applicable to all foreigners as an invective.  

In the Russian language, there is also a Japanese lexeme, which has the mark "rude, colloquially reduced" in the dictionary ^[35], but does not have such an invective connotation as a / . In English, there is also the word Jap (Jap), which is an ethnic insult and taboo for use in society.

For the Chinese, the word (China) sounds pejoratively from the mouth of the Japanese, but initially the word did not have a negative connotation, being derived from cina from Sanskrit, meaning Chinese silk or Chinese porcelain. At the end of the XIX century, China was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War, it is generally believed that Japan gradually began to use the word to refer to China in a contemptuous and pejorative sense ^[36]. In English, for the name of the Chinese, there is the ethnopholism chink, which has an extremely rough connotation and is formed from the toponym China. Also, the word chink has the meaning of a slit, which may indicate the physiological characteristics (narrow cut of the eyes) of the Chinese people. In the Russian language, the word Chinese has a reduced coloration, but it continues to exist in public discourse:  "We will not tell an American to his face that he is an American, and we will not tell a Chinese that he is a Chinaman. But in conversation with each other we use these words" ^[37].

China's military conflict with Japan has also affected Korea. The Japanese sent many North Koreans to fight in the war, which provoked the hatred of Korea among the Chinese people, as a result of which the nomination of the Korean cudgel (Korean cudgel), which appeared during the Qing Dynasty, was fixed in the language.

For the English language, some nominations are relevant not for individual ethnic groups of Asian origin, but applicable to all. For example, the ethnopholism yellow, which expresses discrimination based on skin color, is applicable to all immigrants from Western and Southwestern Asia. In Russian, the word yellow is equally applicable to the nomination of people with yellow skin, including Asians, but it does not have special litters in dictionaries ^[38]. The word narrow–eyed does not have similar droppings in explanatory dictionaries, indicating the physiological peculiarity of Asians - the cut of the eyes, unlike the borrowed word gook, which is applicable to all Asians, especially in computer-gaming discourse. Note that in English, this word existed in American military jargon for the nomination of Asians (Koreans and Vietnamese) during the Korean and Vietnam War ^[39]. 

In Chinese, the ethnopholism / (Hindu) appeared in Shanghai, in a British settlement where Indians (Sikhs) served as "petty" policemen. Initially, they were called the (dosl. the red-headed asan), which was considered very rude treatment and was associated with wearing red dastars on the head, as well as the consonance of the word with the phrase “I said ...” often repeated by them ^[40]. The wearing of special headdresses is also associated with the disparaging nomination in English raghead (dosl. rag-headed), used depending on the context in relation to Indians, Arabs and Gypsies. This ethnopholism is considered politically incorrect and is actively excluded from speech. In the Russian language, the word Hindu is not fixed in dictionaries as a pejorative, moreover, it has an outdated meaning of "Indian" and a modern meaning of "follower of Hinduism". However, it is often possible to find a negative subtext in the use of this word: "It is good if this unfortunate "I" gets into another person and lives his life there, and suddenly it will be a Negro, or a Chinese, or an Indian?" ^[37].

As we mentioned above, the Chinese had a tradition of naming foreigners (overseas devil), in this regard, for Russians in southern China, especially in Guangdong, there was ethnopholism (a demon with lush vegetation), which is now outdated and out of speech. Earlier pejorative shade had token / (hairball): "?''"" ("it's a reminder that '' very insulting") ^[41], but now has a light meant to be ironic.  The nomination " (fighting nation) is also fixed in the Chinese language in relation to the Russians, but it does not have a negative connotation at all, it is recorded in the dictionary with the mark "figuratively". The Chinese believe that the Russians have a strong-willed character and patriotism, forcing them to engage in battle for its own sake: ", , " ("In the history of the Russian nation often were harassed, and Russian, have Patriotic feelings and rise up to fight when they are attacked.") ^[42]. Thus, in the modern Chinese language, we have not found pejorative expressions that would characterize the Russian nation. It is worth noting that we have discovered the ethnopholism used by the Chinese to nominate all Americans (dosl. America + suf. with the meaning of "person" in a dismissive shade). According to the dictionary ^[17], this lexeme can be translated into Russian as Yankee or pindos. The first lexeme in this meaning is marked "colloquial" ^[43], i.e. there is no question of invectivity. The second, on the contrary, is a pejorative ethnonym along with the ethnopholism of Americos ^[44].

The analysis of practical material showed that in Chinese, out of sixteen ethnonyms, eight are politically incorrect lexemes (ethnopholisms), five are outdated, and three have a neutral or positive connotation, and therefore can be considered politically correct; in Russian, out of thirteen ethnonyms, seven are politically incorrect lexemes (ethnopholisms), one is outdated, five can be considered politically correct; in English, eight out of nine ethnonyms are also politically incorrect (ethnopholisms).

Conclusion

As a result of the conducted research, we came to the following conclusions.

1. Belonging to a certain ethnic group is one of the causes of discrimination – the main problem of "political correctness". The pejorative meanings of politically incorrect lexemes associated with the category of race and ethnicity are expressed in ethnopholisms.

2. The names of ethnic groups are formed in different languages on the basis of different characteristics due to different degrees of historical and social contacts. As a result, associations associated with the use of one or another ethnopholism are used as a regulator of the manipulative potential of political correctness, which is realized through the substitution of the true purpose of the statement with a false one.

3. Ethnopholisms make it possible to form an image of a people in a person's mind, to detect similarities and differences in the perception of another ethnic group and its verbal nomination. In Chinese, politically incorrect vocabulary expressing racial and ethnic identity mainly reflects the historical past, while in Russian and English, the appearance of ethnopholisms is not always justified by a retrospective aspect.

The prospects for further research are to consider the Chinese mechanisms for the formation of politically correct meanings in a wide range of different aspects of identity (age, physical condition, etc.).

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