A basic nonphysical subanthropic
exism will be termed
"nonpersonative" here if the object is primarily something that
is neither a person nor a group of persons invested with
personality (while indirectly concerning a human subclass nevertheless).
We will consider marriage and language as objects of
nonpersonative manifestations of irrelevantism. This listing
is definitely not exhaustive. Also technological exclusivism
(X.617), for instance, is a form of nonpersonative exism, that
is, exism re the technological development of a society. If
aggrandizemental, this manifestation involves the institution of
technocracy: the exclusive government or management of society
by technical experts. Technocratic exism as a brand of technological
exism is notorious for its exclusion of relevant
nontechnical factors and the confusion of means and ends. But
technological exism can be abnegational too, for example, when
technology, or modern technology, is disposed of by people who
pursue a variety of ends which can only be attained simultaneously
with the aid of the very technology they want to
discontinue, or prevent, the use of.
Not only marriage but also celibacy is the object of marriage-(
and celibacy-)related or marital exclusivism (X.309).
(The word marital is to be preferred to matrimonial for
etymological reasons.)
Marriage- and celibacy-centered exclusivism (X.309.0)
is a unitary exism re the marital status of a human or
anthropically conceived being, while marriage-( and celibacy-)based
exclusivism (X.309.1) is a compositional exism re (someone
or people with) a certain type of marriage or (someone or people
living in) celibacy. Compositional marital exism can be
quantitative or duration-based. In the former case it concerns
the number of times someone is married or allowed to marry, in
the latter case the duration of a marriage. The dimensional
manifestations of quantitative marital exclusivism (X.619)
for a trichotomous subdivision are: marriage-, celibacy-,
monogamy- and polygamy-centered exclusivism. ('Marriage-centered'
must not be confused with 'marriage- and celibacy-centered
exclusivism'.) As mentioned before, these forms of
exclusivism are intimately connected with quantitative relational
and gender-based sexualism. The law of a sexist society may
institutionalize the hybrid of these two sexualisms by giving
men the opportunity to marry more than one wife (polygyny),
while excluding women from having more than one husband (polyandry).
It is often naively and erroneously said that a certain
religion allows polygamy or 'plural marriage', but this is
irrelevantist, truth-conditional phraseology when that religion
allows only men to have more than one spouse (that is,
polygyny).
Whether a marriage relationship can exist between one or more
men and one or more women or not, it is always sexualistic in a
relative orientational sense, if such a relationship can solely
be formalized for people of a different gender. The ancient,
biological argument that human beings of the same gender could
not get children is, firstly, out of date from a medical-technical
point of view; secondly, inconsistent if people of a
different gender who could not get children either are allowed
to marry nevertheless; and thirdly, out of place where children
cannot only be produced physically by oneself, but can also be
adopted physically or formally.
Aggrandizemental marriage-centered exclusivism is exism re
married people on the basis of their marriage which is believed
or felt to be good or better than celibacy (whether living
together with someone, or whether having a sexual relationship
with someone or not). The sentimental external abnegational
component of the same exclusivism is uneasiness (possibly
hatred, fear or ignorance) of unmarried people with married
people or the institution of marriage. This involves misogamy.
(Traditional language is so unsystematic as not to have a term
for the hatred of celibacy.) The hybrid attitude of marital
and sexual exclusivists is not only put into effect in the above
affirmative ways, it is also manifested in the use of a title
like miss for unmarried women only. In combination with etatic
exclusivism the derogatory use of an expression like old maid
is another manifestation of it. Miss was, or still is, a legal
and official child, old maid a nonlegal, nonofficial child, of
marital and sexual exclusivism. No child of either of these
two parents has ever been legitimate, let alone a child of both
of them.
Language is another object of nonpersonative irrelevantism
we have mentioned. On the highest level, exclusivism on the
basis of language must first be subdivided into inter- and
infralinguistical exclusivism. Interlinguistical exclusivism
(X.310) is, then, exism re the (form of) language of a
particular community, whether that (form of) language is
officially recognized or not. The object of interlinguistical exism
need not be a 'language' in some sense of a standard, international
or nonregional language (as in language-based exism);
it may also be a dialect or regional variety of such a language
(as in dialectal exism) or even an accent which is phonemically
correct (as in accentual exism). (Accent-based exism does not
concern a different pronunciation in the sense of an alternative
choice of correct phonemes: this will be classified as an
infralinguistic characteristic.) The object of dialect-based
exclusivism is a dialect which is not officially recognized as
"a language", or if it is, which is compared with other dialects
of the same language. Some componential manifestations of
language- and dialect-based exclusivism (X.1243 & 1242) are:
- the belief or feeling that the language or dialect which a
person speaks
'imself (and which may be recognized
as an official language), or the languages or dialects of a group to which
'er own language or dialect belong,
are superior to, or better than, other languages or dialects
(self-aggrandizemental);
- the exclusion or discrimination of other languages or
dialects than a person speaks imself, because
'e believes or
feels that 'er own language is superior (self-aggrandizing);
- the belief or feeling that a particular language or dialect, or
group of languages or dialects, is inferior in all or in certain
fields (abnegational); and
- uneasiness, possibly shame or
ignorance, with respect to a person's own language or dialect
(sentimental self-abnegational).
Infralinguistical exclusivism (X.311) can be exism re
spelling (orthographical), pronunciation (pronunciational
infralinguistical), vocabulary (vocabular), meanings (semantical) or,
perhaps, other aspects of a language or dialect. Lingual
exclusivism as a particular kind of operation of a componential,
dimensional or integral exism is not a form of vocabular or
semantical exclusivism, because its object is not a vocabulary
or the meaning of a word, but another one which is only treated
differently in the use of such a word. Moreover, the 'exclusion'
of lingually exclusivistic words in a language or dialect is not an
incident of vocabular or semantical exism, because this rejection
is founded on relevant grounds. For it follows from
accepting the principle of discriminational relevance that
violations of this principle must be rejected.
Since all our communication has been assumed to take place
here thru the medium of written language, we have already
discussed the orthographical facet of inclusivity at a much
earlier moment in time, namely in the Book of Instruments in the
context of the cultural norms and values of linguistic systems
(I.3.4). There it has been
made clear what the inclusivistic
position entails, and we therefore need not expatiate on this
subject now. Much of what applies to spelling, applies to
pronunciation, vocabulary and the meanings of words as well.
What typifies infralinguistical exclusivism in general is the
belief or suggestion that a language or dialect would be some
kind of rigid, monolithic system of communicable propositions
(almost) without any variants or options at all. It has been
explained why this belief is untenable and the suggestion
preposterous. It has also been argued that consistence is a very
important criterion in questions of linguistic correctness. The
emphasis on this requirement is certainly not exclusivistic, for
consistence is also a criterion of relevance itself, at least in
the norm of inclusivity. And just as consistence does not prove
relevance, so consistent usage does not prove the correctness of
a linguistic variant. It is therefore not always easy to find
out whether the rejection of such a variant should be x-ed as a
manifestation of infralinguistical exclusivism. However, in the
absence of nonexclusivist teachers, dictionaries and encyclopedias
it is one thing to look on exclusivist teachers, dictionaries and
encyclopedias as co-advisors in these matters, and
quite another thing to look on them as authorities.
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