Features of American Politically Correct Vocabulary

Abstract

The article examines the functioning of politically correct words in the US media and explains the change in politically correct euphemisms. The essence of political correctness is the external decency of words and expressions, designed to serve the purpose of not infringing or humiliating the dignity of people belonging to minorities. The parameters of attribution to such groups can vary from gender to race. The gradual expansion of the phenomenon of political correctness is interesting from its perspective functioning in Russian and later in the Kazakh sociocultural space. Despite a large number of scientific works on the studied problem, there are still aspects that require the attention of researchers. Therefore, it is interesting to trace the development of this phenomenon in a diachronic manner. The concept of "euphemism treadmill" explains the infinity of changing politically correct euphemisms to nominate the same facts and realities. Stable concepts in the minds of native speakers are the reason for the change of euphemisms.

Therefore, there is no reason to stop the mentioned “treadmill” in the foreseeable future. In this study, the methods of cognitive, sociocultural, pragmatic analysis were used.