On ideological evaluation of words.

The article deals with the manifestations of the ideology of political correctness in contemporary use of Lithuanian and Latvian words naming individuals according to their race, nationality, age (negras - nēģeris (a Negro), čigonas - čigāns (a gypsy), pensininkas - pensionārs (a pensioner), invalidas - invalīds (an invalid), etc.). The intentions of promoters and supporters of such ideology, at first glance, seem generous: the word substitutions suggested by them may be related to euphemisation of the language stimulated by tolerance to differentness, empathy, striving for unoffending communication. However, implementation of such ideology also involves newspeak and usually approaches extremes, even absurdity. The authors of the paper hold the opinion that intrusion of such ideology on the language is harmful per se. One of the characteristic consequences means the negative connotation of a word, which in the English-speaking society emerged naturally or was simply coined by ideology enthusiasts, is transferred to other languages disregarding the colouring of words in these particular languages, groundlessly attributing neutral words with negative evaluation of the named matter. By providing recommendations to use words in a particular way, one should not implicitly base on a certain ideology but, first, regard their own cultural tradition and follow the science of linguistics