About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

108 A.B.A. J. 24 (2022-2023)
Spin Conjugations: 'The Denotations Might Be the Same; the Connotations Are Entirely Different'

handle is hein.journals/abaj108 and id is 330 raw text is: I WORDS Many relate to politics: I'm a con- servatve. You're a reactionary. They're _ fascists. Or I'm liberal. You're left-leanz- S ing. They're communistic. Lawyers, of course, are well famil- iar with the impact that labeling can have. Sometimes there are only two real choices: pro-Iife/anti-abortion and pro-choice/pro-abortion. In recent C lawsuits, lawyers and judges had the choice between using the neutral abor- tion providers or the more tendentious abortionists. We generally expect judges to use neutral terminology that is con- sidered acceptable to the people being referred to. But it doesn't always turn out that way. It comes up in litigation involving nonbinary people (as many prefer to be called). Are they nonbinary, transsexual or gender-dysphoric? Similarly, do ,ve say gay, homosexual or something else? There are lots of old dysphemisms to avoid if we seek to be-or to appear- WORDS fair-minded. Spin Conjugations 'The denotations might be the same; the connotations are entirely different' Iim firm. You're obstinate. Those other people are just plain pigheaded. I'm an enthusiast. You're a fanatic. They're lunatics. So many things can be characterized positively, rather neutrally and extreme- ly negatively. For word-lovers, inventing examples of trifurcated terminology can be a great parlor game. The idea first became popular in 1948, when the philosopher Bertrand Russell spoke on a radio program and mentioned what he called emotive con- jugations, which are variable depic- tions of the same phenomenon based on differing perceptions or points of view. They follow an I'm/you're/they're pattern, and in their three categories, they mimic verb conjugations (go/ went/gone, etc.). They're used to show different slants on a trait, mindset, act, etc. The idea is to say I'm X (very positive); you're Y (much less positive, perhaps negative); they're Z (quite negative). Hence, I've reconsidered; you've changed your mind; they've flip-flopped. The denotations might be the same; the connotations are entire- ly different because they make us feel more or less favorably disposed. Word choice can affect how we perceive and describe the very same things or behav- iors. I call these linguistic trios spin conjugations, some call them emotive conjugations and still others, Russell con jugations. The grammatical term conjugation, of course, is here used in a jocular, figurative sense. Some spin conjugations relate to in- ternational affairs: I'm a freedom fight- er. You're a guerrilla. They're terrorists. Refuse to play ball In our hook M'aking Your Case: The Art of Persuading judges, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and I discussed the importance of the seman- tic playing field. Labels can make an enormous difference. We cite the exam- ple of a lawsuit challenging regulations on speakers at college campuses. You might call it hate-speech litigation, or you might call it speaker-han litigation. The lawyers challenging the regula- tions, of course, used the latter phrase- and remarkably, they succeeded in getting everyone else to use the same phrase. Once that happened, the result seemed almost preordained. So you must remain semantically acute: You should be wary of adopting an oppo- nent's slanted characterization. The slanting can be subliminal. One aspect of linguistic astuteness involves denials of derogatory charac- terizations. If someone calls your client a liar, you'd be ill-advised to assert, My client is not a liar! It's far better to avoid the negative term altogether. Don't repeat the negative word liar. Instead, you might say, My client has 24

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most