The bad word of 2020 will be announced on Tuesday.
It is a language-critical action that is intended to draw attention to inappropriate language use and thus raise awareness.
Darmstadt - A jury of linguists announced the
unword of 2020
in Darmstadt on Tuesday
.
As part of the nationwide much-noticed action,
inhuman
or
inappropriate terms have been
selected
from the jury's point of view since 1991
.
This is intended to
draw attention
to “
undifferentiated
,
veiling
or
defamatory public use of language
”.
Because of the corona pandemic, there will be no press conference this year.
Words are reprimanded with the bad word of 2020.
Pure swear words don't count.
Proposals must meet one of the criteria.
The jury is not based on the number of suggestions for a single word.
Unword of the year: The principles of action
because they violate the
principle of human
dignity (e.g. chatter of the moment for cases of abuse in the Catholic Church),
because they violate the
principles of democracy
(e.g. no alternative as an attitude / position in the political discussion in order to avoid such and evade the obligation to argue),
because they
discriminate against
individual
social groups
(e.g. through inadequate simplification or blanket condemnation, such as affluent garbage as a paraphrase for people who are unwilling to work or people who are unable to work),
because they are
euphemistic, veiled or even misleading
(e.g. voluntary departure as an official term for the only partially or not at all voluntary return of asylum seekers to their home countries from detention centers).
Unword of the year 2020 - what follows the term “climate hysteria”?
Last year the term “
climate hysteria
” was chosen as the bad word of the year.
According to the jury, the word would defame climate protection efforts and the climate protection movement and discredit debates.
The term had been used repeatedly in the political debate, especially by AfD politicians.
In addition to “climate hysteria”, the jury also criticized the terms “population change” and “ethical wall”.
"Isolation", "Systemling", "Wirrologie" or "Fluchen" were received, among other things, according to the jury on the subject of the corona pandemic.
Most frequently, however, “
systemically important
” (180) and “lateral thinker” (116) were suggested for the topic of 2020 that would dominate almost everything.
But there were also suggestions from other subject areas.
In connection with migration, for example, “deportation sponsorship”, “anchor children” or “protection against migration” have been suggested.
By the way:
A term
that everyone knows was chosen
for the
word of the year 2020
.
(AFP, dpa, ml)