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Loaded language
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Loaded language, also known as emotive language or high-inference language, is verbiage that attempts to influence the listener or reader by appealing to emotion.
Loaded words and phrases are those which have strong emotional overtones or connotations, and which evoke strongly positive or negative reactions beyond their literal meaning. For example, the phrase tax relief refers literally to deductions that a person might claim in order to reduce the amount of tax they must pay to their government.
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Encyclopedia
Loaded language, also known as emotive language or high-inference language, is verbiage that attempts to influence the listener or reader by appealing to emotion.
Loaded words and phrases are those which have strong emotional overtones or connotations, and which evoke strongly positive or negative reactions beyond their literal meaning. For example, the phrase tax relief refers literally to deductions that a person might claim in order to reduce the amount of tax they must pay to their government. However, use of the emotive word relief implies that the tax was an unreasonable burden to begin with.
The appeal to emotion is often seen as being in contrast to an appeal to logic and reason. However, emotion and reason are not necessarily always in conflict – Murray and Kujundzic characterize this as but a pretense of science fiction – nor is it true that an emotion cannot be a reason for an action. Murray and Kujundzic distinguish "prima facie reasons" from "considered reasons" when discussing this. A "'prima facie" reason for, say, not eating mushrooms is that one does not like mushrooms. This is an emotive reason. However, one still may have a considered reason for not eating mushrooms: one might consume enough of the relevant minerals and vitamins that one could obtain from eating mushrooms from other sources. An emotion, elicited via emotive language, may form a prima facie reason for action, but further work is required before one can obtain a considered reason.
Emotive arguments and loaded language are particularly persuasive because they prey on the human weakness for acting immediately based upon an emotional response, without such further considered judgment. They are thus suspect, and many people recommend their avoidance in argument and in speech when fairness and impartiality is one of the goals. Weston, for example, addressing students and writers, admonishes them to "[i]n general, avoid language whose only function is to sway the emotions".
In contrast, politicians desire the use of loaded language, and often receive coaching on how to use it effectively, with words to avoid, words to use, and words to use when labeling one's opponents. Heller gives the example that rare is the politician in the English speaking world who talks about "public spending" instead of "investment in public services".
One of the facets of loaded language is that loaded words and phrases occur in pairs. Heller names the elements of such a pair "a Boo! version and a Hooray! version", for the words/phrases with negative and positive emotional connotations, respectively. Examples include "bureaucrat" versus "public servant", "regime" versus "government", and "elitist" versus "expert".
Examples
When Kraft Foods invented processed cheese in the early 1900s, some traditional cheese makers demanded the new cheese be labeled "embalmed cheese" by law. But the U.S. government deemed that term too loaded and disparaging, and decided to require the label "process cheese" instead.
Loaded language is often used by news broadcasters in times of conflict as a propaganda technique, but the desire to appear impartial militates against its use. There is a long tradition amongst British broadcasters of avoiding such language, based upon past experience of reporting on The Troubles. During the Falklands War, British reporters were pressured by politicians to use phrases such as "our troops" and "our fleet", but resisted, preferring "the British fleet" and "the Royal Navy task force". This was done because part of the target audience was opposed to the conflict, and also because domestic broadcast television and radio channels were received by people in other countries; reporters deemed it important that their news reports were considered to be credible and trustworthy by this external audience. Hence they avoided such language. This style of avoiding emotive words and phrases when describing conflicts can now be found in many English language news broadcasts around the world.
Following the September 11 attacks, the word madrassa (which means "school" in Arabic) was loaded with negative connotations (see Madrassah#Misuse of the word) by many Westerners that did not speak Arabic and failed to make the distinction between strictly religious Islamic schools and schools that teach primary education subjects. The Yale Center for the Study of Globalization examined bias in U.S. newspaper coverage of Pakistan since the September 11 attacks, and found the term has come to contain a loaded political meaning:
When articles mentioned "madrassas", readers were led to infer that all schools so-named are anti-American, anti-Western, pro-terrorist centers having less to do with teaching basic literacy and more to do with political indoctrination.
Various U.S. public figures have used the word madrassa in a negative context, including Newt Gingrich,
Donald Rumsfeld, and Colin Powell.
Brainwashing
Psychologist Robert Jay Lifton defines loaded language as a technique used in brainwashing, writing, "New words and language are created to explain the new and profound meanings that have been discovered. Existing words are also hijacked and given new and different meaning."
See also
Further reading
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