The Workings of Language
From Prescriptions to Perspectives
Published on 30. September 1999
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-0-275-96245-6 (ISBN)
Description
The essays in this book help to make sense of the workings of language in our everyday world-on the personal, local, national, and international levels. The authors are all linguists, seeking to help readers free themselves of language prejudices, thus opening the way to better informed views on the function of language in society, a more balanced treatment in schools, and more linguistically-sound public policies.
Defusing Chicken-Little prognostications about English, this volume suggests that dark claims about language are not to be taken at face value. Instead, these claims function as a signal: time to step back. Offering just such a time-out, eminent linguists explore the fuller picture underlying language in our society, examining prescriptivism, Black English, Ozark English, American Sign Language, English-Only, and Endangered Languages.
After helping stomp out such linguistic fires, the linguists showcase the potent workings of language: world englishes, language and politics, media, prejudice, creativity, gender, and humor, thus opening the way to better informed views on the function of language in schools, and more linguistically sound public policies.
Defusing Chicken-Little prognostications about English, this volume suggests that dark claims about language are not to be taken at face value. Instead, these claims function as a signal: time to step back. Offering just such a time-out, eminent linguists explore the fuller picture underlying language in our society, examining prescriptivism, Black English, Ozark English, American Sign Language, English-Only, and Endangered Languages.
After helping stomp out such linguistic fires, the linguists showcase the potent workings of language: world englishes, language and politics, media, prejudice, creativity, gender, and humor, thus opening the way to better informed views on the function of language in schools, and more linguistically sound public policies.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
587 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-275-96245-6 (9780275962456)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
REBECCA S. WHEELER teaches writing, grammar, and linguistics in the English Department at Christopher Newport University in Virginia.
Content
Introduction by Rebecca S. Wheeler Ways of Talking The Language Mavens by Steven Pinker North American Varieties of English as By-products of Language Contacts by Salikoko S. Mufwene African American Vernacular English Is Not Standard English with Mistakes by Geoffrey K. Pullum Home Speech as Springboard to School Speech: Oakland's Commendable Work on Ebonics by Rebecca S. Wheeler Southern Mountain English: The Language of the Ozarks and Southern Appalachia by Bethany K. Dumas On the Other Hand: American Sign Language, Signed Englishes, and Other Visual Language Systems by Lynn S. Messing Englishes, English-Only, and Languages in Danger of Extinction "From Out in Left Field? That's Not Cricket": Finding a Focus for the Language Curriculum by David Crystal Investigating English around the World: The International Corpus of English by Gerald Nelson and Bas Aarts Speaking of America: Why English-Only Is a Bad Idea by Geoffrey Nunberg Language Loss, Our Loss by Mari Rhydwen Language and Politics, Prejudice, the Media, Creativity, Humor, and Gender Metaphor, Morality, and Politics: Or, Why Conservatives Have Left Liberals in the Dust by George Lakoff Language as a Weapon of Hate by Rae A. Moses Language and the News Media: Five Facts about the Fourth Estate by Colleen Cotter Life on Mars: Language and the Instruments of Invention by Mark Turner and Gilles Fauconnier Laughing at and Laughing with: The Linguistics of Humor, and Humor in Literature by Victor Raskin Women and Men in Conversation by Deborah Tannen Breaking Mythical Bonds: African American Women's Language by Denise Troutman Index