Word On The Street: Debunking The Myth Of A Pure Standard EnglishThough there is a contingent of linguists who fight the fact, our language is always changing -- not only through slang, but sound, syntax, and words' meanings as well. Debunking the myth of "pure" standard English, tackling controversial positions, and eschewing politically correct arguments, linguist John McWhorter considers speech patterns and regional accents to demonstrate just how the changes do occur. Wielding reason and humor, McWhorter ultimately explains why we must embrace these changes, ultimately revealing our American English in all its variety, expressiveness, and power. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 52
Page
... speakers use only the new form instead of the old and the new one. After a long enough period, no one uses the old ... English to Middle English to Modern English took place in just this way, through the gradual triumph of one sloppy ...
... speakers use only the new form instead of the old and the new one. After a long enough period, no one uses the old ... English to Middle English to Modern English took place in just this way, through the gradual triumph of one sloppy ...
Page
... English. Over time, the erosion of sounds that we have seen turned like ... speakers centuries ago—yet imagine reading a sixhundredyearold newspaper ... English falling apart: Is he not a Novice and unmannerly, and an Ideot and a Fool ...
... English. Over time, the erosion of sounds that we have seen turned like ... speakers centuries ago—yet imagine reading a sixhundredyearold newspaper ... English falling apart: Is he not a Novice and unmannerly, and an Ideot and a Fool ...
Page
... spoken one, is full of. Indeed, writing slows language change down somewhat even on the spoken level, as writing reinforces our sense of “language” as a disembodied blueprint to be followed or flouted. English changed much more from ...
... spoken one, is full of. Indeed, writing slows language change down somewhat even on the spoken level, as writing reinforces our sense of “language” as a disembodied blueprint to be followed or flouted. English changed much more from ...
Page
... speakers of other languages, making the two strands even more different as time goes by. After a while, the two ... English speakers softened the/at the end of/orgy/into a v). Similarly, each branch of a language will create new endings ...
... speakers of other languages, making the two strands even more different as time goes by. After a while, the two ... English speakers softened the/at the end of/orgy/into a v). Similarly, each branch of a language will create new endings ...
Page
... speakers were so often bilingual in Romanian and some other language that placed its definite article after the noun ... English is not a “degraded” form of Old English, none of the multiple branches of a language are degradations of the ...
... speakers were so often bilingual in Romanian and some other language that placed its definite article after the noun ... English is not a “degraded” form of Old English, none of the multiple branches of a language are degradations of the ...
Other editions - View all
Word On The Street: Debunking The Myth Of A Pure Standard English John Mcwhorter Limited preview - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
actually African Americans AfricanAmerican children AfricanAmerican students Afrocentric ain’t American English audience basic bidialectal bilingual Black and standard black children Black English black speech black students bridging advocates bridging approach classroom codeswitching complex Creole languages Creolist culture developed dialect of English dialect readers endings English dialects English speakers example expression fact French genderneutral German grammar Gullah habitual Haitian immersion issue Jamaican patois John Rickford language change language mixture Latin Level linguists means Media Lengua modern nonstandard dialects noun Oakland controversy Old English patterns person pidgin play prepositions problem pronoun Quechua reading Rickford Romance languages rules Saramaccan seen sense sentence structures separate language Shakespeare Shirley simply singular slang slaves sound system Spanish speak speech variety Sranan standard dialect standard English sure Swiss German teachers teaching tense things translation verb vowel walk West African languages words writing