The Word On The StreetIn The Word on the Street, John McWhorter reveals our American English in all its variety, beauty, and expressiveness. Debunking the myth of a "pure" standard English, he considers the speech patterns and accents of many regions and ethnic groups in the U.S. and demonstrates how language evolves. He takes up the tricky question of gender-neutral pronouns. He dares to ask, "Should we translate Shakespeare?" Focusing on whether how our children speak determines how they learn, he presents the controversial Ebonics debate in light of his research on dialects and creoles. The Word on the Street frees us to truly speak our minds. It is John McWhorter's answer to William Safire, transformed here into everybody's Aunt Lucy, who insists on correcting our grammar and making us feel slightly embarrassed about our everyday use of the language. ("To whom," she will insist, and "don't split your infinitives!") He reminds us that we'd better accept the fact that language is always changing - not only slang, but sound, syntax, and words' meanings - and get on with the business of communicating effectively with one another. |
From inside the book
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Page 90
... play ends , and you clap vigorously as the actors take their bows . The applause dies down with an almost abrupt swiftness after the actors leave the stage , and you trudge purposefully out into the night air with the audience . Look ...
... play ends , and you clap vigorously as the actors take their bows . The applause dies down with an almost abrupt swiftness after the actors leave the stage , and you trudge purposefully out into the night air with the audience . Look ...
Page 94
... play , as in his day the play was generally performed in a reworked version with a happy ending few objected to . ) The regular presentation of Shakespeare followed to the word in full - length , or only discretely cut versions , only ...
... play , as in his day the play was generally performed in a reworked version with a happy ending few objected to . ) The regular presentation of Shakespeare followed to the word in full - length , or only discretely cut versions , only ...
Page 107
... play beforehand , but even then I had too much else to do to follow the annotations for any but the most hopeless archaisms . And besides , ultimately a play is written to be performed , not read , and certainly not deciphered . A play ...
... play beforehand , but even then I had too much else to do to follow the annotations for any but the most hopeless archaisms . And besides , ultimately a play is written to be performed , not read , and certainly not deciphered . A play ...
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Lava Lamps and Language | 7 |
The Linguistic Melting Pot | 35 |
Copyright | |
8 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Word On The Street: Debunking The Myth Of A Pure Standard English John Mcwhorter Limited preview - 2000 |
Word On The Street: Debunking The Myth Of A Pure Standard English John Mcwhorter Limited preview - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
actually African Americans African Language System African-American children African-American students Afrocentric ain't Ameri American English basic bidialectal Black and standard black children Black English Black English sound black speech black students bridging advocates bridging approach child claim that Black classroom code-switching complex creole creole languages culture dard dialect of English dialect readers divergence English dialects example fact French glish grammar guage Gullah habitual Haitian Haitian Creole home dialect issue Jamaican patois John Rickford language change language mixture Latin less linguistic means Media Lengua nonstandard dialects Old English past patterns person problem pronoun Quechua reading rural Southern seen sense sentence structures separate language Shakespeare Shirley simply slang slaves sound system Spanish speech variety spoken Sranan standard dialect standard English standard German sure Swiss German teachers teaching tense things tion translation verb vowel walk West African languages words writing