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 50
... specific would not have been comprehensible to the people who spoke other West African languages . For example , while in English we express the future with a word , will , in one language spoken by the first slaves in Suriname , Ewe ...
... specific would not have been comprehensible to the people who spoke other West African languages . For example , while in English we express the future with a word , will , in one language spoken by the first slaves in Suriname , Ewe ...
Page 161
... specific African features in Black English . Could it be that Black English just has different kinds of African carryovers than creoles ? ” As it hap- pens , however , almost none of the purportedly " Black English and the Mother ...
... specific African features in Black English . Could it be that Black English just has different kinds of African carryovers than creoles ? ” As it hap- pens , however , almost none of the purportedly " Black English and the Mother ...
Page 225
... specific engagement with phraseology that word problems require . This would in turn be due to cultural and socioeconomic factors . These define black Ameri- cans as crucially as language , which would once again appear to have been ...
... specific engagement with phraseology that word problems require . This would in turn be due to cultural and socioeconomic factors . These define black Ameri- cans as crucially as language , which would once again appear to have been ...
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-American children African-American students Afrocentric ain't American English audience basic Black and standard black children Black English Black English sound black speech black students bridging advocates bridging approach classroom code-switching complex creole languages culture dard developed dialect of English dialect readers endings English dialects English speakers example expression fact French gender-neutral pronoun glish grammar guage Gullah Haitian Haitian Creole issue Jamaican patois John Rickford language change language mixture languages spoken Latin less linguistic means Media Lengua nonstandard dialects noun Old English patterns person play prepositions problem pronoun Quechua reading reason rules Saramaccan Scots seen sense sentence structures separate language Shakespeare Shirley simply singular slang slaves sound system Spanish speak speech variety Sranan standard dialect standard English sure teachers tense things tion translation verb vowel walk West African languages words writing