The Workings Of Language: From Prescriptions To Perspectives [Hardcover]

The essays in this book help to make sense of the workings of language in our everyday worldon 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.

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 Laló&