Language Myths
by Bauer, Laurie; Trudgill, PeterFormat: Paperback
Pub. Date: 1999-09-07
Publisher(s): Penguin Books
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Summary
A unique collection of original essays by 21 of the world's leading linguists. The topics discussed focus on some of the most popular myths about language: The Media Are Ruining English; Children Can't Speak or Write Properly Anymore; America is Ruining the English Language. The tone is lively and entertaining throughout and there are cartoons from Doonesbury andThe Wizard of Id to illustrate some of the points. The book should have a wide readership not only amongst students who want to read leading linguists writing about popular misconceptions but also amongst the large number of people who enjoy reading about language in general.
Author Biography
Laurie Bauer is a Reader in Linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and the author of many books and articles on word formation, international varieties of English, and language change in current English.
Peter Trudgill is professor of English linguistics at Fribourg, Switzerland. An author of many books and articles on sociolinguistics and dialectology, he has carried out linguistic fieldwork in most countries.
Peter Trudgill is professor of English linguistics at Fribourg, Switzerland. An author of many books and articles on sociolinguistics and dialectology, he has carried out linguistic fieldwork in most countries.
Table of Contents
| A Note on the Contributors | |
| Introduction | |
| The Meanings of Words Should Not be Allowed to Vary or Change | p. 1 |
| Some Languages are Just Not Good Enough | p. 9 |
| The Media are Ruining English | p. 15 |
| French is a Logical Language | p. 23 |
| English Spelling is Kattastroffik | p. 32 |
| Women Talk Too Much | p. 41 |
| Some Languages are Harder than Others | p. 50 |
| Children Can't Speak or Write Properly Any More | p. 58 |
| In the Appalachians They Speak like Shakespeare | p. 66 |
| Some Languages Have No Grammar | p. 77 |
| Italian is Beautiful, German is Ugly | p. 85 |
| Bad Grammar is Slovenly | p. 94 |
| Black Children are Verbally Deprived | p. 103 |
| Double Negatives are Illogical | p. 113 |
| TV Makes People Sound the Same | p. 123 |
| You Shouldn't Say 'It is Me' because 'Me' is Accusative | p. 132 |
| They Speak Really Bad English Down South and in New York City | p. 139 |
| Some Languages are Spoken More Quickly than Others | p. 150 |
| Aborigines Speak a Primitive Language | p. 159 |
| Everyone Has an Accent Except Me | p. 169 |
| America is Ruining the English Language | p. 176 |
| Index | p. 183 |
| Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved. |
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