Promotional Information

Eminent linguists tell the real stories behind prescriptivism, dialects, American Sign Language, the English-Only movement, language and politics, media communication, and other topics concerning language in society.

Table of Contents

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 Languages in Danger of Extinction "From Out in Left Field? That's Not Cricket": Finding a Focus for the Language Curriculum by David Crystal Investigating English around the World: The International Corpus of English by Gerald Nelson and Bas Aarts Speaking of America: Why English-Only Is a Bad Idea by Geoffrey Nunberg Language Loss, Our Loss by Mari Rhydwen Language and Politics, Prejudice, the Media, Creativity, Humor, and Gender Metaphor, Morality, and Politics: Or, Why Conservatives Have Left Liberals in the Dust by George Lakoff Language as a Weapon of Hate by Rae A. Moses Language and the News Media: Five Facts about the Fourth Estate by Colleen Cotter Life on Mars: Language and the Instruments of Invention by Mark Turner and Gilles Fauconnier Laughing at and Laughing with: The Linguistics of Humor, and Humor in Literature by Victor Raskin Women and Men in Conversation by Deborah Tannen Breaking Mythical Bonds: African American Women's Language by Denise Troutman Index

About the Author

REBECCA S. WHEELER teaches writing, grammar, and linguistics in the English Department at Christopher Newport University in Virginia.

Reviews

"The gap between the results of linguistic research and commonly held views about language seems to widen almost daily. Drawing on topics of immediate public interest--like Ebonics and the differences in communication styles between men and women--The Workings of Language: From Prescriptions to Perspectives attempts to build a bridge across the chasm....[It] will...serve as a welcome addition to the syllabus of any instructor whose responsibility it is to teach the English language and linguistics courses."-Susan Steele Vice Provost University of Connecticut