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.
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A collection of original essays by 21 of the world's leading linguists. It discusses topics on some of the popular myths about language: the media are ruining English; children can't speak or write properly anymore; and, America is ruining the English language.
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A Note on the ContributorsIntroductionMyth 1: The Meanings of Words Should Not be Allowed to Vary or Change: Peter TrudgillMyth 2: Some Languages Are Just Not Good Enough: Ray HarlowMyth 3: The Media Are Ruining English: Jean AitchisonMyth 4: French is a Logical Language: Anthony LodgeMyth 5: English Spelling is Kattastroffik: Edward CarneyMyth 6: Women Talk Too Much: Janet HolmesMyth 7: Some Languages Are Harder than Others: Lars-Gunnar AnderssonMyth 8: Children Can't Speak or Write Properly Any More: James MilroyMyth 9: In the Appalachians They Speak like Shakespeare: Michael MontgomeryMyth 10: Some Languages Have No Grammar: Winifred BauerMyth 11: Italian is Beautiful, German is Ugly: Howard Giles and Nancy NiedzielskiMyth 12: Bad Grammar is Slovenly: Leslie MilroyMyth 13: Black Children are Verbally Deprived: Walt WolframMyth 14: Double Negatives Are Illogical: Jenny CheshireMyth 15: TV Makes People Sound the Same: J. K. ChambersMyth 16: You Shouldn't Say "It Is Me" because "Me" is Accusative: Laurie BauerMyth 17: They Speak Really Bad English Down South and in New York City: Dennis R. PrestonMyth 18: Some Languages Are Spoken More Quickly than Others: Peter RoachMyth 19: Aborigines Speak a Primitive Lanugage: Nicholas EvansMyth 20: Everyone Has an Accent Except Me: John H. EslingMyth 21: America is Ruining the English Language: John AlgeoIndex
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780140260236
Publisert
1999
Utgiver
Vendor
Penguin Books Ltd
Vekt
157 gr
Høyde
198 mm
Bredde
129 mm
Dybde
12 mm
Aldersnivå
01, G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
208

Forfatter

Biographical note

Peter Trudgill and Laurie Bauer are both respected linguists. Trudgill has written many books for Penguin (including Sociolinguistics which has sold 130,000 copies since it was first published in 1974). Other contributors include Jean Aitchison (Professor of Language at Oxford), Lars Gunnar-Andersson (co-author of Bad Language with Trudgill) and Janet Holmes (Women, Men and Politeness, 1995, Longman). Peter Trudgill lives in Lausanne (and sometimes Norwich.) Laurie Bauer lives in New Zealand.