Authority in Language: Investigating Standard EnglishRoutledge, 2012 M03 12 - 208 pages Authority in Language explores the perennially topical and controversial notion of correct and incorrect language. James and Lesley Milroy cover the long-running debate over the teaching of Standard English in Britain and compare the language ideologies in Britain and the USA, involving a discussion of the English-Only movement and the Ebonics controversy. They consider the historical process of standardisation and its social consequences, in particular discrimination against low-status and ethnic minority groups on the basis of their language traits. This Routledge Linguistics Classic is here reissued with a new foreword and a new afterword in which the authors broaden their earlier concept of language ideology. Authority in Language is indispensable reading for educationalists, teachers and linguists and a long-standing text for courses in sociolinguistics, modern English grammar, history of English and language ideology. |
From inside the book
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... distinctions that are often not made (for example, the distinction between speech and writing and between 'grammaticality' and 'acceptability' in language use). We have also found it necessary to point out the wide capacity of ordinary ...
... distinction between speech and writing and the tendency of prescriptive statements to be based purely on written language, taking little account of variation in speech. Chapter 5 looks more closely at the social stratification of ...
... distinction between this ' formal structure ' and the actual use of language on particular occasions . A distinction of this kind has been basic in the work of most general linguists since de Saussure proposed a distinction between ...
... distinction between you ( singular ) and yous ( plural ) . In such dialects ( e.g. Northern Irish ) , a comment like I'll see you tomorrow will be understood to be directed to only one person in a given group : I'll see yous tomorrow ...
... distinction between language system and language use. Their comments usually focus on certain particular points of usage (e.g. the shall/will distinction or the double negative). Thus they appear to be comments about language use rather ...
Contents
Standard English and the complaint tradition | |
Spoken and written norms | |
Grammar and speech | |
Linguistic prescription and the speech community | |
Linguistic repertoires and communicative competence | |
Planned and unplanned speech events | |
educational issues | |
the standard language ideology | |
Bibliography | |
Index | |