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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... 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 individuals ...
... that are said to be ' substandard ' ( e.g. omitting initial [ h ] in words like happy , hair , or using double negatives ) may well find that his or her social mobility is blocked and may , for example , be refused access to certain ...
... that are intended to estimate children's linguistic abilities are used in the educational systems of many countries, including Britain and the United States. Standardised testing procedures are also widely used to assess degrees of ...
... that are pre-judged as not 'acceptable' to some analyst or other). One consequence of the doctrine of arbitrariness is the linguist's working assumption that no language or dialect can be shown to be better or worse than another on ...
... that are advanced in support of the preferred form can usually be matched by equally good arguments in support of the rejected forms. But all these arguments are post hoc rationalisations, and do not in themselves prove anything. It is ...
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 | |