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. |
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 | |