TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2013 CH 2 LANGUAGE AND AUTHORITY, 31-61 Opening Statements We must often use and teach Standard

English, but we should question assumptions about it and render it problematic from a linguists POV: what is it, who and what determines it, and according to what and why? Standardization is a sociolinguistic fact, but our attitudes about the relationship of the standard to other dialects are learned. It doesnt mean that we dont teach Standard English and prescriptive grammar, but it can mean that we provide a context for Standard English and teach descriptive grammar, too (50) Remember: no ones use of English ever became less effective from knowing more about The Who of Language Authority Language Academies like the Acadmie Franaise in France (and comparable ones in ENspeaking countries) have historically met with little success in controlling language change; e.g., e-mail Language change is very hard to control by decree (32) WE invest Language Mavens (word police or grammar Nazis, usu. non-linguists) like EN teachers, editors, journalists, authors with authority to tell us what is right or wrong in matters of usage esp. in written language; e.g., uninterested vs. disinterested [W]hat I have most at Heart is, that some Standard English Standard English is a dialect of English elevated to the status of standard for social and political reasons (37); is the prestige social dialect (36) Most definitions of Standard English are fuzzy (36); how would you define it? what are its features? standard in terms of what? is it more what it isnt than what it is? Perhaps Standard English is most easily found in print, news programs, or the speech of the educated There is acceptable variation even within Standard English; e.g., dived or dove; is it more

like a continuum than an either/or decision? Our language use is more standard in our writing than in our speech, and in general spoken language tends to admit more variety than written language Do you feel more comfortable with written EN or spoken EN? Why? Is EN language use generally becoming more like speech or more like writing or neither? Spoken vs. Written Language Descriptivism vs. Prescriptivism Revisited Cf. how linguists and non-linguists use grammatical Descriptivism characterizes actual use, what something is, without evaluating it; linguists tend to be descriptivists Prescriptivism recommends correct use, what something should be, and so evaluates it; language mavens tend to be prescriptivists Case studies: multiple negatives, aint, who and whom; none is wrong according to the descriptive rules of EN grammar the prescriptive [not descriptive] rules speakers and writers of English have come to accept (more or less) are socially constructed

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2013 CH 2 LANGUAGE AND AUTHORITY, 31-61, CONT. The What of Language Authority

Lexicography and Dictionaries Dictionaries are a recent invention, as is the notion of dictionaries as authoritative History: glosses and glossaries, brief lists of hard words, larger and multi-component general, historical and diachronic (OED), usage notes, various kinds Turning point toward prescriptivism in 18th c. Grammar and Usage/Style Books Such books for EN are a modern invention presupposing a Standard EN History: parallels that of dictionaries, emerging in Renaissance and becoming important in 18th c. (often with Latin as model) BUT, unlike dictionaries, and until very recently, Discussion: Dictionaries How would you compile a dictionary? What words would you include or not? According to what criteria of inclusion? What parts would a given entry have? Would you include usage notes within entries? And would those notes describe, prescribe, proscribe, and why? Discussion: Corpus Linguistics Can technology in the form of huge searchable electronic text databases (corpora) help us learn new and important things about real language use? About literature? What might be some examples? Corpora allow any one of you to come up with an interesting linguistic question, to design a systematic methodology for collecting data, to analyze those data . . . and to add to all of our understanding of how the English language works as spoken and written by real people in real time (55-56)