The Workings of Language: From Prescriptions to Perspectives

Introduction by Rebecca S. Wheeler Ways of Talking The Language Mavens by Steven Pinker North American Varieties of English as By-products of Language Contacts by Salikoko S. Mufwene African American Vernacular English Is Not Standard English with Mistakes by Geoffrey K. Pullum Home Speech as Springboard to School Speech: Oakland's Commendable Work on Ebonics by Rebecca S. Wheeler Southern Mountain English: The Language of the Ozarks and Southern Appalachia by Bethany K. Dumas On the Other Hand: American Sign Language, Signed Englishes, and Other Visual Language Systems by Lynn S. Messing Englishes, English-Only, and Languages in Danger of Extinction "From Out in Left Field? That's Not Cricket": Finding a Focus for the Language Curriculum by David Crystal Investigating English around the World: The International Corpus of English by Gerald Nelson and Bas Aarts Speaking of America: Why English-Only Is a Bad Idea by Geoffrey Nunberg Language Loss, Our Loss by Mari Rhydwen Language and Politics, Prejudice, the Media, Creativity, Humor, and Gender Metaphor, Morality, and Politics: Or, Why Conservatives Have Left Liberals in the Dust by George Lakoff Language as a Weapon of Hate by Rae A. Moses Language and the News Media: Five Facts about the Fourth Estate by Colleen Cotter Life on Mars: Language and the Instruments of Invention by Mark Turner and Gilles Fauconnier Laughing at and Laughing with: The Linguistics of Humor, and Humor in Literature by Victor Raskin Women and Men in Conversation by Deborah Tannen Breaking Mythical Bonds: African American Women's Language by Denise Troutman Index