Reading for M 5/2: Pullum (2010)

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Your final reading assignment for the semester is the following article, which can be found in the Readings section of this website.  Please read it for Monday, May 2nd:

Pullum, Geoffrey K. 2010. The land of the free and The Elements of Style. English Today 102: 34-44.

No Reading for W 4/27; Reading for F 4/29: Language Myths 1,16; Simon (1980b), excerpt #2

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Since we’re running a bit behind, and since you guys have recently completed both a paper and a quiz, there will be no reading assignment for this Wednesday (4/27).  On Wednesday, we’ll finish up our discussion of the grammar of AAVE.

For this Friday (4/29), please complete the following reading assignments:

1. Chapters 1 and 16 of your Language Myths textbook.

2. Simon, John. 1980b. ‘Sibling Rivalry’ and ‘Just Between Us’.  (Excerpted from Paradigms Lost: Reflections on Literacy and its Decline. New York: Penguin.)

Readings for Th 4/21 and F 4/22 on Oakland Ebonics controversy

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On Thursday and Friday of this week, we will discuss the Oakland Ebonics controversy.  For Thursday, you should read the following articles, each of which is quite short (no more than a few pages apiece):

  • Primary documents on Ebonics (excerpt). 1998. Journal of English Linguistics 26: 170-179.
  • Raspberry, William. 1996, December 26. To throw in a lot of be’s, or not?  A conversation on Ebonics. The Washington Post.
  • Cleaver, Eldridge. 1997, January 31. We need to rescue kids from Ebonics. Los Angeles Times.

For Friday, you should read the following, longer article, which discusses the linguistics of Ebonics (also known as African American Vernacular English), and seeks to clarify certain misconceptions regarding its structure and use:

  • Pullum, Geoffrey K. 1999. African American Vernacular English is not Standard English with mistakes. In R. Wheeler (ed.) The Workings of Language, 39-58. Wesport, CT: Praeger.

As usual, all of the articles can be downloaded from the “Readings” section of this website.

 

 

Reading for W 4/20: Nunberg (1983) & Simon (1980b), excerpt #1

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For next Wednesday 4/20, please complete the following two readings, both of which can be downloaded from the Readings section of our course website:

Nunberg, Geoffrey. 1983, December. The decline of grammar. The Atlantic Monthly.

Simon, John. 1980b. Destroying Good Words.  (Excerpted from Paradigms Lost: Reflections on Literacy and its Decline. New York: Penguin.)

Reading for W 4/13 and F 4/15: Milroy & Milroy (1999), Chaps. 1,2

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For this Wednesday 4/13 and Friday 4/15, please read the following book chapters, which can be downloaded from the “Readings” section of this website:

Milroy, James and Lesley Milroy. 1999. Authority in Language: Investigating Standard English, Chap. 1 (‘Prescription and Standardisation’) and Chap. 2 (‘Standard English and the Complaint Tradition’). London: Routledge.

Reading for M 4/11: Simon (1980a); Language Myths 8, 12

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For next Monday (4/11), please complete the following reading assignments:

1. Simon, John. 1980a. ‘The Corruption of English’. In L. Michaels and C. Ricks (eds), The State of the Language, 35-42. Berkeley: University of California Press.  (Available as a PDF from the “Readings” section of this website.)

2. Chapters 8 and 12 of your Language Myths textbook.

Class meeting for W 4/6 is CANCELLED

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Due to an unforeseen family circumstance, I will have to cancel our class meeting for this Wednesday, April 6. This means that our next class meeting will not be until Friday, April 8. For then, please read Chap. 3 (‘ “Consensual” Searches’) of the Solan & Tiersma book Speaking of Crime, which was assigned for earlier this week.