Archive of posts filed under the Readings category.

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 …

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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 …

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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 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 …

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Reading for F 4/1: Austin (1956/1961)

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For this Friday’s class, please read the following article, which can be downloaded from the “Readings” section of this website: Austin, John L. 1956/1961. Performative utterances. In J.O. Urmson and G.J. Warnock (eds), J.L. Austin: Philosophical Papers, 233-252. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Reading for W 3/9: Solan 1993, Chap. 2 (pgs. 38-45)

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For this Wednesday, please read pgs. 38-45 of the following book chapter, which can be downloaded from the “Readings” section of this website. Solan, Lawrence M. 1993. The Language of Judges, Chapter 2 (‘The Judge as Linguist’). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Note that we already read pgs. 28-38 of this chapter for last week.  So you …

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