Goeffry K Pullum Research Paper

“Authority and American Usage” written by David Foster Wallace, poses an argument about the English language, and the different beliefs of its usage. This essay was written in defense of Bryan A. Garner’s, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage. His argument in “Authority and American Usage” is the difference the between prescriptivism perception and the descriptivism perception (Linguistic terms that could easily be made into smaller, more understandable words for people like me). Since the beginning of time, language has evolved. From biblical times, to Shakespearean times, to present day; the English language has been continuously changing since it’s birth and has no intentions on stopping.

Exploration of modern usage dictionaries, the invisible linguistic war, and a grammar-obsessed adult’s troubled childhood flesh out this review by David Foster Wallace of The American Usage Dictionary. “Plus, of course, there are also innumerable sub- and subsub-dialects based on all sorts of things that have nothing to do with locale or ethnicity - Medical-School English, Twelve-Year-Old-Male-Whose-Worldview-Is-Deeply-Informed-By-South-Park-English - that are nearly incomprehensible to anyone who is not inside their very tight and specific Discourse Community (which of course is part of their function)”. The notion that sub-dialects which nearly every person possesses bar entry to groups makes one think about exclusivity. Exclusivity possesses a negative

On October 22, 2014, Raffaella Zanuttini’s essay, “Our Language Prejudices Don’t Make No Sense,” was published in Pacific Standard magazine. This work was written to draw attention to the false assumptions made about different varieties of the English language. Zanuttini starts her essay by considering, “There are some things you just don’t say in a polite society” (173). With this statement, she is referring to the ridicule made on different varieties of language. Zanuttini offers a few examples of judgements people often make, negative concord demonstrating one of them. Negative concord is a part of the Russian language and many others, but in today’s English, those who speak with negative concord occupy a low position on the socioeconomic scale. Zanuttini then introduces an argument in which people believe the language they speak is inferior. The English language has many recipes and according to Zanuttini, these different variations can be associated with age, ethnic or social identity, and geographical location. Although, there is a prestige language that should be used for business matters. As a final remark, she describes how different varieties of the same language should be viewed. Zanuttini indicates different dialects are like bread. No bread is better than any other, but for certain purposes, different breads should be used. Just like bread, no variation of language should be judged.

English is the most common language spoken in The United States; however, there are a vast amount of dialects spoken in the country. America is currently divided. The way in which one person speaks places them in different hierarchies in civilization. Some people may look down on others who speak in a different way than they do. Social groups form over whether a certain individual talks the same as another. Americans are placed in a position of power if they are able to speak in “proper” English. Many black Americans may feel even more disenfranchised from white Americans that are in power because they cannot relate to the way in which they

In today’s society, grammar is an origin on which many people are judged. As black students we have a right to speak our language, however, that right is denied when we try to enter mainstream America because our language is not acceptable in the business setting. In some cases, students of color are looked down upon because we speak nonstandard English and we are not capable of speaking standard American English in school or in mainstream America. Because many of us lack the use of standard American English, we become victims of discrimination. In Garrard McClendon’s 2007 interview Garrard McClendon on Black English- Ebonics he states that “There are aren’t teachers bold enough to correct the English of students” particularly black students.

Betsey Johnson is an American designer from Terryville, Connecticut. She designs off beat, alternative style clothing that has throughout the world become famous and well known. Her style consists of bright, neon colors, low cuts, short hemlines, and a flair for the unusual. Celebrities such as Hayley Williams, Miley Cyrus, and Cassadee Pope wear her line. Johnson has been in the fashion industry since the 1960’s, and at age 72 she has yet to slow down, and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

As described by Junior, Gordy is an “eighty year old literature professor trapped in the body of a 15 year old farmboy”. In other words, Gordy is really smart. He speaks like an Anglophile and has a passion for books and poetry. Even so, Gordy respects all forms of literature, as he said himself, “If you are good drawing cartoons and you love it, and it helps you navigate the rivers of the world, then it can’t be wrong.” Although Gordy is nerdy, he is very tough. When Junior told Gordy, he is in love with a white girl, Gordy did some research. He learnt that one white girl and 200 Mexican girls were kidnapped in the same area, but only the white girl was reported missing. Because Gordy believes all people are equal, he proceeded to call Junior a “racist asshole”.

The final and most recognizable trait of AAVE is the use of the habitual ‘be.’ The habitual ‘be’ conveys events that happen routinely. Jack Sidnell offers several examples in “African American Vernacular English- Ebonics.” He illustrates, “Standard English present perfect: He has been married. AAVE been: He been married” (Sidnell). In the Standard English sentence the implication is that, he is now no longer married. However, in the AAVE sentence the implication is quite the opposite: he is still married. The four above-mentioned grammatical features are not the only rules that AAVE speakers follow, but these rules are the most common and recognizable traits of AAVE.

As is the purpose behind the idea of being American.Yet behind the veil of so called, equal economics, there is a huge difference between the teaching a necessity, such as common english within the school community, and something that won’t become of high importance within an academic community.

The South is probably the most linguistically diversified part of the nation. Blacks and whites from Atlanta to Charleston to Nashville speak a different form of standard English in a different version of the Southern accent. Part of this linguistic diversity is reflected in the way that the Southern aristocracy can “shift not only vocabulary and pronunciation, but even grammar, according to the audience” ((1)McDavid 219). This

It's a rare, one of a kind, never seen before creature. A doncus. I named it myself! Donkey plus a plus a platypuses head. It has a donkey's body and a platypuses head. Its fluffy all over and has flippers for feet. Doncus has a cheery personality and i safe to approach. It lives on land and in water. The doncus eats grass as it is a herbivore. Even though the doncus has a platypuses head it has donkey ears and amazing hearing. This animal is my best discovery

School has always been a place of business, in my opinion. A place where we are educated and prepared for life, essentially. And the proper way of doing so, as I believe most people have been taught, is to enhance all skills such as vocabulary, grammar, mathematics, etc... This is why we are taught so many subjects, being tested and guided to follow whichever path we feel most comfortable or skilled at doing. During the process, is where skills are established and developed. The product that is intended after having gone through school is to shape a well skilled, educated, and productive person that can benefit society as a whole. In limiting the teaching of Standard American English, we would be limiting the amount of people that can fulfill their potential, raise the difficulty for teachers, and accept mediocrity. In keeping this dialect, students will gain new skills and learn the language of business to prepare them for any encounters along the way. There is no need, in my eyes, to minimize or put an extent to teaching the English dialect and that is what I will personally support in this essay.

African American English is diverging from Standard American English. As shown in Do You Speak American (2005), AAE originates from the time of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. English was introduced to trade ports in Africa by colonialists, resulting in the creation of pidgin - a mixture of English and African languages that is still in use today. More recently, African Americans who have moved from the South to the North have been more segregated, creating greater divergence between AAE and SAE. As many African Americans maintain ties to the South, such as continued contact with friends or family in the south, similarities between AAE and southern dialects remain. However, each group have selected features that are important, such as maintaining ‘r’ in the North or keeping certain features as a way of preserving history, resulting in different dialect patterns between the North and the South to develop.

Historically, humans have always been separated into groups based on appearance, whether that is concerning body shape, the clothes we wear, or the color of our skin. Stereotyping is a natural instinct that humans have because they feel the need to classify people in order to not feel threatened by them. Humans feel an obligation to know and understand people but do not necessarily want to be associated with them, thus they place people into specific groups, labeling them. One of the primary ways that we stereotype people is by their race. Being a minority that has always been prejudiced against in America, African Americans are often judged because of the way that they speak. Black students have struggled in academic settings that use Standard English, such as in the common American classroom. African American Vernacular English (AAVE) harms Black students through discrimination on standardized tests and in classroom environments.

African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety previously known as Black English Vernacular or Vernacular Black English by sociolinguists, and commonly called Ebonics outside the academic community. However, some characteristics of AAVE are seemingly unique in its structure. It also includes a number of standard and nonstandard English varieties are spoken by the US and the Caribbean people. AAVE has been the core of many public debates and also the analysis of this variety has encouraged and sustained debates amongst sociolinguists.  Some speakers may use some special aspects of pronunciation and vocabulary. Nevertheless, the grammatical features are not connected with the variety. Several sociolinguists would reserve the term AAVE for varieties which are marked by the existence of specific distinctive grammatical features and some of them are discussed below. The history of AAVE and what language varieties it is related to are also a matter of argument. Some scholars confirm that AAVE developed out a connection between speakers of West African languages and speakers of vernacular English varieties. According to such an opinion, West Africans learnt English on plantations in the southern Coastal States from very few native speakers. Some say that this led to the development of a rudimentary pidgin, a very simple language which has been extended through a process of colorization later.