Language Matters: A Guide to Everyday Questions About Language - Hardcover

Napoli, Donna Jo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195155289 ISBN 13: 9780195155280

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2003

Synopsis

Is Ebonics really a dialect or simply bad English? Do women and men speak differently? Will computers ever really learn human language? Does offensive language harm children? These are only a few of the issues surrounding language that crop up every day. Most of us have very definite opinions on these questions one way or another. Yet as linguist Donna Jo Napoli points out in this short and highly entertaining volume, many of our most deeply held ideas about the nature of language and its role in our lives are either misconceived or influenced by myths and stereotypes

Napoli provides an entertaining tour through the world of language, examining these and other vexing and controversial language-related questions. Throughout, she encourages and leads the reader to use common-sense and everyday experience rather than preconceived notions or technical linguistic expertise. Both her questions and her conclusions are surprising, sometimes provocative, and always entertaining. This volume is sure to engage both general readers and students of language and linguistics at any level.

About this title

About the Author

Donna Jo Napoli, Professor of Linguistics, Swarthmore College.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0195155289
• ISBN 13: 9780195155280
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 208