Language Matters

This senior-level text is a lively and student-centred compilation of essays, short stories, poems, drama and cartoons that leads students through an examination of the uses, forms, and power of language. Topics treated include: "traditional" areas of language such as grammar, etymology, vocabulary, usage, syntax, spelling, poetry, and prose, and contemporary issues such as the effect of computers and the Internet on language, language and gender, and controversies surrounding "political correctness" and the way it affects how we speak, write and think. Using a process approach, the editors invite students to explore the living language that is English, including areas of particular interest to senior students, such as the language of sports. A chapter on sign language (Silent Language) introduces students to a compelling explanation of how language and grammar originate. The sections of the book concerned with etymology and usage further involve students in the history and functions of language and the ways in which language develops to express emerging human needs and experience. The text includes pieces by expert authors dedicated to clear, uncluttered, and accurate language use: Lewis Thomas, Steven Pinker, E. Annie Proulx, Wendell Berry, Ann Ireland, Isabel Allende, Margaret Atwood, Jean Little, W.P. Kinsella, E.L. Doctorow, Ogden Nash and many others.