Authority in Language

by James Milroy, Lesley Milroy

Authority in Language explores the perennially topical and controversial notion of correct and incorrect language. James and Lesley Milroy cover the long-running debate over the teaching of Standard English in Britain and compare the language ideologies in Britain and the USA, involving a discussion of the English-Only movement and the Ebonics controversy. They consider the historical process of standardisation and its social consequences, in particular discrimination against low-status and ethnic minority groups on the basis of their language traits. This Routledge Linguistics Classic is here reissued with a new foreword and a new afterword in which the authors broaden their earlier concept of language ideology. Authority in Language is indispensable reading for educationalists, teachers and linguists and a long-standing text for courses in sociolinguistics, modern English grammar, history of English and language ideology.

Genres: Nonfiction, Linguistics, Language

208 pages, Paperback

First published December 11, 1998

Reviews

[Jennifer Wiget · Rating 1 out of 5]

i finally managed to finish it and oh god what a struggle it was.

[Nat]

Sensible overview of topics in sociolinguistics, with an enjoyable account of prescriptivism and the "complaint tradition". Bonus: Chapter 2 alerted me to an absurdly cranky essay on malapropisms (broadly understood) by Kingsley Amis ("Getting It Wrong", 1980) that compares "floating hopefully" to Japanese cars as "the most widely and loudly denounced import to the U.K.", and suggests adding the following usage label to the dictionary to supplement joc. (jocular) and vulg. (vulgar): "illit. (illiterate)" (33).

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like their (this book is actually by two authors, James and Lesley Milroy) explanation of standard language as an ideology which via pre/proscription suppresses what would otherwise be equally acceptable variations.

I need to read more of this, though, and maybe Trudgill's edited volume on standard English too.