Bad Language

Penguin Language & Linguistics

by Lars-Gunnar Andersson, Peter Trudgill

Discusses attitudes toward the English language and the slang, swearing, grammar, and differences in pronunciation that have changed the language

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Language

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Stela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I come, I seen and I done

There are at least three allegations in Lars-Gunnar Andersson and Peter Trydgill’s Bad Language to make the delight of every pupil and bring to despair any teacher:

1. English native speakers do not make grammatical mistakes in speaking;
2. There is no such thing as bad language (except for swearing, maybe);
3. What today is a mistake could be legit tomorrow.

The first statement is so comforting I was seduced by it myself for a while. It is true, English is not my mother tongue, but I tried to verify it by remembering the mistakes my students often made in our own language and I soon realized that these mistakes didn’t necessarily come from a dialectal slip, but often from careless correlations between speaking and thinking and even more often from plain ignorance.

The idea of a language for everyone to use as “bon lui semble”, with no care for stuffy rules that prohibit expressions like I ain’t, I done, etc., on the grounds that they are rather social prejudices than linguistic arguments is seductive indeed, the more so as it is a warm pleading for the right of dialects and even slang to live and prosper:

“It is ungrammatical to say I done it in Standard English, but it is not ungrammatical to say I done it in English.”

However, I don’t think this the point. Nobody contested the beauty of language variations, especially their stylistic, geographic and historical functions, and nobody would dream to correct them, in order to uniform spoken (or even written) language. But without a reference point, be it Standard English, or French, or Romanian and so on, the communication between speakers of the same country but inhabiting different dialects would become soon impossible. Therefore, it is commendably to preserve and encourage linguistic variants, but not recommended to deny the importance of (or ignore altogether) grammatical, phonetic and linguistic rules. However comfortable you feel while wearing your pyjamas, you take them off and put on conventional clothes when you adventure in the street, don’t you?

On the other hand, it may be true that society had something to do with linguistic prejudices, but any standard language is built upon the most prestigious variant of a language and this is often upper-classes language. It is related to snobbery, maybe, but also to education that makes it reliable in the eyes of the common speakers. The following statement should be amended accordingly, that is to illustrate that dialect is not “bad language” and it should not be made fun of, but IT IS a deviation from the norm:

“Prejudice against lower-class dialects is not dissimilar to racial and sexual prejudice. We believe that is highly undesirable and it is our job as linguists to work against ignorance about dialect differences and for greater dialect tolerance.”

So, the second allegation is also contradictory, based on the confusion between “bad” and “mistaken”, that is, between political correctness and grammatical correctness.

Finally, the third statement is also partially true. There are many examples of words, expressions, even entire sentences that were deviation from the norm in the past and became norm. The explanation is quite simple and can be found in the extreme dynamism of any language. When we watch a film shot not so long as fifty years ago, the language we hear has a vague, obsolete turn nobody uses anymore. It is quite possible that an expression someone used inappropriately as a joke or from ignorance, be repeated until the correct form is forgotten:

“…the answer to the question ‘When is a malapropism not a malapropism?’ is ‘When everybody uses it.’”

But not all of them. On the contrary, these “outcast” malapropisms are the exception, and the savoury anecdotes of linguistics.

Overall, I think that the authors (sound linguists, by the way) wrote this book with the laudable purpose to preserve oblique languages by telling people not to be shy to express themselves in their own way, for their own way is not bad. And it is not, indeed, as long as they realize they don’t speak Standard English. But do they, always? This is the crux of the problem.

[Angel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for my English Language studies and it was extremely helpful in regards to my current course topics. Aside from this the book is really interesting and anyone who has a slight interest in English Language should read it.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very accessible and enjoyable. Written by a Swedish linguist and a British linguist. I like that they insert their own voice and opinions on all this.

[Jesse Markus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I've read about the plague of prescriptivism that continues to infect otherwise intellectual people. I bought an extra copy so that I could loan it to people. It is fairly short and very accessible to the layperson. Without getting into excessive detail, it debunks the myth of a "pure" standard English, and shows why snobbish attitudes about language are erroneous. The book does a great job showing that opinions about speech varieties are not based on any linguistic facts, but instead have everything to do with value judgments about social class. I recommend this book to anyone who has questions about "proper" language use, or who might wonder what linguists (rather than grammarians) have to say about things like profanity and slang. Read it!!

[Izilen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super entertaining, clear and informative book about Bad Language in English, with a British focus. What people think is bad language, the social reasons that lead them to think so, and the linguistic validity of a myriad of swears, slang words and expressions are set out and explained in relatively plain (if Standard!) language. I only wish it was longer and richer in examples, and that it didn't so readily discount 'foreigners'' participation in such language.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book analysing what people mean when they refer to language as bad, and in what ways that can be damaging or unproductive to the people using the bad language. There are chapters analysing swearing, slang, fillers, attitudes, accents, dialects, linguistic change, and education, in order to breakdown all the elements different people consider to be bad language, and show why there is no such thing.