Attitudes to Language

Essential study guides for the future linguist. Attitudes to Language is an introduction to the facts and fallacies behind our beliefs about 'good English'. It is suitable for advanced level students and beyond. Written with input from the Cambridge English Corpus, it looks at contemporary attitudes to language, the role of technology, language variation – such as accents and dialects – and frameworks for analysing how people use language to discuss language. Using activities to explain analysis methods, this book guides students through modern issues and concepts. It summarises key concerns and modern findings, while providing inspiration for language investigations and non-examined assessments (NEAs) with research suggestions.

1. Arguments about English: 1.1. How we feel about language; 1.2. Standard English; 1.3. Non-Standard English; 1.4. The origins of Standard English; 1.5. The development of Standard English; 1.6. Complaints about English; 1.7. Changing English; 2. Technology and language: 2.1. Technology and language change; 2.2. Technology and new words; 2.3. Attitudes to texting; 2.4. Attitudes to other forms of CMC; 2.5. Emoji; 3. Attitudes to language variation: 3.1. Variation: what it is and what it ain't; 3.2. Attitudes to regional variation; 3.3. Attitudes to other varieties; 4. Language discourses: 4.1. Analysing language discourses; 4.2. Describing language; 4.3. A language toolkit; 4.4. Further exploration and investigation; Ideas and answers; References.