Call for papers: LANGUAGE ALIVE: Linguistics for the rest of us

[REBECCA S. WHEELER]

This CALL is cross-posted with LINGUIST. Check it out.

rebecca s. wheeler


_______________________



        CALL FOR PAPERS

        "LANGUAGE ALIVE
        linguistics for the rest of us"

        AN EDITED VOLUME

        Rebecca S. Wheeler
        rswheeler at cc.weber.edu

DEADLINES:
     ABSTRACT:     May 1, 1997
     PAPER:        February 1, 1998

AUDIENCES:
**Primary**:   English & English Education faculty making curriculum decisions
about linguistics offerings in undergraduate colleges & universities.

**Secondary**: Undergraduate students in English & English Education.

**Tertiary**:   The educated lay public, linguists in English departments.

SEEKING CONTRIBUTIONS AS FOLLOWS:
        * five  2500 word papers on
                1.  Why traditional grammar doesn't cut it
                2.  Language policy  in America
                3.  Spoken language vs. written language
                4.  Endangered languages
                5.  Language and gender

        * 750 - 1,200 word nuggets on assorted topics, as fit into or enhance
                the existing layout.


INVITED CONTRIBUTORS:
(nota bene: many titles are dramatizations by the editor)

I.  English where, English how?

     **World Englishes, language change**
          David CRYSTAL: 'Out of left field? That's not cricket:
             The past, present, and (global) future of English language use.

     **Prescriptivism unseated**
          Steven PINKER: The Language Mavens

     **Dialects and their implications**
          Salikoko MUFWENE: Language contact yields language
               variety: Ebonics, dialect of the usual sort.
          Walt WOLFRAM:  Dialect awareness for our children
          Johanna RUBBA: Language, power and prestige in the classroom

     **Language Policy**
          __??: Endangered languages
          __??: Language policies in America

II. Beyond grammar encounters of the traditional kind
          ??___: Why traditional grammar doesn't cut it
          Cari SPRING: Beyond grammar workbooks to grammar discovery
          Dick HUDSON: Exploring ambiguity from K to 12.

III.  The written word, the spoken word
     **Language and literacy**
          Tom GIVON:  Scouting the spectrum of literacy

     **Language in writing**
         Victor RASKIN: Writing Well in an Unknown Language:
               Linguistics and composition in an English department

     **Language in literature**
          Mark TURNER:  Creativity
          Suzette Haden ELGIN: Martian plains, Elvish,
               and 'To be or not to be' in Klingon
          Victor RASKIN: Laughing At or Laughing With:
                The Linguistics of Humor and Humor in Literature

     **Spoken vs. written languge**
          ??___:  Spoken language vs. written language

     **Dictionaries & thesauri**
          Rebecca WHEELER:  "The dictionary says... "

IV.  Language in social settings
     **Language and Gender**
          ??___. Language and gender

V.  Language in the public view
     **Language in Politics**
          George LAKOFF:  Metaphor in politics,
              why conservatives leave liberals in the dust

     **Language and the Law**
          Judith LEVI: Guilt or innocence, truth & lies:
              what language tells us in the courtroom

__________________

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

THE PROBLEM:    The insights of linguistics, remaining largely sequestered in
the halls of technical academia, have not generally made it to the lay public.
The consequences of  the public's ignorance of linguistics range from  damaging
public policies (the English Only movement), and uninformed public reaction
(the recent  Ebonics debate), to the  continued perpetration of linguistic
falsehoods in the public schools, and the threatening of  university
linguistics programs around the country, just to name a few.

Recent works directed to the lay public are beginning to address  this lacuna.
For example,  readers have been well served by Deborah Tannen's "You Just Don't
Understand", and "Talking from 9 to 5", Steve  Pinker's "Language Instinct" and
Ray Jackendoff's"Patterns in  the Mind". The documentaries "The Story of
English"  and "American Tongues", among others, have furthered the public's
awareness of matters linguistic.

Within the university or college environment, we find another linguistically
lay public. That's the English Departments. Like the broader American public,
the English literature and writing faculty are often unfamiliar with the
insights and contributions of linguistics. More perniciously, English faculty,
alienated by what they perceive as a uselessly technical and theory-bound
field, often relegate Linguistics to a dark corner in the English curriculum.

Yet, since most colleges and universities in the US do not have separate
linguistics programs or departments, it is largely within the English
Departments that the insights of linguistics will be taught if they're to be
taught at all.

The consequence of this English department shunning of linguistics is that we
continue to raise generations of students who emerge from college without an
informed view of the nature of language and its function in society.  Some
graduates go on to perpetuate uninformed views as they teach in our primary and
secondary schools while others enter public life promote language policies
blind to the facts of language.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this collection is twofold:

(i)  to demonstrate that linguistics is a key component within an undergraduate
English curriculum by showing that linguistics sheds interesting light on
things that English and English Education departments care about, and

(ii) to make the insights of our field accessible to a broad readership
(faculty, undergraduates, lay public).

MAKING THE ARGUMENT:  We suggest that a graduate of an English department
(majoring in English or the teaching of English) should know what language is
and what it isn't; they should know its workings and its playings.

This understanding should reap benefits both for our society and for the
graduates themselves. First, a graduate in English or English Teaching who is
largely language-myth free, should be able to understand and promote
linguistically informed social policies. Second, people specializing in English
should be able to __do more and understand more__ in contexts where language
pertains (literature, language in the school classroom, literature,
conversation, advertising, politics, popular music, etc.)

PROPOSED BOOK: This collection of papers will offer a linguistically informed
discussion of topics interesting and relevant to the target audiences. The
intent is to spark interest in linguistics as a useful tool in today's world,
both in and outside academia.

***This book does not attempt to directly teach or inform about linguistics. It
is not a theoretical treatise. Instead, we will approach our subject by first
presenting conundra, scenarios, etc. that intrinsically grab the attention of
the audience, and then by demonstrating how linguistics sheds interesting light
on these phenomena. In other words, with a reluctant audience shine the beam in
through the side door.***

Contributions should include a section citing further readings, and an appendix
offering extracts from or suggestions for SYLLABI on the topic under
discussion.

A PUBLISHER: Praeger will produce this work.

SUBMISSIONS:

If you'd like to contribute to this work,

(a)  please jot me me a quick e-note signalling your interest in this project

(b) please submit an  abstract

        (200/500 words for 750/2500 wd. articles, respectively)
        to me at rswheeler at cc.weber.edu, or  by snail mail to

        Rebecca S. Wheeler
        Department of English
        Weber State University
        Ogden, Utah 84408-1201.

Papers should be either not previously published, or substantially changed from
earlier published versions.

SCHEDULE:
        Abstract submission deadline:           May 1,  1997
        Accepted papers submitted:              February 1,  1998
        Projected publication:          February 1999

For more information, email me at rswheeler at cc.weber.edu


cheers,

Rebecca S. Wheeler