[Linguistic Anthropology] Listening to Prescriptivists

[Kephart, Ronald]

On 3/29/07 2:18 PM, "Richard J Senghas" <Richard.Senghas at sonoma.edu> wrote:

> 
> On 29 Mar 2007, , at 7:18 PM, Alexandre Enkerli wrote:
>> ...I'm convinced that teaching people to distinguish appropriate
>> contexts for different language varieties is a better strategy than
>> trying to change people's language habits.
> 
> But aren't those two strategies, in the end, no too far apart?

Richard,

Alexandre may correct me, but I understood him to imply a preference for
adding to people's linguistic repertoire, rather than trying to make them
lose their non-standard dialect altogether.

Another segment of AT makes this point: the Brooklyn woman who is undergoing
"speech therapy" and comments that trying to speak "correctly" is "like a
diet." This always launches me into a sermon in the classroom: being on a
diet implies replacing bad old habits with newer and gooder ones. Are
students learning Spanish seeking to replace their native English or
whatever with Spanish? No, they're just adding to their repertoire.

Too often, the "speech therapy" enthusiasts seem to promote the idea that
speaking non-standard is some kind of character flaw that has to be
eliminated. As though there should be "rehab" for non-standard speakers.

Damn! Y'all got me started...

Ron