Language Usage, Stigmatization & Grammar Policing in Literature

1. Usage and Stigmatization by Don L. F. Nilsen and Alleen Pace Nilsen

3. Kinetic Typology: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY&feature=player_embedded

4. Perspective on Usage:

6. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn: Huck Finn is the narrator—Non-Standard English Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer: Mark Twain is the narrator—Standard English https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+huckleberry+finn+and+tom+sawyer&view=detail&mid=E943F327A9F4AE26D67EE943F327A9F4AE26D67E&FORM=VIRE Other characters in Huckleberry Finn also use non-standard English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2znfvoCgG04

7. “Its Academic, or Is It?” • If you’re 35 years or older, you probably identify a common grammatical error in the heading on this page. • If you’re younger than that, you likely have a different opinion • Age appears to be the demarcation here.

8. Clichés You May Want to Avoid

9. The The Impotence of Proofreading (Taylor Mali): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_rwB5_3PQc

10. The Computer Generation:More Words—More Grammatical Errors • Patricia O’Conner says that rather than being obsessed by error, we should nurture our love of talking about words, about language. • She adds that thanks to the computer, Americans are communicating with one another at a rate undreamed of a generation ago—and they’re doing it in writing. • People who seldom wrote more than a memo or a shopping list are now producing blizzards of words.

11. The downside of the digital age is that our grammar isn’t quite up to the mark. We’re writing more, and worse, than ever before. • The ease and immediacy of electronic communication are forcing the computer-literate to think about their grammar for the first time in years, if ever. • O’Connor says that it’s ironic that this back-to-basics message should come from cyberspace.

13. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “The most unkindest cut of all” https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+shakespeare+julius+caesar+most+unkindest+cut+&view=detail&mid=2AD8BC6E0C70641B1DE82AD8BC6E0C70641B1DE8&FORM=VIRE

14. French vs. English Usage • In his Growth and Structure of the English Language, Otto Jespersen said, • The French language is like the stiff French garden of Louis XIV. • In contrast, the English language is more like an English park, which is laid out seemingly without any definite plan. • You are allowed to walk everywhere according to your fancy without having to fear a stern keeper enforcing rigorous regulations.

15. The Grammar Police

16. Bad Usages in Literature • In Hamlet, the King says, “Nor what he spake, though it lack’d form a little, Was not like madness.” • In Othello, the Duke says, “Yet opinion…throws a more safer voice on you.” • In Othello, Desdemona says, “My life and education both do learn me how to respect you.” • In Julius Caesar, Caesar says to Brutus, “That was the most unkindest cut of all.” • In Star Trek, the narrator says, “To boldly go….”

17. David McNiel noted that axe, meaning “ask,” which is so common in black American English, is standard in Chaucer in all forms—axe, axen, axed.” • Ernest Hemingway believed that American literature did not really begin until Mark Twain, who outraged critics by reproducing the vernacular of characters like Huck Finn. • These characters used colloquial language—they spoke the way people speak, not the way they write.

18. In reality, we have levels of formality in speech as in our clothing. • There are very formal occasions, often requiring written English: the job application or the letter to the editor—the dark-suit, serious-tie language, with everything pressed and the lint brushed off. • There is our less formal out-in-the-world language—a more comfortable suit, but still respectable.

19. There is language for close friends in the evenings, on weekends—blue-jeans-and-sweatshirt language, when it’s good to get the tie off. • There is family language, even more relaxed, full of grammatical short cuts, family slang, echoes of old jokes that have become intimate shorthand—the language of pajamas and uncombed hair. • Finally, there is the language with no clothes on; the talk of couples—murmurs, sighs, grunts—language at its least self-conscious, open, vulnerable, and primitive.

20. Star Trek: “To boldly go where no human has gone before” https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+star+trek+to+boldly+go&view=detail&mid=C08E43CC745F94224D35C08E43CC745F94224D35&FORM=VIRE

21. The Importance of Punctuation

22. Indirect Language and Politeness Phenomena • When you are at a dinner party and want the salt, you don’t blurt out, “Gimme the salt.” Rather you make your language polite by asking “Do you think you could pass the salt?” • or “Is there any salt on the table?” • We want someone to pass the salt, but we’re making it more polite by asking about the prerequisite conditions for making a sensible request.

23. The underlying rationale is that the hearer not be given a command but simply be asked or advised about one of the necessary conditions for passing the salt. • Your goal is to have your need satisfied without treating the listener as a flunky who can be bossed around at will. • In an episode of Seinfeld, George is asked by his date if he would like to come up for coffee. • He declines, explaining that caffeine keeps him up at night. • Later he slaps his forehead: “’Coffee’ doesn’t mean coffee! ‘Coffee’ means sex!’”

24. The Semicolon

25. Star Wars: “Yoda’s Language” https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+yoda+language&view=detail&mid=B1BDD43133C143DC5612B1BDD43133C143DC5612&FORM=VIRE

26. A Usage Test • 1. Find all of the “incorrect” usages in the following sentences. • 2. Using metalanguage (e.g. “infinitive,” “past participle,” etc.), explain each. • 3. Rate each “incorrect” usage from 1-10 in terms of stigmatization. • 4. See if you can find any usages with reverse stigmatization—usages where the “correct” form is more stigmatized than the “incorrect” form.

27. 1. He decided to never again loan money to a person who ain’t got no security. 2. I will always choose the piece of cake that has the least calories. 3. That was the exact person who I was thinking about. 4. If I was able to drive slower, perhaps I might could avoid getting speeding tickets. 5. She done all the work, but he don’t appreciate it.

28. 6. These here books are different than them there books. 7. Dey about ready to study dey book. 8. Is this John book or yourn? 9. He drunk the most fastest of anybody there. 10. She been dancin all night.

29. Avoid double negatives.

30. 11. We was answering as good as anybody else. 12. He hurt hisself yesterday when he jump off the roof. 13. He was open a bottle of wine while him and me was called over the loudspeaker. 14. Dose two boy very tin. 15. I done been finished before anyone knew it was me.

31. 16. Wasn’t it the magnificentest movie youall had ever seen? 17. She had learn to answer “No” irregardless of the question. • He thought the boid be purty. • He bought a SHOWance policy from the POlice academy. 20. Dey a lot of eviDENCE that everyone forgot dey homework.

32. Can I go to the bafroom? • The reason he a rat fink is because he only done half of his homework. • My work finished, but I used to could finish it faster. • I going to school early because I’m disinterested in staying home. • We divided the cake between all five of us, just like Paul do. 26. Walking briskly to school, the hospital suddenly came into view.

33. CONTRADICTIONS TO EXPLAIN ============================== 1. Don’t use no double negatives. 2. Make each pronoun agree with their antecedent. 3. Verbs has to agree with their subjects. 4. Don’t write run-on sentences they are hard to read. 5. Don’t use commas, that aren’t necessary.

34. 6.Try to not ever split infinitives. 7. A preposition is something which you should never end a sentence with. 8. Correct spelling is esential. 9. Proofread your essay to see if any words are left. 10. Sign on Professor Nilsen’s office door: “DEPARTMENT OF REDUNDANCY DEPARTMENT.”