It is 2016, there are still people who like to go around playing grammar police! Don’t be a know it all. No one wants to be around someone who is constantly correcting them. According to well educated Zanuttini and Roberts, there are two causes for these heartless expressions of disapproval. Their biased view of individuals prompts their corrective nature. Roberts silence these smart alecks by stating, “It is not precisely other speech that attracts you but the people who use this speech.” (Roberts 38). Zanuttini rightfully furthered this belief by saying, “whether a variety sounds stupid or cool is a reflection of how we feel about the people who use it.”(Zanuttini 3). Both these writers accentuate on the fact that people’s irrational perceptions …show more content…
Their despicable nature allows them to get a sense of pleasure from humiliating others through corrective speech. Likewise,they see themselves as a smart aleck when they only judge speech based on auditory. These attackers irrationally size up on dialects simply because “The sounds are bad.” (Roberts 39). For this reason, Roberts condone that, “As a practical matter, correct speech is that which sounds normal or natural to one’s comrades.” (Roberts 41). However, by no means does this give humans the right to insensitive towards other dialects for being different. Don’t fall victim to these false justifications by Roberts. He’s misinforming us, readers, in believing the only form of language that is free of errors are the ones we, ourselves, deem sound socially acceptable, but that is subjective. Keep in mind, everyone’s auditory cortex convert dialect differently and hear auditory vibrations in various ways. If we all consider our dialect as perfect, then we would end up in a world of overconfident, know it alls who are constantly chastising each other 's dialects. However, by become welcoming to these language differences, we will be deemed as more friendly and approachable by others rather than an …show more content…
In opposition to these tendencies, Zanuttini sensibly believed that in language, “The recipes are simply different, and we should consider ourselves fortunate and appreciate the variety they yield. No one wants to live in a homogeneous white bread world.”(Zanuttini 10). The marvelous and glorified America was built on this principle. It has always been a mixing pot of different free spirit and culture, who practice numerous languages and develop various dialects. Imagine a black and white world, where everyone was the same in every way. They looked the same, talked the same, acted the same. How boring would that be? We are now in a new age in which differences are glorified. In fact, it would be the American thing to value these languages. President Obama would want us to appreciate the different speech patterns, as he too performs a different language. Don’t get left behind and join into these differences. Be different, be the oppositions, and listen to Zanuttini’s wise
In the article “Do You Speak American?,” Robert MacNeil is trying to reach the american public, especially those who do not have a complete understanding of the ongoing changes that are happening to the English that is spoken throughout the United States. He uses a multitude of examples to prove this very fact. For one he wants to inform the people that one reason for this change is that average people now have more influence in the way language is spoken.Which to him is a good thing. He enjoys the new evolution that American English has undertaken. He believes that it is a step in the right direction. Another, example he uses are the changes different regions and/or group of people have made on the English language. He uses the different accents and dialect to show the growth and improvement that occurred. Even though, some linguist view these changes as wrong, MacNeil views them as necessary and as something that is unique to the United States. In essence, a necessary growth that only makes the United States grow into a better country. Thus, making it more diverse.
Throughout history society has created many stereotypes and assumptions based on race and nationality to confine us into categories. The reality is, not every individual fits a specific category because we are unique even within the same ethnic group. In “On Being Told I Don’t Speak Like a Black person” Allison Joseph illustrates some speech stereotypes that come hand in hand with her racial background and how even people from the same racial background and house hold don’t all sound alike. The author portrays that race and linguistic has such a huge impact on our daily life and how society sees her differently to others when they see she does not fit in the stereotype of sounding “like a black person” and feels frustration to being compared
Finegan says this is something “living languages must do”. For me, I was raised in a military home in which we moved to a new region every couple of years. Coming from Germany, moving to Rochester, and then to Lowville, my dialect is a combination of all three speech communities. It is different than my parents, and will mostly be passed down to my children. As I age and move locations it is opted to change again as well. So it is not that I speak differently or incorrect than the rest of my family, my speech community is merely growing and changing as it is passed generation to generation. Richard Lederer stated in his article, “We are a teeming nations within a nation, a country that is like a world.” (150) He was portraying how our country, with a universal language, can be so diverted by each region’s version of the English language. I agree completely that although we all “sing” the same song of the American language, “we talk in melodies of infinite variety.” (150) The way our country was built was by different American regions doing their own work, for example, the south had plantations, where my ancestors were small town farmers who worked with manufacturing in mills and
My dad and I go hunting every weekend during deer season which is from mid of Novmber to the first of Janurary.We go sit at 6:00am and we leave at 8:00am,but why we sit we will be wacthing birds and squirrals playing in the place we have corn they will eat it like deer does.We half to sit still were the deer can’t see us in the deer stand.When we go hunting you have to climb up in the deer stand and then sit patiertly to wait for something to come out of the woods.We look three or four different way in the stand.”My dad stated,” theres a deer.We go hunting in Pearson Georgia.When we go hunting we have to be careful because the gun could go off.It could be dangous going hunting by yourself.But if anything happen I can help him.Because we
It’s fall everyone and Halloween is coming.I would like to tell you that fall is the best season of all.
United States of America, small in history but large in diversity continues to face new challenges with language as time continues to turn. In the documentary “Do You Speak American?” Robert MacNeil analyzes the English language and reveals many dialects that culturally defines us. Regional dialect is one of the many strongholds of all cultures and now it has reached its’ zenith and today it is slowly declining because it does not possess the human nature of advancement. Optimistically, it allows people to learn how to cooperate with each other. In order to advance and adopt a person has to change; I believe that the acceptance of cultural adaptations, diversity, and industrialization can prove that the decline of speech does not cause a decline of culture.
In the articles, “Obama’s English” written by H. Samy Alim and Geneva Smitherman and “Speaking in Tongues” written by Zadie Smith, the writers inform us of, the consequences of voice adaption and how it can result in scrutiny and a loss of identity. On the other hand, the articles asserts, the advantage of having a “double voice” and the way it allows one to connect and empathize with people from different geographic areas. Based on the premise of the writer’s argument, modifying language to conform to the expectation of society can have both positive and negative effects.
It is apparent that there are many types of dialect within American English. The coexisting of two or more languages, either serving together in the same area or servicing different areas, is as old as language itself (Pei 106). This has happened throughout time and appears to be inevitable. It is impossible to believe an entire country could conform to one language, and then only one dialect of that language. Throughout history societies have survived for some time using different languages until these language barriers tore territories apart. It is apparent how, in America, barriers between dialects separate black men from white men even more than physical conditions.
Language and dialects as unintelligent and not beautiful. Folk linguistics can be visible when comparing Standard English and African American language. Some individuals
Recently, there has been controversies regarding towards college standardized test scores where for example, high school students take the SAT for colleges and they decide to weight more on the person’s scoring on the SAT. Despite the junior and senior high school student’s hatred of taking the SAT, are the tests worth it? Though people in this room may have their judgements about my decision, but everybody view their opinions, view their experiences and view their perspectives differently. In ahead of time, I apologize to those who may think I will offend them. Don’t consider this as a debate, but do consider it as a freedom of speech by the first amendment.
In our society, there are many cultures with language and dialect variations, but Standard English is the language of the dominant culture. Therefore, it is necessary for all students to learn to write and speak Standard English effectively. However, for many students of Urban school districts, especially African Americans, writing and speaking effective Standard English can occasionally pose a problem. Many African American students speak a variation of Standard English (Black Vernacular Speech) whose linguistic patterns sometimes conflict with those of Standard English. It is true that African American speech is an essential aspect of their African American culture, so the educational system would be doing African American students a disservice by insisting that they learn Standard English as a primary discourse. It is also a fact however, that in order to be viewed as a successful, functional member of society, Standard English, if learned as a secondary discourse, should be written and spoken as fluently as the primary discourse.
Maybe part of my opinion is based on spite: If I had to learn all the dos and don’ts of modern English, so should you. But I think it’s more then just that. I can see the writing on the wall and it’s not looking too bright. Dumbing down the language to simplest terms can be a very dangerous thing. Don’t believe me, flip through a copy of Orwell’s 1984 and you’ll see how Big Brother has developed a “plainspeak” directive. In fact, I’m not alone in this belief. In Sven Birket’s article “Into the Electronic Millennium” he discusses the devolution of modern language: “The complexity and distinctiveness of spoken and written expression, which are deeply bound to traditions of print literacy, will gradually be replaced by a more telegraphic sort of ‘plainspeak’” (70).
Language is universal, but there are different meanings and sounds, which vary from one culture to another. In China citizens speak many languages, but about 94% speak the Chinese language. The difference in dialects was overcome by the written word and eventually a version of Mandrin became the “official speech” (The Cambridge Illustrated History of China, 1996,p.304). In America there are many ethnic groups with many varieties of language. The U.S. was created through many people from different countries migrating to the new states. In the U.S. there is an “official speech” which is the English language. The language of both these countries are not only different in meaning and sound, but also reflect the way in which the people in these societies live, believe, and function.
The keynote article “Grammatical processing in language learners” by Clahsen and Felser, aimed to compare the grammatical processing in adult native speakers, child first language learners, and adult second language learners (L2ers) (3). The authors examined works that observed the processing of morphology, ambiguous sentences, and syntactic dependencies before going into their general discussion in which they summarize the results and suggest the shallow structure hypothesis.
Susan Adams and Kyle Weins have both written articles on the importance of using good grammar in the workplace. Each article gives numerous compelling reasons why this is a good practice. Susan Adams’ article first reason for doing so is in regards to how other people would view someone who uses bad grammar. She brings out that someone’s image can be damaged when they have improper speech habits; consequently their chances of advancing at work could be limited. Second, she shows how using poor grammar could cause a manager to view an employee as unorganized or unable to perform more advanced tasks. Finally, she brings out that someone who has poor speaking habits could be perceived as not having a firm grasp on the subject they are speaking about (Adams). Kyle Weins article also brings out some important points on bad grammar in the workplace. First, he shows that in today’s world people’s intelligence is judged based on what they say or what they type. The second point relates to how a manager could perceive someone with poor grammar. A manager could see an employee who uses poor grammar as someone who struggles to concentrate on tasks and doesn’t show attention to detail. Finally, he shows that peo...