Authority in Language: Investigating Standard English

Authority in Language explores the controversial notion of 'correct' and 'incorrect' language. In this fully revised and updated third edition, the authors offer the most recent arguments in the long-running debate over the teaching of Standard English in the US and Britain. They compare the language ideologies in both countries, including a discussion of the English Only movement and the Ebonics controversy in the US, and consider the historical process of standardization and its social consequences, in particular discrimination against low status and ethnic minority groups on the basis of their language traits. Indispensable for anyone with an interest in how language functions to discriminate, Authority in Language provides the most up-to-date treatment of the subject available today.