Review
'Cameron's new book should be on every ET reader's reading list. The book is written in a personal way, with anecdotes and a sense of the human writer behind the printed page, and many of the stories and examples are amusing. It's a good read.' -
English Today'Cameron provides us with some excellent teaching materials and some remarkable examples of public statements about language in use. Most important, she leaves us in no doubt about the normative and ideological nature of language in social affairs and the failure of some language experts who have become involved in educational matters to take full account of the practical importance of these things.' -
James Milroy, Journal of Sociolinguistics
Product Description
Verbal Hygiene discusses the use and abuse of language and questions what makes it good and bad, or right and wrong. Cameron examines the practices through which people try to both clean up language and regulate its use in attempts to make it functionally, aesthetically and morally "better."
Verbal Hygiene examines a series of case studies with specific examples of practiced verbal hygiene which include the regulation of style by editors; the teaching of English grammar in schools; the movements surrounding so-called politically correct language; and the recent explosion of advice to women on how they can speak more effectively.
Verbal Hygiene calls for legitimate concerns about language and value to be discussed in a rational and critical spirit.
See all Editorial Reviews