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John McWhorter

John H. McWhorter

Doing Our Own Thing Paperback – September 9, 2004

by John McWhorter (Author)

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Encourages readers to establish a boundary between an acceptable evolution of language and outright language misuse, predicting the consequences of the overuse of street English in today's writing, music, and society. By the author of The Power of Babel. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Gotham
Publication date

September 9, 2004
Dimensions

5.36 x 0.81 x 8.08 inches
ISBN-10

1592400841
ISBN-13

978-1592400843
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Illustrated with an entertaining array of examples from both high and low culture, the trend that Mr. McWhorter documents is unmistakable." The Economist

"Provocative, funny. . . McWhorter suggests that prose ought to be something we decorate out of a basic sense of exuberance of living." Andrea Behr, San Francisco Chronicle

"An entertaining and provocative analysis of the way we use language, while also suggesting that we should love it." Charles Matthews, San Jose Mercury News

"McWhorter is a gifted young linguist who seeks to understand the change in our verbal habits rather than just bemoan it, and his analysis is insightful, richly documented and, yes, eloquently written." Steven Pinker, author of The Blank Slate and The Language Instinct

About the Author

John McWhorter is an associate professor of linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley. His books include Authentically Black, The Power of Babel, and the New York Times bestseller Losing the Race: Self- Sabotage in Black America, and his articles appear regularly in The New Republic and The Wall Street Journal.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gotham (September 9, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1592400841
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1592400843
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.36 x 0.81 x 8.08 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,135,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14,913 in African American Demographic Studies (Books)
- #143,267 in Politics & Government (Books)

Customer Reviews:
26 ratings

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2 star		5%
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Top reviews from the United States

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Max Lubach

The power of words.

Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2020

Verified Purchase

A fascinating book by a linguist who
explains and analyzes speech patterns,
as well as slang. Traditionally, we have
used a special literary language for writing
and another type of language for everyday
speaking. We may be surrendering our formal
written modes for the language used in the
street and with friends. The clever, witty,
and solemn modes of past styles of writing
are worth preserving. Our language is
capable of exalted, rhetorical, and personal
styles more polished, more elegant, highly
enjoyable. We may be in danger of losing our
more artistic and satisfying written forms.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

J. C Clark

A Degraded Effort

Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2010

Verified Purchase

From an author clearly intelligent and knowledgeable, and with a command not just of English but of who knows how many other languages as well, this is one disjointed and, at times, tedious book. Many of the criticisms leveled elsewhere on this page seem off the mark to me. He is not just whining about some age-old language purity that is no longer present. But the "Why this decline is a problem" is not clearly and effectively spelled out. I agree (how could one not?) that we seem to have lost something significant when Barack Obama is hailed as an orator. But what does it mean? And how does he domonstrate, rather than claim, it does?

Let me focus on two lengthy chunks. Mr. McWhorter enjoys musicals. And believes that the quality of writing, both lyrically and musically, has declined significantly. Well, I cannot match him on chapter and verse, but there were lots of dreary and silly songs in musicals in the Thirties and Forties, and if these were, indeed Golden Years, why did this glory grow from the minstrel/vaudeville world that preceded it. If there was a decline since then due to language deterioration, how were the Thirties better than the Gay Nineties? But really, is "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair" a song for the ages? Performed in his beloved piano bars? Remember Sturgeon's Law, which holds that "90 Percent of Everything Is Junk" and we just can't tell very well which is the 10 and which is the 90 while we're in it? The piano bar has performed that service after 60 or 70 years of winnowing.

Now, this is not to say that contemporary pop music isn't an almost primal cry for power, sex, and respect. But the problems this "music" exemplifies are bigger than the evolution from the written word to the spoken. And besides, even if McWhorter is unaware of it, there is lots of melodic and skilled and crafted material being written and performed today.

And his long and pointless discussion of opera? Well, I like the text supertitles. I like the operas sung in Italian, or German, or Russian. I even like the titles when the opera's in English. It takes a few moments to read the lines. I can do it....

Richard Mitchell addresses many of the questions McWhorter raises, but also has some clear and specific worries about what happens (other than boring piano bars) when we lose our language facility. A smaller vocabulary is like s smaller toolbox, and the fewer tools we have, the more often we must make do. A crescent wrench can perform as a hammer, but it slows the job and makes it less likely to be done at all, never mind done well.

Lots of interesting things in here, but too diffuse an argument and too much extraneous or repetitive material. I kept looking for the source of the essays that made up this tome, but apparently this is how it was composed. Disappointing.

12 people found this helpful

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FERNANDO

Thought-provoking essay

Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2013

Verified Purchase

First of all I think this book is too long and a bit repetitive at times. I think the editors could have trimmed to half the pages and still keep its contents. But that doesnt prevent it from being a nice socio-cultural analysis of the written language of the past last century vs the written language of today. Like another review said, McWhorter believes that the decline of writing skills and literary flair is damaging our English-speaking culture by removing some of the beauty language once had, with a more elegant prose. I also think that mixing his language critique with one of music was a poor decision, as it diluted the scope and strength of his arguments.

6 people found this helpful

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WenJo

Doesn't deliver

Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2004

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Mr. McWhorter says it is inconceivable that anyone in America today would make a statement such as, "Wow, I love the way she (or he) uses English". But, in fact, that's a close approximation to what I said to myself when I heard Mr. McWhorter interviewed and why I went out and bought his book. Although he documents with trained ease the decline of written and spoken English, I was left with the impression that he's not going to take his hands off the keyboard and do any dirty, heavy lifting to reverse the trend. Makes me think of the young man in the FedEx commercial who has an MBA and doesn't "do shipping". An interesting read but in the end disappointing.

8 people found this helpful

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