Introduction: language ideology: science fiction? -- The linguistic facts of life -- The myth of non-accent -- The standard language myth -- Language ideology and the language subordination model -- Introduction: language subordination at work -- Teaching children how to discriminate: what we learn from the Big Bad Wolf -- The educational system: fixing the message in stone -- The information industry: selling America to Americans -- Language ideology in the workplace and the judicial system -- Introduction: our naked skins -- The real trouble with Black English -- Hillbillies, rednecks, and southern belles; the language rebels -- The stranger within the gates -- Conclusions: civil (dis)obedience and the shadow of language
Summary:
In English with an Accent, Rosina Lippi-Green scrutinizes American attitudes towards language. Using examples drawn from a variety of contexts: the classroom, the court, the media, and corporate culture, she exposes the way in which discrimination based on accent functions to support and perpetuate unequal social structures and unequal power relations. English with an Accent focuses on language variation linked to geography and social identity; looks at how the media and the entertainment industry work to promote linguistic stereotyping; examines how employers discriminate on the basis of accent; reveals how the judicial system protects the status quo and reinforces language subordination.
