Bad Language

Is today's language at an all-time low? Edwin Battistella argues that it is wrong to think of slang, regional dialects and nonstandard grammar as simply breaking the rules of good English. Reexamining debates over relativism in language, Battistella argues that we should view language as made up of alternative forms of regularity and orderliness, which require informed engagement with usage.

...written for a non-scholarly audience, although it might be useful as a pre-course book for undergraduates... Books on this subject tend to adopt polarized positions, and while it is clear which end of the spectrum Battistella occupies, he writes in a style that would not automatically alienate those who initially disagreed with him. The Year's Works in English Studies