Grammar (was Re: a joke about two pere ubuists

[Abdiel OAbdiel]

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:

 Language is an instrument of power, and
> the teaching of critical literacy is imperative.


A so-called "language war" has been going on here in
the United States for years. 

In GR, in M&D, and in the short story, "The Secret
Integration," Pynchon explores the fundamental
relationship between language and power, between
language and oppression and between language and
liberation.  
Surely,  on foools espousing utter nonsense and
uttering Giberishasquish will claim that language is 
merely a set of proscribed rules that we ought to
follow like traffic laws. 

Language variations are intimately interconnected
with, coincide with, identity. It is with one's
language that one defends identity and language is
absolutely necessary in the process of struggling for
liberation. We should not forget, that language, 
Irish for example, were forbidden by colonizers.
Language is critical in talking about the education of
a people because it represents the people's theory of
reality; it explains, interprets, constructs, and
reproduces that reality. We should not forget that the
inextricable relationship between language and power
applies to languages and societies throughout human
history. The English language was once considered a
"barbaric" language in need of regularization and
purification since it was the dialect of a tribe of
barbarians. Latin grammar isn't taught much anymore.
It's a shame that the Classics are dead. Nevertheless,
why should we teach Latin grammar? Who killed Homer? 
I don't know, but I know that American English
achieved its high prestige when it became a military
and economic superpower. And the particular dialect of
American English that became the US dialect of power
(no, not American Cowboy English, although there is a
dictionary of American Cowboy English), was not the
dialect spoken by the working class, but the American
English used by the elite, those who "carry on the
affairs of the English speaking people." In the
struggle for power change and social change, critical
literacy is imperative. We need to know how to read
between the lines and between the lies. There must be
a concomitant linguistic change. First, we should kick
the adage "sticks and stones may break my bones, but
words can never hurt me" to the curb. Words are
powerful. The elite use words to hurt the working
class. They use language to maim and destroy, to
cripple and condemn, to bring, brung, and brang/ your
ass up to be hung/ low and dry/ like a drive-by/ on
your rappin tongue/ in your mind/ in your mind/ it all
about the language in your mind. American youth bring
rich traditions and linguistic skills to the
classroom. So do L2 speakers. They are not starved of
language or poor in skill. They are not nonsense
rhymers talking to themselves. You are not listening
to gibberish or idiolect. Surely, they are as precise
and as clear and as logical as SAE speakers. Surely,
they are not tabula rasa in need of white chalk line
integration.  Educators need to assess the linguistic
competence of students in their "mother tongues."  To
do so we must acknowledge that prescription has too
often been the tool of the powerful and the lash on
the backs of the oppressed. We must acknowledge that
SAE is not bettering, is not better, smarter, more
precise, logical.  There are pragmatic reasons for a
standard.  There are pragmatic reasons why the
standard in the US should be SAE. Again, we have not
heard about any of the reasons in this debate here. 

We real cool.  
We  Left school. 
We  Lurk late. 
We  Strike straight. 
We  Sing sin. 
We Thin gin. 
We  Jazz June. 
We  Die soon.


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