John H. McWhorter Livres

An authoritative, impassioned celebration of Black English, how it works, and why it matters-now in paperback!

This volume gathers the last ten years worth of published articles on Creole languages and their origins by John H. McWhorter, a unique and often controversial scholar in the field.

Focusing on the challenges facing black Americans, the author argues that a commitment to achievement and integration is essential for progress. He explores the roots of issues like poverty and high incarceration rates, asserting that the victimhood mentality stemming from the civil rights era has hindered advancement. McWhorter critiques cultural narratives that perpetuate disempowerment, including the glorification of violence in hip-hop and the stigma against successful individuals. He calls for a shift away from blaming racism for all challenges, advocating for proactive solutions to improve the future of black America.

A bestselling linguist takes us on a lively tour of the evolving English language and why we should embrace its transformation. Language is always changing, yet many resist this evolution. While new words emerge for new concepts, contemporary usage often frustrates traditionalists—consider the shift of literally to mean "figuratively" or the prevalence of terms like LOL and business jargon such as "What's the ask?" However, John McWhorter reveals that these changes are natural and not indicative of deterioration. Through humor and relatable examples, he illustrates that language shifts are common across all languages and should be appreciated rather than condemned. The exploration uncovers surprising histories behind everyday words and expressions. For instance, did you know that silly originally meant "blessed"? Or that ought was once the past tense of owe? McWhorter also highlights the fascinating reasons behind regional accents, such as why some New Orleans speakers sound like they're from Brooklyn. By encouraging us to marvel at the dynamism and resilience of English, this book offers a delightful journey, showing that words are continuously evolving and enriching our lives in the process.

A compelling argument for why creoles are their own unique entity, which have developed independently of other processes of language development and change.

Creolists have established that many processes determine the structure of Caribbean creole languages, including innate linguistic universals, West African retentions, and certain patterns of simplification. Towards a New Model of Creole Genesis presents a method of uniting these strands into a single model of creole genesis. This discussion is primarily illustrated via Saramaccan Creole English, spoken in Suriname and combining elements from English, Portuguese, Dutch, and a range of African languages. An extensive evaluation of Derek Bickerton's Language Bioprogram Hypothesis is also presented. Increasing evidence is offered that Saramaccan and other Caribbean English creoles ultimately trace back to a single pidgin ancestor which emerged on the West African coast.

Language is always changing, but the way English is spoken today rubs many of us the wrong way. Whether it’s the use of literally to mean “figuratively,” or the way young people use LOL or business jargon like What’s the ask?—it often seems as if the language is deteriorating before our eyes. But the truth is different and a lot less scary. Drawing examples from everyday life and employing a generous helping of humor, John McWhorter shows that these shifts are common to all languages, and that we should embrace these changes, not condemn them. He opens our eyes to the surprising backstories to words and expressions we use every day. Did you know that silly once meant “blessed”? Or that ought was the original past tense of owe? Or that the suffix -ly in adverbs is actually a remnant of the word like? In Words on the Move, McWhorter encourages us to marvel at the dynamism and resilience of the English language, and his book offers a delightful journey where we see that words are ever on the move and our lives are all the richer for it.

There are approximately six thousand languages on Earth today, each a descendant of the tongue first spoken by Homo sapiens some 150,000 years ago. While laying out how languages mix and mutate over time, linguistics professor John McWhorter reminds us of the variety within the species that speaks them, and argues that, contrary to popular perception, language is not immutable and hidebound, but a living, dynamic entity that adapts itself to an ever-changing human environment. Full of humor and imaginative insight, The Power of Babel draws its illustrative examples from languages around the world, including pidgins, Creoles, and nonstandard dialects.

Once languages become written, they change. Only in writing does language develop the artfulness and richness that we associate with a Shakespeare, a Proust or a Whitman. Yet over the last forty years, the English-language has effectively gone into reverse - taking our lead from America and the legacy of the 19060s, our culture increasingly privileges the oral over the written, spurning the art of elaborated, 'written'-style language in favour of returning to the state of a spoken culture. Parallel developments have occurred in music. In this controversial and thought-provoking book, Jon McWhorter argues that the 1960's rejection of cultural traits associated with the Establishment, as well as a democratic celebration of what anyone can do over what requires training or talent, has led to our culture being increasingly impoverished, both intellectually and artistically, a culture that hates itself.

The New York Times bestseller now in paperback. One of the preeminent linguists of our time examines the realms of language that are considered shocking and taboo in order to understand what imbues curse words with such power--and why we love them so much. Profanity has always been a deliciously vibrant part of our lexicon, an integral part of being human. In fact, our ability to curse comes from a different part of the brain than other parts of speech--the urgency with which we say "f&*k!" is instead related to the instinct that tells us to flee from danger. Language evolves with time, and so does what we consider profane or unspeakable. Nine Nasty Words is a rollicking examination of profanity, explored from every angle: historical, sociological, political, linguistic. In a particularly coarse moment, when the public discourse is shaped in part by once-shocking words, nothing could be timelier.