OXFORD, Miss. – Nationally renowned linguist, scholar,
author and columnist John McWhorter delivers the 49th annual
Christopher Longest Lecture Friday (Oct. 2) at the University of
Mississippi.
McWhorter, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and adjunct
professor of linguistics at Columbia University, speaks at 4 p.m. in
Bondurant Hall auditorium. His free, public presentation is titled “The
Power of Babel – And Why We Can’t Fight It in Our Language.” An
hourlong reception precedes the lecture.
McWhorter plans to
help his audience better understand the concept of prescriptivism – or
criticism of deviation from the arbitrary standard merely because it is
deviation – of the English language, which is the main theme of his
book “The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language.” He says he
will enjoy “seeing light bulbs go off in at least a few people’s heads
as to a new conception, under which language is not something most
people use ‘wrong.'”
“For several decades, linguists have tried to convince the
general public that it is illogical to suppose that people go about
making ‘mistakes’ in their speech, yet the argument never seems to go
through,” McWhorter said. “In this talk I want to see if a new approach
to the argument can actually change some minds.”
Donald Dyer, chair and professor of modern languages, said
McWhorter’s upcoming presentation is among the most interesting
lectures the department has featured because of the topic and lecturer.
“I think it is important to hear somebody of McWhorter’s
standing speak about such controversial issues,” Dyer said. “It’s one
thing for a university professor to talk about prescriptivism in the
classroom, but it’s quite another thing for someone who is a well-known
specialist in the field and the author of many books to speak publicly,
and of course intelligently, about the topic.”
McWhorter holds a doctorate in linguistics from Stanford
University. He taught at Cornell University and the University of
California, Berkeley.
Specializing in language change and language contact, he has
authored a collection of books, including “Doing Our Own Thing: The
Degradation of Language and Music in America and Why We Should, Like,
Care” and “The Word on the Street,” which focuses on dialects and Black
English.
He has written three books on Creole languages and was selected
to deliver a 36-lecture audiovisual course called “The Story of Human
Language,” in 2004. His academic linguistics book, “Language
Interrupted: Signs of Non-Native Acquisition in Standard Language
Grammars,” was released in 2007, and last year, his books “Our
Magnificent Bastard Tongue: Untold Stories in the History of English”
and “All About the Beat: Why Hip Hop Can’t Save Black America” were
published.
McWhorter was a weekly columnist for the New York Sun from 2006
to 2008. He has written on racial and cultural issues for publications
including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York
Times, The New York Daily News, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The
National Review, The Los Angeles Times, The American Enterprise, Ebony,
Vibe, New York Magazine, City Journal and The New Republic.
The Christopher Longest Lecture Series was established at UM in
1960 by Ann Waller Reins Longest, in recognition of Christopher
Longest’s distinguished service to the university from 1908 to 1951 in
the departments of Classics and Modern Languages. The annual lecture
series, sheltered in the departments of Modern Languages and English,
features scholars speaking in these fields.
For more information or assistance related to a disability, call
662-915-7298. To learn more about UM’s departments of Modern Languages
and English, visit http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/