Verbal Hygiene

In Verbal Hygiene, Deborah Cameron takes a serious look at popular attitudes towards language and examines the practices by which people attempt to regulate its use. Instead of dismissing the practice of -verbal hygiene-, as a misguided and pernicious exercise, she argues that popular discourse about language values - good and bad, right and wrong - serves an important function for those engaged in it. A series of case studies deal with specific examples of verbal hygiene: the regulation of -style- by editors, the teaching of English grammar in schools, the movements for and against so-called -politically correct- language and the advice given to women on how they can speak more effectively.

This Routledge Linguistics Classic includes a new foreword which looks at how the issues covered in the case studies have developed over time and a new afterword which discusses new concerns which have emerged in the last 15 years, from the regimentation of langua