Living Language

Living Language is composed of twenty-five essays on many aspects of a big subject. It is authoritative, by the longtime president of the American Society of Geolinguistics (ASG). ASG was founded in 1965 by Mario A. Pei for the study of language in action in the modern world as it affects culture, commerce, politics, personal and national identity, and, indeed, the whole macrosociolinguistic picture. ASG publishes the journal Geolinguistics and holds an annual international conference, and it publishes the proceedings of participants from Europe, Asia, Australia, Central America, United States, United Kingdom, etc. From those and other sources, along with some brand-new materials, here is a variety of essays, presented in a familiar style, chiefly on American and British English but also English as the world's second language and more. This book is wide-ranging, wise, witty, opinionated, deeply researched, useful, and controversial.