Date: Mon, 11 Apr 1994 19:40:40 -0400
From: Mike Agnes by971[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CLEVELAND.FREENET.EDU
Subject: Janus Syndrome
T'Other Side of the Coin Department:
Having followed with interest the recent discussion of
personal stigmatization by dialect association
(l'affaire Cokie), I now find the April 1 issue
of the TLS testifying to a curious sort of mirror-image
attitude. In it we have Adam Mars-Jones's review of
James Kelman's "How Late It Was, How Late," a work
apparently narrated in (or at least heavily laden with)
Glaswegian speech forms. M-J in no way condemns
the dialect and remarks on the authenticity
of the language. The unexpected (to me) twist lies
in the following:
"Too much of the book is only kept by the prestige
of dialect from sounding like banality . . . ."
[author's word order; where ARE the TLS's editors?]
I take this as a claim that readers tend uncritically
to accept as "worthy," "insightful," or what have you,
an idea or observation earnestly presented in print
in non-standard dialect. Does this mean that if one's
language is "racy with the soil" (to steal
Padraig Colum's phrase), one will be damned or praised
depending on whether the words are spoken or written?
A curious brace of linguistic prejudices (if it indeed
exists).
--
Mike Agnes
Internet: by971[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cleveland.freenet.edu
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