Verbal Hygiene (Politics of Language)

Verbal Hygiene discusses the use and abuse of language and questions what makes it good and bad, or right and wrong. Cameron examines the practices through which people try to both clean up language and regulate its use in attempts to make it functionally, aesthetically and morally "better." Verbal Hygiene examines a series of case studies with specific examples of practiced verbal hygiene which include the regulation of style by editors; the teaching of English grammar in schools; the movements surrounding so-called politically correct language; and the recent explosion of advice to women on how they can speak more effectively. Verbal Hygiene calls for legitimate concerns about language and value to be discussed in a rational and critical spirit.