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John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!!
John McWhorter: Els msgs stan matant la llengua. S broma!!!
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La missatgeria instantània portarà la mort de l'escriptura correcta? En John McWhorter suggereix que hi ha moltes més coses, lingüísticament i cultural, en els missatges que el que sembla, i són bones notícies.
John McWhorter - Linguist
Linguist John McWhorter thinks about language in relation to race, politics and our shared cultural history. Full bio
Linguist John McWhorter thinks about language in relation to race, politics and our shared cultural history. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
We always hear that texting is a scourge.
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Sempre es critica la missatgeria instantània.
00:15
The idea is that texting spells the decline and fall
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Es diu que aquesta escriptura és la decadència
00:20
of any kind of serious literacy, or at least writing ability,
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de l'alfabetització o, com a mínim, de l'escriptura
00:23
among young people in the United States
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entre els joves dels Estats Units
00:26
and now the whole world today.
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i ja també de tot el món.
00:28
The fact of the matter is that it just isn't true,
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El cas és que això no és pas cert.
00:32
and it's easy to think that it is true,
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I és fàcil pensar que és veritat,
00:34
but in order to see it in another way,
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però per veure-ho d'una altra manera,
00:36
in order to see that actually texting is a miraculous thing,
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per veure que en realitat és com un miracle
00:40
not just energetic, but a miraculous thing,
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i no només un fet actiu,
00:43
a kind of emergent complexity
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una mena de complexitat emergent
00:44
that we're seeing happening right now,
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que es desenvolupa ara i aquí,
00:47
we have to pull the camera back for a bit
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hem de mirar una mica enrere
00:49
and look at what language really is,
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i veure què és realment la llengua.
00:52
in which case, one thing that we see
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I el que veurem serà que
00:55
is that texting is not writing at all.
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escriure missatges no té res a veure amb escriure.
00:59
What do I mean by that?
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Què vull dir amb això?
01:01
Basically, if we think about language,
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Bàsicament, si pensem en la llengua,
01:04
language has existed for perhaps 150,000 years,
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la llengua ha existit durant potser 150.000 anys.
01:07
at least 80,000 years,
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Com a mínim, 80.000 anys.
01:09
and what it arose as is speech. People talked.
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I va néixer com un fenòmen oral. La gent parlava.
01:14
That's what we're probably genetically specified for.
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I probablement això és per al que estem preparats genèticament.
01:17
That's how we use language most.
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Així és com usem la llengua principalment.
01:19
Writing is something that came along much later,
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L'escriptura va venir molt més tard
01:22
and as we saw in the last talk,
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i, com hem vist en la última xerrada,
01:24
there's a little bit of controversy as to exactly when that happened,
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hi ha discussions sobre
quan va passar això exactament.
quan va passar això exactament.
01:27
but according to traditional estimates,
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Segons els càlculs tradicionals,
01:29
if humanity had existed for 24 hours,
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si la humanitat hagués existit durant 24 hores,
01:33
then writing only came along at about 11:07 p.m.
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l'escriptura s'hauria creat a les 23:07 h.
01:38
That's how much of a latterly thing writing is.
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Així de tard va arribar l'escriptura.
01:42
So first there's speech, and then writing comes along
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Per tant, primer hi ha l'oral i més tard ve l'escrit
01:45
as a kind of artifice.
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com una cosa artificial.
01:47
Now don't get me wrong, writing has certain advantages.
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No em malinterpreteu, escriure té certs avantatges.
01:51
When you write, because it's a conscious process,
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Quan escrius, com que és un procés conscient,
01:53
because you can look backwards,
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com que pots revisar el que has fet,
01:56
you can do things with language that are much less likely
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pots produir coses que probablement no faràs
01:58
if you're just talking.
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si estàs parlant.
02:01
For example, imagine a passage from Edward Gibbon's
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Per exemple, aquesta cita d'Edward Gibbon
02:05
"The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:"
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en el seu llibre del declivi i
la caiguda de l'Imperi Romà:
la caiguda de l'Imperi Romà:
02:09
"The whole engagement lasted above twelve hours,
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"L'enfrontament va durar més de dotze hores,
02:12
till the graduate retreat of the Persians was changed
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fins que la retirada gradual dels perses va esdevenir
02:14
into a disorderly flight, of which the shameful example
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una fugida desordenada,
iniciada amb l'indigne exemple
iniciada amb l'indigne exemple
02:17
was given by the principal leaders and the Surenas himself."
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dels líders principals i del mateix surena."
02:20
That's beautiful, but let's face it, nobody talks that way.
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Sona preciós, però ningú no parla així.
02:24
Or at least, they shouldn't if they're interested
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Com a mínim, no ho haurien de fer
02:28
in reproducing. That --
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si es volen reproduir. Així...
02:31
(Laughter)
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[Rialles]
02:33
is not the way any human being speaks casually.
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...no és com parlen els humans espontàniament.
02:36
Casual speech is something quite different.
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El discurs espontani és bastant diferent.
02:39
Linguists have actually shown
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Els lingüistes han demostrat
02:41
that when we're speaking casually in an unmonitored way,
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que quan parlem espontàniament
02:43
we tend to speak in word packets of maybe
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solem dividir el discurs en grups
02:46
seven to 10 words.
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d'entre 7 i 10 paraules.
02:48
You'll notice this if you ever have occasion to record
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Ho podeu comprovar si us graveu
02:51
yourself or a group of people talking.
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parlant en un grup de gent.
02:54
That's what speech is like.
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La llengua oral és així.
02:55
Speech is much looser. It's much more telegraphic.
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És més flexible. Molt més telegràfica.
02:59
It's much less reflective -- very different from writing.
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Molt menys reflexiva. Molt diferent de l'escrita.
03:03
So we naturally tend to think, because we see language
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I és normal que pensem (perquè sovint veiem
03:06
written so often, that that's what language is,
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la llengua escrita) que la llengua és això.
03:08
but actually what language is, is speech. They are two things.
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Però en realitat la llengua és oral.
Són coses diferents.
Són coses diferents.
03:12
Now of course, as history has gone by,
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Evidentment, amb el pas del temps
03:16
it's been natural for there to be a certain amount of bleed
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és natural que hi hagi interferències
03:18
between speech and writing.
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entre el parlar i l'escriure.
03:21
So, for example, in a distant era now,
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Per exemple, fa molt de temps
03:26
it was common when one gave a speech
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era normal que els discursos es fessin
03:29
to basically talk like writing.
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igual que com s'escriu.
03:32
So I mean the kind of speech that you see someone giving
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Em refereixo als discursos que veus
03:34
in an old movie where they clear their throat, and they go,
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en pel·lícules antigues quan s'aclareixen la gola,
03:37
"Ahem, ladies and gentlemen," and then they speak
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"Ehem, senyores i senyors", i llavors parlen
03:39
in a certain way which has nothing to do with casual speech.
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d'una manera que no té res d'espontani.
03:43
It's formal. It uses long sentences like this Gibbon one.
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És formal. Utilitza frases llargues com la de Gibbon.
03:46
It's basically talking like you write, and so, for example,
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Parlen tal com s'escriu i, per exemple,
03:50
we're thinking so much these days about Lincoln
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últimament es parla molt de Lincoln
03:52
because of the movie.
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arran de la pel·lícula.
03:55
The Gettysburg Address was not the main meal of that event.
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El discurs de Gettysburg no era l'acte principal.
03:58
For two hours before that, Edward Everett spoke
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Les dues hores d'abans, Edward Everett va parlar
04:02
on a topic that, frankly, cannot engage us today
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d'un tema que, francament, avui no interessa
04:05
and barely did then.
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i llavors tampoc gaire.
04:06
The point of it was to listen to him
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La gràcia era escoltar-lo
04:09
speaking like writing.
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parlant com s'escriu.
04:10
Ordinary people stood and listened to that for two hours.
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La gent normal el va escoltar durant dues hores.
04:13
It was perfectly natural.
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Era del tot natural.
04:14
That's what people did then, speaking like writing.
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Això és el que feien llavors, parlar com s'escriu.
04:17
Well, if you can speak like writing,
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Però si es pot parlar com s'escriu,
04:19
then logically it follows that you might want to also
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lògicament, també podries voler algun cop
04:23
sometimes write like you speak.
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escriure com parles.
04:26
The problem was just that in the material,
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El problema era que materialment
04:28
mechanical sense, that was harder back in the day
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i mecànica era més difícil en el passat
04:31
for the simple reason that materials don't lend themselves to it.
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per la simple raó que no tenien els mitjans adequats.
04:34
It's almost impossible to do that with your hand
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És quasi impossible fer-ho a mà,
04:37
except in shorthand, and then communication is limited.
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excepte amb la taquigrafia, però també està limitada.
04:40
On a manual typewriter it was very difficult,
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En una màquina d'escriure era molt difícil,
04:42
and even when we had electric typewriters,
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fins i tot quan van sortir les electròniques
04:45
or then computer keyboards, the fact is
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i els ordinadors. El fet és que
04:47
that even if you can type easily enough to keep up
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encara que teclegis suficientment de pressa
04:49
with the pace of speech, more or less, you have to have
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a la velocitat de la parla, necessites
04:52
somebody who can receive your message quickly.
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algú que pugui rebre el missatge de pressa.
04:54
Once you have things in your pocket that can receive that message,
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Un cop tens un objecte a la butxaca
que rep el missatge,
que rep el missatge,
04:58
then you have the conditions that allow
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ja tens les condicions que ens permeten
05:00
that we can write like we speak.
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escriure com parlem.
05:04
And that's where texting comes in.
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I aquí és on entren els missatges instantanis.
05:07
And so, texting is very loose in its structure.
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Els missatges són molt flexibles en l'estructura.
05:11
No one thinks about capital letters or punctuation when one texts,
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Ningú no pensa en les majúscules ni en la puntuació.
05:15
but then again, do you think about those things when you talk?
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Però, hi penseu quan parleu?
05:17
No, and so therefore why would you when you were texting?
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No. Llavors, per què ho heu de fer
en un missatge?
en un missatge?
05:21
What texting is, despite the fact that it involves
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La missatgeria instantània, tot i que inclogui
05:24
the brute mechanics of something that we call writing,
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la mecànica d'allò que s'anomena escriptura,
05:27
is fingered speech. That's what texting is.
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és un discurs dactilar. Això és el que és.
05:30
Now we can write the way we talk.
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Ara podem escriure com parlem.
05:34
And it's a very interesting thing, but nevertheless
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I és molt interessant, però encara
05:36
easy to think that still it represents some sort of decline.
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és fàcil veure-ho com un tipus de decadència.
05:41
We see this general bagginess of the structure,
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Veiem aquesta flexibilitat d'estructura,
05:45
the lack of concern with rules and the way that we're used to
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la indiferència respecte d'aquelles normes
05:48
learning on the blackboard, and so we think
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que vam aprendre, i per això pensem
05:50
that something has gone wrong.
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que alguna cosa va malament.
05:53
It's a very natural sense.
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És una impressió molt natural.
05:56
But the fact of the matter is that what is going on
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Però en realitat, el que passa és la creació
06:00
is a kind of emergent complexity.
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d'un sistema nou i complex.
06:04
That's what we're seeing in this fingered speech.
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Això és el que veiem en el discurs dactilar.
06:07
And in order to understand it, what we want to see
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I per entendre'l, hem de trobar
06:10
is the way, in this new kind of language,
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en aquest nou tipus de llenguatge
06:15
there is new structure coming up.
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les noves estructures que es formen.
06:18
And so, for example, there is in texting a convention,
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Per exemple, en missatgeria hi ha una convenció
06:24
which is LOL.
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que és LOL.
06:27
Now LOL, we generally think of
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Generalment diem que
06:29
as meaning "laughing out loud."
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LOL significa 'rialla ben sonora'.
06:32
And of course, theoretically, it does,
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I teòricament és així.
06:34
and if you look at older texts, then people used it
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Si mireu missatges antics, la gent
06:37
to actually indicate laughing out loud.
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l'utilitzava en aquest sentit.
06:39
But if you text now, or if you are someone who
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Però si escrius missatges ara o si entens
06:43
is aware of the substrate of texting the way it's become,
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les bases del sistema que s'ha desenvolupat,
06:47
you'll notice that LOL
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t'adonaràs que LOL
06:48
does not mean laughing out loud anymore.
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ja no és riure ben fort.
06:51
It's evolved into something that is much subtler.
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Ha evolucionat cap a una cosa més subtil.
06:54
This is an actual text that was done
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Això és una conversa real
06:58
by a non-male person of about 20 years old
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entre noies d'uns 20 anys
07:02
not too long ago.
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de no fa gaire.
07:03
"I love the font you're using, btw."
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"M'encanta la font que fas servir."
07:06
Julie: "lol thanks gmail is being slow right now"
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Julie: "lol gràcies gmail va una mica lent"
07:10
Now if you think about it, that's not funny.
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Si hi penseu, no té cap gràcia.
07:12
No one's laughing. (Laughter)
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Ningú no riu. [rialles]
07:15
And yet, there it is, so you assume
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Però aquí el teniu i suposeu
07:16
there's been some kind of hiccup.
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que pot haver estat involuntari.
07:18
Then Susan says "lol, I know,"
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Llavors la Susan diu "lol, ho se.",
07:20
again more guffawing than we're used to
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més riallera del que solem estar
07:22
when you're talking about these inconveniences.
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quan parlem d'aquest tipus de problemes.
07:25
So Julie says, "I just sent you an email."
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I la Julie diu, "T'acabo d'enviar un mail."
07:28
Susan: "lol, I see it."
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Susan: "lol, ja ho veig."
07:30
Very funny people, if that's what LOL means.
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S'ho passen molt bé si LOL vol dir això.
07:33
This Julie says, "So what's up?"
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I la Julie diu: "Com va?"
07:35
Susan: "lol, I have to write a 10 page paper."
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Susan: "lol, he d'escriure un treball de 10 pàgines".
07:38
She's not amused. Let's think about it.
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No és divertit. Penseu-hi.
07:40
LOL is being used in a very particular way.
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LOL s'està utilitzant d'una manera molt particular.
07:43
It's a marker of empathy. It's a marker of accommodation.
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És un senyal d'empatia, un senyal d'acceptació.
07:47
We linguists call things like that pragmatic particles.
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Els lingüistes ho anomenem partícula pragmàtica.
07:50
Any spoken language that's used by real people has them.
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Qualsevol llengua parlada per gent real en té.
07:54
If you happen to speak Japanese, think about
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Si algú parla japonès, penseu
07:55
that little word "ne" that you use at the end of a lot of sentences.
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en aquell ne que dieu al final de moltes frases.
07:59
If you listen to the way black youth today speak,
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Si heu sentit el jovent negre d'avui,
08:01
think about the use of the word "yo."
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penseu com fan servir aquell yo.
08:03
Whole dissertations could be written about it,
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Se'n podrien escriure llargues dissertacions
08:05
and probably are being written about it.
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i segurament ja s'està fent.
08:07
A pragmatic particle, that's what LOL has gradually become.
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Una partícula pragmàtica.
El LOL s'ha convertit en això.
El LOL s'ha convertit en això.
08:11
It's a way of using the language between actual people.
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És com la gent real fa servir el llenguatge.
08:15
Another example is "slash."
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Un altre exemple és la "barra" [/].
08:18
Now, we can use slash in the way that we're used to,
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La podem utilitzar de la manera que ja sabem,
08:21
along the lines of, "We're going to have
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com ara: "Celebrarem
08:23
a party-slash-networking session."
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una festa-barra-trobada de contactes."
08:26
That's kind of like what we're at.
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Però això és el que ens trobem,
08:28
Slash is used in a very different way
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La barra s'utilitza d'una manera molt diferent
08:32
in texting among young people today.
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en els missatges dels joves d'avui.
08:35
It's used to change the scene.
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Es fa servir per canviar de tema.
08:37
So for example, this Sally person says,
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Per exemple, aquí la Sally diu:
08:40
"So I need to find people to chill with"
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"He de trobar gent amb qui anar"
08:41
and Jake says, "Haha" --
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i el Jake diu, "Haha"
08:43
you could write a dissertation about "Haha" too, but we don't have time for that —
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(també podríem estudiar el "Haha",
però no tenim temps)
però no tenim temps)
08:46
"Haha so you're going by yourself? Why?"
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"Haha així que hi vas sola? Per què?"
08:48
Sally: "For this summer program at NYU."
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Sally: "És un programa
de la Universitat de Nova York."
de la Universitat de Nova York."
08:51
Jake: "Haha. Slash I'm watching this video with suns players
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Jake: "Haha. Barra estic veient
un video de jugadors de bàsquet
un video de jugadors de bàsquet
08:54
trying to shoot with one eye."
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que tiren amb un ull tancat"
08:56
The slash is interesting.
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La barra és interessant.
08:57
I don't really even know what Jake is talking about after that,
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No sé què diu el Jake després d'això,
09:00
but you notice that he's changing the topic.
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però es veu que ha canviat de tema.
09:05
Now that seems kind of mundane,
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Això no sembla gaire especial,
09:07
but think about how in real life,
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però si penseu en la vida real,
09:08
if we're having a conversation and we want to change the topic,
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quan volem canviar de tema enmig d'una conversa,
09:11
there are ways of doing it gracefully.
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hi ha maneres de fer-ho amb gràcia.
09:12
You don't just zip right into it.
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No us limiteu a fer-ho de cop.
09:14
You'll pat your thighs and look wistfully off into the distance,
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Us tocareu la cuixa i mirareu
místicament cap a l'horitzó
místicament cap a l'horitzó
09:18
or you'll say something like, "Hmm, makes you think --"
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o direu alguna cosa com "Hmm, això em recorda..."
09:22
when it really didn't, but what you're really --
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quan realment no ho fa, però tu vols...
09:25
(Laughter) —
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[rialles]
09:27
what you're really trying to do is change the topic.
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tu en realitat vols canviar de tema.
09:30
You can't do that while you're texting,
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Això no es pot fer pels missatges
09:31
and so ways are developing of doing it within this medium.
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i per això es creen altres maneres en aquest mitjà.
09:35
All spoken languages have what a linguist calls
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Totes les llengües orals tenen un nou sistema
09:37
a new information marker -- or two, or three.
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per identificar la nova informació, o dos o tres.
09:41
Texting has developed one from this slash.
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Els missatges instantanis han creat la barra.
09:45
So we have a whole battery of new constructions
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Així que tenim un munt de noves construccions
09:48
that are developing, and yet it's easy to think,
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que s'estan creant i encara és fàcil pensar
09:51
well, something is still wrong.
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que alguna cosa va malament.
09:53
There's a lack of structure of some sort.
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Hi ha una falta d'estructura d'algun tipus.
09:57
It's not as sophisticated
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No és tan sofisticat
09:59
as the language of The Wall Street Journal.
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com el llenguatge del The Wall Street Journal.
10:01
Well, the fact of the matter is,
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Bé, però de fet,
10:03
look at this person in 1956,
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mireu què deien el 1956,
10:05
and this is when texting doesn't exist,
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quan la missatgeria encara no existia.
10:08
"I Love Lucy" is still on the air.
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i el Rin Tin Tin sortia a la tele.
10:09
"Many do not know the alphabet or multiplication table,
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"Molts no saben l'alfabet o les taules de multiplicar,
10:13
cannot write grammatically -- "
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i fan textos agramaticals".
10:14
We've heard that sort of thing before,
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No és el primer cop que ho sentim.
10:17
not just in 1956. 1917, Connecticut schoolteacher.
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I abans del 1956. El 1917 una mestra...
10:21
1917. This is the time when we all assume
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El 1917. Un temps en què creiem
10:23
that everything somehow in terms of writing was perfect
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que l'escriptura era perfecta
10:27
because the people on "Downton Abbey" are articulate,
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perquè els personatges de Downton Abbey
10:29
or something like that.
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són súper eloqüents.
10:30
So, "From every college in the country goes up the cry,
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Diu: "A totes les universitats es queixen dient
10:33
'Our freshmen can't spell, can't punctuate.'"
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«Els alumnes no saben d'ortografia
ni de puntuació.»"
ni de puntuació.»"
10:36
And so on. You can go even further back than this.
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I tota la resta. I més endarrere.
10:38
It's the President of Harvard. It's 1871.
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El president de Harvard. El 1871.
10:41
There's no electricity. People have three names.
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No hi ha electricitat. La gent té tres noms.
10:44
"Bad spelling,
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"Mala ortografia,
10:46
incorrectness as well as inelegance of expression in writing."
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incorrecció, així com poca elegància
en l'expressió escrita."
en l'expressió escrita."
10:50
And he's talking about people who are otherwise
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I parla de gent que estaven
10:52
well prepared for college studies.
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ben preparats per a la universitat.
10:54
You can go even further back.
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O encara més endarrere.
10:56
1841, some long-lost superintendent of schools is upset
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1841, un inspector d'escoles està molest
10:59
because of what he has for a long time "noted with regret
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perquè "Fa temps que, tristament, he notat
11:03
the almost entire neglect of the original" blah blah blah blah blah.
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que s'ha abandonat quasi del tot" bla, bla, bla.
11:06
Or you can go all the way back to 63 A.D. -- (Laughter) --
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O podem anar encara fins al 63 dC [rialles]
11:11
and there's this poor man who doesn't like the way
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i a aquest home no li agrada com
11:14
people are speaking Latin.
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la gent parla el llatí.
11:15
As it happens, he was writing about what had become French.
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I es referia al que seria el francès.
11:18
And so, there are always — (Laughter) (Applause) —
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I així, sempre hi ha [rialles i aplaudiments]
11:25
there are always people worrying about these things
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sempre hi ha gent preocupada per això,
11:27
and the planet somehow seems to keep spinning.
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però el planeta segueix girant.
11:30
And so, the way I'm thinking of texting these days is
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Per això, quan penso en els missatges, crec
11:35
that what we're seeing is a whole new way of writing
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que estem davant d'una nova forma d'escriptura
11:38
that young people are developing,
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que els joves estan creant,
11:40
which they're using alongside their ordinary writing skills,
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que fan servir paral·lelament a l'escriptura normal,
11:44
and that means that they're able to do two things.
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el que vol dir que són capaços
de fer totes dues coses.
de fer totes dues coses.
11:47
Increasing evidence is that being bilingual
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Hi ha proves a favor, com que ser bilingüe
11:50
is cognitively beneficial.
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és bo per a l'aprenentatge.
11:52
That's also true of being bidialectal.
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També es pot aplicar a parlar dos dialectes.
11:54
That's certainly true of being bidialectal in terms of your writing.
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I això són dos dialectes de l'escriptura.
11:57
And so texting actually is evidence of a balancing act
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I escriure així és la prova d'aquest equilibri
12:02
that young people are using today, not consciously, of course,
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que mantenen els joves, inconscientment, és clar.
12:05
but it's an expansion of their linguistic repertoire.
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Però és una ampliació del seu repertori lingüístic.
12:09
It's very simple.
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És molt simple.
12:10
If somebody from 1973 looked at
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Si algú del 1973 mirés
12:14
what was on a dormitory message board in 1993,
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un taulell d'anuncis universitari del 1993,
12:18
the slang would have changed a little bit
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l'argot hauria canviat una mica
12:20
since the era of "Love Story,"
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des del temps de Love Story,
12:22
but they would understand what was on that message board.
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però encara ho podria entendre tot.
12:25
Take that person from 1993 -- not that long ago,
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Agafa algú del 1993; no fa gaire
12:28
this is "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" -- those people.
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(això és com Retorn al futur).
12:31
Take those people and they read
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Feu que aquesta persona llegeixi
12:33
a very typical text written by a 20-year-old today.
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un missatge actual escrit per algú de 20 anys.
12:36
Often they would have no idea what half of it meant
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Segurament no n'entendrien res perquè
12:39
because a whole new language has developed
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s'ha desenvolupat un nou llenguatge
12:43
among our young people doing something as mundane
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a les mans dels joves amb una cosa tan simple
12:45
as what it looks like to us when they're batting around
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com és teclejar com si res
12:48
on their little devices.
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en els seus aparells.
12:49
So in closing, if I could go into the future,
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En resum, si pogués anar al futur,
12:53
if I could go into 2033,
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si pogués anar al 2033,
12:57
the first thing I would ask is whether David Simon
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Primer preguntaria si en David Simon
13:00
had done a sequel to "The Wire." I would want to know.
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ha continuat The Wire. Ho voldria saber.
13:04
And — I really would ask that —
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I... de debò que ho faria.
13:07
and then I'd want to know actually what was going on on "Downton Abbey."
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I llavors voldria saber què passa a Downton Abbey.
13:10
That'd be the second thing.
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Que seria la segona cosa.
13:12
And then the third thing would be,
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I llavors, la tercera cosa seria
13:14
please show me a sheaf of texts
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"Si us plau, mostreu-me alguns missatges
13:18
written by 16-year-old girls,
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1957
escrits per nenes de 16 anys"
13:19
because I would want to know where this language
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perquè m'agradaria saber fins a on ha arribat
13:22
had developed since our times,
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1955
aquest llenguatge des d'avui.
13:24
and ideally I would then send them back to you and me now
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I l'ideal seria poder-los enviar al present per
13:28
so we could examine this linguistic miracle
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poder estudiar aquest miracle lingüístic
13:30
happening right under our noses.
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que tenim davant dels nassos.
13:32
Thank you very much.
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Moltes gràcies.
13:34
(Applause)
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[aplaudiments]
13:39
Thank you. (Applause)
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[aplaudiments]
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
John McWhorter - LinguistLinguist John McWhorter thinks about language in relation to race, politics and our shared cultural history.
Why you should listen
John McWhorter is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, teaching linguistics, Western Civilization and music history. He is a regular columnist on language matters and race issues for Time and CNN, writes for the Wall Street Journal "Taste" page, and writes a regular column on language for The Atlantic. His work also appears in the Washington Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Aeon magazine, The American Interest and other outlets. He was Contributing Editor at The New Republic from 2001 until 2014.
McWhorter earned his PhD in linguistics from Stanford University in 1993 and is the author of The Power of Babel, Doing Our Own Thing, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, The Language Hoax and most recently Words on the Move and Talking Back, Talking Black. The Teaching Company has released four of his audiovisual lecture courses on linguistics. He guest hosted the Lexicon Valley podcast at Slate during the summer of 2016.
Beyond his work in linguistics, McWhorter is the author of Losing the Race and other books on race. He has appeared regularly on Bloggingheads.TV since 2006, and he produces and plays piano for a group cabaret show, New Faces, at the Cornelia Street Cafe in New York City.
John McWhorter | Speaker | TED.com