1 - The contemporary marketplace of ideas about language

Summary

The first question that must arise for a book about “the linguistics of speech” is what we take “linguistics” to be. After we have an answer to that question, we can begin to be more specific about “the linguistics of speech.” In the first chapter, we will consider contemporary ideas about language and linguistics, from both an academic and from a more popular point of view. We will see that the academic science of linguistics has not yet achieved the consensus about its basic principles that natural and physical scientists have attained for their areas of study. At the same time, the popular view of language (at least for English speakers in Britain and America) has indeed arrived at something like consensus. However, that popular view is quite different from what academic linguists think, which can lead to conflict when we need to make decisions about language and public policy, as in educational policy. This contemporary competition of ideas about language can be described as a marketplace, in which ideas about language are promoted and accepted, bought and sold. In order to understand “linguistics,” and thus to prepare the way for a discussion of “the linguistics of speech,” we need to try to understand what motivates the buyers and the sellers in the marketplace.