THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT. Tickets are required to attend this forum and will be checked at the door. You may put your name on the waitlist, and if tickets become available, you will receive an email from Eventbrite notifying you that you may claim it. If you are unable to obtain tickets, we will be recording the event. We will make the link available on the NYU Linguistics homepage after Wednesday 3/29.

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From the sounds of speech to the construction of sentences to nuances in meaning, a hallmark of human language is its diversity. While linguists believe that this diversity has much to teach us about human cognition, creativity, and identity, it has also been long observed that differences in language use among social groups have led to discrimination against speakers who diverge from the dominant group. Linguistic prejudice has been documented against many different (but often intersecting) groups, including racial or ethnic groups, socioeconomic classes, speakers of regional dialects, non-native speakers, and on the basis of gender. Indeed, linguistic prejudice seems to remain socially acceptable today even when other types of overt discrimination are otherwise shunned. This forum brings together four scholars from the Department of Linguistics at NYU whose research addresses these issues.

Speakers:

Laurel MacKenzie: The Myth of Standard English
Lisa Davidson: Talking While Female: The Science and Censure of Women’s Voices
Gregory Guy: Life and Language at the Back of the Classroom: Linguistic Minorities in Educational Settings
Renée Blake: Don't CALL me what I AM!: On being BLACK and ARTICULATE

Moderated by John Singler, Professor Emeritus

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.