Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS vii
3. Prefatory Note xiii
4. Englishes
5. On Not Being Milton: Nigger Talk in England Today 1
6. Whose English? 15
7. On Hearing an Irish Poem Read in the Linenhall Library 24
8. The Language of Discretion 25
9. British and American English: Ex Uno Plura? 33
10. Talking Black 42
11. On Jewish Poetry in English 51
12. Naming the Animals 61
13. Further Thoughts: Little Words 62
14. Australian English Now 66
15. The Inheritance 77
16. Further Thoughts: Sound Barriers-Ten Years On 79
17. English at Its Twilight 83
18. The Body Politic
19. Introduction 95
20. Articulacy. Hints from the Koran 97
21. Fighting Talk 100
22. Power: Women and the Word 110
23. Ideologically Speaking 118
24. Reflections on a (Feminist) Discourse of Discourse, or, Look, Ma, I'm Talking! 130
25. Further Thoughts: The Correct Spelling of a Secret Word 138
26. Source 140
27. AIDS: Keywords 142
28. Speaking in the Shadow of AIDS 163
29. AIDS: The Linguistic Battlefield 171
30. Money
31. Introduction 183
32. The Pajama Man: Idyll Without Words 185
33. Pidgin English Advertising 195
34. Thanks, I Suppose 204
35. From the Novel Nice Work 215
36. Bear Hugs and Bo Dereks on Wall Street 224
37. Practices
38. Introduction 233
39. The Missing Common-Law Words 235
40. The Case of Legal Language 246
41. The World of Doublespeak 254
42. Public Eloquence 265
43. Further Thoughts: The Executives Take Over 276
44. Editing and Its Discontents 282
45. Notes on the Language of Poststructuralism 289
46. Computers and Language: An Optimistic View 295
47. Infomania 300
48. I'm Having Trouble With My Relationship 307
49. Art
50. Introduction 313
51. Changing What We Sing 315
52. The Refinery 341
53. Poets' Letters: ''The Mind alone, without corporeal friend" 343
54. Two Kinds of English? Jeffrey Archer and Anita Brookner 356
55. Language, Music, and Politics 367
56. No Opera Please-We're British 381
57. The Key A Prose Poem 392
58. Boffo Goes International 394
59. Subway Graffiti and the Design of the Self 400
60. Now and Then 408
61. Rectitudes
62. Introduction 409
63. Lars Porsena Revisited 411
64. Censorship 422
65. Violent Acts and Prurient Thoughts 424
66. Dirty Words 433
67. It's a Myth, Innit? Politeness and the English Tag Question 443
68. Yours 451
69. Further Thoughts: They Can't Even Say It Properly Now 457
70. Word Making and Mistaking 460
71. What the Usage Panel Thinks 467
72. Further Thoughts: Grammar and Syntax 483
73. From Wordstruck 486
74. Hard Characters 491
75. The Federation of English 492
76. The What of the Language? 503
77. Notes on Contributors 515
78. Index 523