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| Title: | On the role of children, and the mechanical view: A rejoinder |
| Author: | Peter Trudgill |
| Institution: | Universitet i Agder |
| Linguistic Field: | Philosophy of Language; Sociolinguistics |
| Abstract: | There is nothing controversial about Keller's assertion that human beings operate according to a powerful maxim which he renders as “Talk like the others talk.” This is self-evidently true (although we could of course discuss precisely who “the others” might be). If it were not true, there would be, say, no local dialects. The fact that everyone who has grown up in the same community speaks in the same way therefore, in a sense, needs no discussion. It is always the case, as near enough as makes no difference. |
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This article appears in Language in Society Vol. 37, Issue 2, which you can read on Cambridge's site or on LINGUIST . |
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