- Table View
- List View
Speech Rights in America: The First Amendment, Democracy, and the Media
by Laura SteinThe First Amendment is the principle guarantor of speech rights in the United States, but the Supreme Court's interpretations of it often privilege the interests of media owners over those of the broader citizenry. In Speech Rights in America, Laura Stein argues that such rulings alienate citizens from their rights, corrupt the essential workings of democracy, and prevent the First Amendment from performing its critical role as a protector of free speech. Drawing on the best of the liberal democratic tradition, Stein demonstrates that there is a significant gap between First Amendment law and the speech rights necessary to democratic communication, and proposes an alternative set of principles to guide future judicial, legislative, and cultural policy on old and new media.
Speech Science: An Integrated Approach to Theory and Clinical Practice (2nd edition)
by Carole T. FerrandTo demystify a topic that she has found often intimidates students, Ferrand (speech-language-hearing sciences, Hostra U.) breaks the material into explicitly linked units. Taking a systems approach, the author relates scientific concepts to human communicative behavior and clinical "mis" behavior. In addition to covering the standard topics of the nature of sound, the physiological systems involved, models and theories of speech production and perception, and clinical applications, she takes into account the impact on the field of technological advances. Includes review exercises, an extensive glossary, and an appendix of symbols for consonants and vowels. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (book news. com)
Speeches of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Orations Deserving of a Wider Audience
by Shaun UsherFrom the author of the New York Times bestseller Letters of Note comes a collection of 75 of history's most interesting, profound, and sometimes unknown speeches from a range of scintillating personalities such as Frederick Douglass, Justin Trudeau, Albert Einstein, Meghan Markle, Barbara Jordan, and Ursula K. Le Guin. This thoughtfully curated and richly illustrated collection celebrates oratory old and new, highlighting speeches we know and admire, while also shining a light on profound drafts that were never delivered or have until now been forgotten. From George Bernard Shaw's warm and rousing toast to Albert Einstein in 1930 and the commencement address affectionately given to graduates at Long Island University by Kermit the Frog, to the chilling public announcement (that was thankfully never made) by President Richard Nixon should Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become stranded on the moon, Speeches of Note honors the words and ideas of some of history’s most provocative and inspiring personages.
Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds
by Michael Knowles&“Every single American needs to read Michael Knowles&’s Speechless. I don&’t mean &‘read it eventually.&’ I mean: stop what you&’re doing and pick up this book.&” —CANDACE OWENS "The most important book on free speech in decades—read it!&” —SENATOR TED CRUZ A New Strategy: We Win, They Lose The Culture War is over, and the culture lost. The Left&’s assault on liberty, virtue, decency, the Republic of the Founders, and Western civilization has succeeded. You can no longer keep your social media account—or your job—and acknowledge truths such as: Washington, Jefferson, and Columbus were great men. Schools and libraries should not coach children in sexual deviance. Men don&’t have uteruses. How did we get to this point? Michael Knowles of The Daily Wire exposes and diagnosis the losing strategy we have fallen for and shows how we can change course—and start winning. In the groundbreaking Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds Knowles reveals: How the &“free speech absolutists&” gave away the store The First Amendment does not require a value-neutral public square How the Communists figured out that their revolution could never succeed as long as the common man was attached to his own culture Where political correctness came from How, comply or resist, political correctness is a win-win game for the bad guys Why taking our stand on &“freedom of speech&” helps put atheism, decadence, and nonsense on the same plane with faith, virtue, and reality The real question: Will we shut down drag queen story hour, or cancel Abraham Lincoln? For 170 years the First Amendment was compatible with prayer in public school How the atheists got the Warren Court to rule their way To this day, there&’s a First Amendment exception for obscenity. What exactly is the argument that perverts&’ teaching toddlers to twerk is not obscene? Read Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds if you want to learn how to take the fight to the enemy.
Speed Lead
by Kevan HallAuthor Kevan Hall believes that up to 50% of employee time is wasted in most offices. Speed Lead offers a simple solution for making companies run faster. Based on research showing that talented people spend more than 80% of their time on cooperation, communication, and control in the workplace, Hall explains the strategies that work for today's successful businesses.
Spellbound: Seven Principles of Illusion to Captivate Audiences and Unlock the Secrets of Success
by David KwongA professional magician and illusionist—the head magic consultant for the hit film Now You See Me—reveals how to bridge the gap between perception and reality to increase your powers of persuasion and influence.David Kwong has astounded corporate CEOs, TED talk audiences, and thousands of other hyper-rational people, making them see, believe, and even remember what he wants them to. Illusion is an ancient art that centers on control: commanding a room, building anticipation, and appearing to work wonders. Illusion works because the human brain is wired to fill the gap between seeing and believing. Successful leaders—like Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, and Ted Turner—are masters of control and command who understand how to sway opinions and achieve goals.In his years of research and practice, David has discovered seven fundamental principles of illusion. With these rules anyone can learn to:Mind the Gap—recognize and employ the perceptual space between your audience’s ability to see and their impulse to believe.Load Up—prepare to amaze your audience.Write the Script—discover the importance of shaping the narrative that surrounds your illusion.Control the Frame—explore the real life value of a magician’s best friend: misdirection.Design Free Choice—command your audience by giving them agency.Employ the Familiar—take secret advantage of habits, patterns, and audience expectations.Conjure an Out—develop backup plans that will keep you one, two, three, or more steps ahead of the competition.With Spellbound you’ll discover a different way to sell your idea, product, or skills, and make your best shot better than everyone else’s.
Spelling, Vocabulary, and Poetry 6
by Phyllis RandSpelling, Vocabulary, and Poetry 6 teaches students the spelling and meaning of words through the study of prefixes, roots, and suffixes. There are eight review lists and exercises that provide an opportunity for spelling mastery.
Spielen ist unwahrscheinlich: Eine Theorie der ludischen Aktion
by Hans-Jürgen Arlt Fabian ArltBegründet und entfaltet wird ein Begriff des Spiels, der sich um Lockungen und Drohungen des Unerwarteten dreht. Das Autorenduo ordnet seine Theorie der ludischen Aktion in klassische Konzepte des Spiels ein sowie in den aktuellen Diskurs der Game Studies. Die phänomenale Mannigfaltigkeit des Spiels wird in historischer Perspektive skizziert und in systematischer Weise gegliedert. Die Autoren erläutern medientechnische und kommunikative Voraussetzungen des Booms der Computerspiele und reflektieren die Diskussion über Eskalationen ludischer Gewalt. Kritisch ausgeleuchtet werden Instrumentalisierungen des Spiels, die sich unter dem Stichwort Gamification wachsender Beliebtheit erfreuen. Die auffällige Inflation der Spielmetapher wird in Zusammenhang gebracht mit ludischen Anmutungen in den sozialen Strukturen der modernen und digitalen Gesellschaft.Fabian Arlt, M. A., hat Medienmanagement studiert und promoviert im Studiengang Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftskommunikation der Universität der Künste (UdK) in Berlin.Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Arlt ist Sozialwissenschaftler und Publizist, er lehrt am Institut für Theorie und Praxis der Kommunikation der Universität der Künste (UdK) in Berlin.
Spielraum: Teaching German through Theater
by Lisa ParkesSpielraum: Teaching German through Theater is a sourcebook and guide for teaching German language and culture, as well as social, cross-cultural, and multi-ethnic tensions, through dramatic texts. This book presents a range of theoretical and practical resources for the growing number of teachers who wish to integrate drama and theater into their foreign-language curriculum. As such, it may be adopted as a flexible tool for teachers seeking ways to reinvigorate their language classrooms through drama pedagogy; to connect language study to the study of literature and culture; to inspire curricular rejuvenation; or to embark on full-scale theater productions. Focusing on specific dramatic works from the rich German-speaking tradition, each chapter introduces unique approaches to a play, theme, and genre, while also taking into account practical issues of performance.
Spin: Politics and Marketing in a Divided Age
by Clive VeroniSpin has been updated with a new introduction reflecting on the current era of Brexit and Trump.Aided by masses of data, sophisticated computer modelling, and smart manipulation of social media, political strategists are reshaping the way voters think. And act. Clive Veroni analyzes the inner workings of campaign organizations to show how they build and motivate teams, and how they approach strategic and future planning. And those strategies being used to influence our choices at the ballot box will soon be used to influence our choices in the grocery store.Spin focuses on the well-known characters from the worlds of politics and marketing to reveal how all of us will be affected by the surprising new ways in which companies and politicians will try to persuade us to vote for their brands.
Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century
by Sergei Guriev Daniel TreismanHow a new breed of dictators holds power by manipulating information and faking democracyHitler, Stalin, and Mao ruled through violence, fear, and ideology. But in recent decades a new breed of media-savvy strongmen has been redesigning authoritarian rule for a more sophisticated, globally connected world. In place of overt, mass repression, rulers such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Viktor Orbán control their citizens by distorting information and simulating democratic procedures. Like spin doctors in democracies, they spin the news to engineer support. Uncovering this new brand of authoritarianism, Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman explain the rise of such “spin dictators,” describing how they emerge and operate, the new threats they pose, and how democracies should respond.Spin Dictators traces how leaders such as Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew and Peru’s Alberto Fujimori pioneered less violent, more covert, and more effective methods of monopolizing power. They cultivated an image of competence, concealed censorship, and used democratic institutions to undermine democracy, all while increasing international engagement for financial and reputational benefits. The book reveals why most of today’s authoritarians are spin dictators—and how they differ from the remaining “fear dictators” such as Kim Jong-un and Bashar al-Assad, as well as from masters of high-tech repression like Xi Jinping.Offering incisive portraits of today’s authoritarian leaders, Spin Dictators explains some of the great political puzzles of our time—from how dictators can survive in an age of growing modernity to the disturbing convergence and mutual sympathy between dictators and populists like Donald Trump.
Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century
by Daniel Treisman Sergei GurievHow a new breed of dictators holds power by manipulating information and faking democracyHitler, Stalin, and Mao ruled through violence, fear, and ideology. But in recent decades a new breed of media-savvy strongmen has been redesigning authoritarian rule for a more sophisticated, globally connected world. In place of overt, mass repression, rulers such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Viktor Orbán control their citizens by distorting information and simulating democratic procedures. Like spin doctors in democracies, they spin the news to engineer support. Uncovering this new brand of authoritarianism, Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman explain the rise of such “spin dictators,” describing how they emerge and operate, the new threats they pose, and how democracies should respond.Spin Dictators traces how leaders such as Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew and Peru’s Alberto Fujimori pioneered less violent, more covert, and more effective methods of monopolizing power. They cultivated an image of competence, concealed censorship, and used democratic institutions to undermine democracy, all while increasing international engagement for financial and reputational benefits. The book reveals why most of today’s authoritarians are spin dictators—and how they differ from the remaining “fear dictators” such as Kim Jong-un and Bashar al-Assad, as well as from masters of high-tech repression like Xi Jinping.Offering incisive portraits of today’s authoritarian leaders, Spin Dictators explains some of the great political puzzles of our time—from how dictators can survive in an age of growing modernity to the disturbing convergence and mutual sympathy between dictators and populists like Donald Trump.
Spinning History: Politics and Propaganda in World War II
by Nathaniel LandeAn “original and insightful” look at World War II through the lens of theater, propaganda, and the most important performances in human history (Richard Cole, PhD). In this fascinating book, more relevant than ever in today’s political climate of “fake news” and “alternative facts,” bestselling author and historian Nathaniel Lande presents WWII as a drama staged and overseen by four contrasting masters: Roosevelt, Churchill, Hitler, and Stalin. Each man had his own script for elaborately produced campaigns of deception, winning hearts and minds on the frontlines and the home front. Each leader used all the tools at his disposal to promote his own narrative of the Second World War. Brilliantly conceived oratory was applied to underscore each vision. Impression management—the art of political spin—was employed to drive the message home. Each side employed uniforms, meticulously staged events, and broadcast their messages via all media available—motion pictures, radio broadcasts, songs, posters, leaflets, and beyond. The result of Lande’s exploration is “an illuminating, readable, and still very relevant account of the ways in which theatrical staging, dramatic storytelling, and message manipulation were key to the efforts of both sides during those turbulent years” (Richard Zoglin, senior editor, Time).
The Spiral of Silence: New Perspectives on Communication and Public Opinion
by Wolfgang Donsbach Charles T. Salmon Yariv TsfatiSince its original articulation in the early 1970s, the 'spiral of silence' theory has become one of the most studied theories of communication and public opinion. It has been tested in varied sociopolitical contexts, with different issues and across communication systems around the world. Attracting the interest of scholars from communication, political science, sociology, public opinion and psychology, it has become both the subject of tempestuous academic debate as well as a mainstay in courses on communication theory globally. Reflecting substantial new thinking, this collection provides a comprehensive examination of the spiral of silence theory, offering a synthesis of prior research as well as a solid platform for future study. It addresses various ideological and methodological criticisms of the theory, links the theory with allied areas of scholarship, and provides analyses of empirical tests. Contributors join together to present a breadth of disciplinary and international perspectives. As a distinctive and innovative examination of this influential theory, this volume serves as a key resource for future research and scholarship in communicaiton, public opinion, and political science.
Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures (FSG Classics)
by Anne FadimanWith a new Afterword from the author…Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. <p><p> This book explores the clash between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy. <p><p> Lia's parents and her doctors both wanted what was best for Lia, but the lack of understanding between them led to tragedy. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest, and the Salon Book Award, Anne Fadiman's compassionate account of this cultural impasse is literary journalism at its finest.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures
by Anne FadimanWhen three-month-old Lia Lee Arrived at the county hospital emergency room in Merced, California, a chain of events was set in motion from which neither she nor her parents nor her doctors would ever recover. Lia's parents, Foua and Nao Kao, were part of a large Hmong community in Merced, refugees from the CIA-run "Quiet War" in Laos. The Hmong, traditionally a close-knit and fiercely people, have been less amenable to assimilation than most immigrants, adhering steadfastly to the rituals and beliefs of their ancestors. Lia's pediatricians, Neil Ernst and his wife, Peggy Philip, cleaved just as strongly to another tradition: that of Western medicine. When Lia Lee entered the American medical system, diagnosed as an epileptic, her story became a tragic case history of cultural miscommunication.<P> Parents and doctors both wanted the best for Lia, but their ideas about the causes of her illness and its treatment could hardly have been more different. The Hmong see illness aand healing as spiritual matters linked to virtually everything in the universe, while medical community marks a division between body and soul, and concerns itself almost exclusively with the former. Lia's doctors ascribed her seizures to the misfiring of her cerebral neurons; her parents called her illness, qaug dab peg--the spirit catches you and you fall down--and ascribed it to the wandering of her soul. The doctors prescribed anticonvulsants; her parents preferred animal sacrifices. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.
The Spirit of Dialogue: Lessons from Faith Traditions in Transforming Conflict
by Aaron T. WolfWe tend to approach conflict from the perspective of competing interests. A farmer's interest lies in preserving water for crops, while an environmentalist's interest is in using that same water for instream habitats. It's hard to see how these interests intersect. But what if there was a different way to understand each party's needs?Aaron T. Wolf has spent his career mediating such conflicts, both in the U.S. and around the world. He quickly learned that in negotiations, people are not automatons, programed to defend their positions, but are driven by a complicated set of dynamics—from how comfortable (or uncomfortable) the meeting room is to their deepest senses of self. What approach or system of understanding could possibly untangle all these complexities? Wolf's answer may be surprising to Westerners who are accustomed to separating religion from science, rationality from spirituality.Wolf draws lessons from a diversity of faith traditions to transform conflict. True listening, as practiced by Buddhist monks, as opposed to the "active listening” advocated by many mediators, can be the key to calming a colleague's anger. Alignment with an energy beyond oneself, what Christians would call grace, can change self-righteousness into community concern. Shifting the discussion from one about interests to one about common values—both farmers and environmentalists share the value of love of place—can be the starting point for real dialogue.As a scientist, Wolf engages religion not for the purpose of dogma but for the practical process of transformation. Whether atheist or fundamentalist, Muslim or Jewish, Quaker or Hindu, any reader involved in difficult dialogue will find concrete steps towards a meeting of souls.
Spirit of Service: Your Daily Stimulus for Making a Difference
by HarperCollins PublishersInspired by President Obama’s call to national service, Spirit of Service is a daily devotional that will stir the soul and inspire every reader to meet the challenge of helping others with hope, energy, personal resources, and innovation. Offering 365 ways to serve, this self-help experience allows readers to look at all the ways that theycan get involved in service to others, from serving the person sitting next to them to their communities as a whole, from national service to actions that impact the world.
Spiritual Modalities: Prayer as Rhetoric and Performance
by William FitzGeraldA bold recasting of prayer as a rhetorical art, Spiritual Modalities investigates situations, strategies, and performative modes of discourse directed to divine audiences. Examining how prayer “works,” Spiritual Modalities reads prayer’s situations and strategies, its characteristic acts and attitudes, to advance an understanding of prayer as a basic expression of our rhetorical capacities for communication and communion. This groundbreaking analysis demonstrates how prayer draws on fundamental capacities to engage other beings rhetorically to argue that we are never more human than when we address the nonhuman. Spiritual Modalities is notable in its aim to articulate a critical rhetoric of prayer in a secular idiom. It draws on contributions to rhetorical theory from Kenneth Burke along with a broad range of classical and contemporary perspectives on audience, address, speech acts, and modes of performance. The book also takes a multicultural and multimodal approach to prayer as rhetorical performance. The texts and practices of prayer represented range across religious traditions and historical eras and include both verbal and physical modes of divine address. The book will be of interest to scholars researching religious language, Burkean approaches to discourse, practices of memory, and media studies.
Spiritual Modalities: Prayer as Rhetoric and Performance
by William FitzGeraldA bold recasting of prayer as a rhetorical art, Spiritual Modalities investigates situations, strategies, and performative modes of discourse directed to divine audiences. Examining how prayer “works,” Spiritual Modalities reads prayer’s situations and strategies, its characteristic acts and attitudes, to advance an understanding of prayer as a basic expression of our rhetorical capacities for communication and communion. This groundbreaking analysis demonstrates how prayer draws on fundamental capacities to engage other beings rhetorically to argue that we are never more human than when we address the nonhuman. Spiritual Modalities is notable in its aim to articulate a critical rhetoric of prayer in a secular idiom. It draws on contributions to rhetorical theory from Kenneth Burke along with a broad range of classical and contemporary perspectives on audience, address, speech acts, and modes of performance. The book also takes a multicultural and multimodal approach to prayer as rhetorical performance. The texts and practices of prayer represented range across religious traditions and historical eras and include both verbal and physical modes of divine address. The book will be of interest to scholars researching religious language, Burkean approaches to discourse, practices of memory, and media studies.
Split the Pie: A Radical New Way to Negotiate
by Barry NalebuffFrom a leading Yale expert and serial entrepreneur, a radical, principled, and field-tested approach that identifies what’s really at stake in any negotiation and ensures you get your half—so you can focus on growing the pie. Negotiations are incredibly stressful and can bring out the worst in people. Wouldn’t it be better if there were a principled way to negotiate? Wouldn’t it be even better if there were a way to treat people fairly and get treated fairly in a negotiation?Split the Pie offers a new approach that does both—a field-tested method that reframes how negotiations play out. Barry Nalebuff, a professor at Yale School of Management, helps identify what’s really at stake in a negotiation: the “pie.” The negotiation pie is the additional value created through an agreement to work together. Seeing the relevant pie will change how you think about fairness and power in negotiation. You’ll learn how to get half the value you create, no matter your size. Filled with examples and in-depth case studies, Split the Pie is a practical and theory-based approach to negotiation. You’ll see how it helped reframe a high-stakes negotiation when Coca-Cola purchased Honest Tea, a company Barry cofounded with his former student Seth Goldman. The pie framework also works for everyday negotiations. You’ll learn how to deploy logic to determine truly equitable solutions and employ empathy to expand the pie and sell your solution. Split the Pie allows both sides to focus their energy on making the biggest possible pie—to have your pie and eat it too.
Spoken and Written Discourse in Online Interactions: A Multimodal Approach (Routledge Studies in Multimodality)
by Maria Grazia SindoniWinner of the AIA Book Prize for a research monograph in the field of English Language and Linguistics (2016) Common patterns of interactions are altered in the digital world and new patterns of communication have emerged, challenging previous notions of what communication actually is in the contemporary age. Online configurations of interaction, such as video chats, blogging, and social networking practices demand profound rethinking of the categories of linguistic analysis, given the blurring of traditional distinctions between oral and written discourse in digital texts. This volume reconsiders underlying linguistic and semiotic frameworks of analysis of spoken and written discourse in the light of the new paradigms of online communication, in keeping with a multimodal corpus linguistics theoretical framework. Typical modes of online interaction encompass speech, writing, gesture, movement, gaze, and social distance. This is nothing new, but here Sindoni asserts that all these modes are integrated in unprecedented ways, enacting new interactional patterns and new systems of interpretation among web users. These "non verbal" modes have been sidelined by mainstream linguistics, whereas accounting for the complexity of new genres and making sense of their educational impact is high on this volume’ s agenda. Sindoni analyzes other new phenomena, ranging from the intimate sphere (i.e. video chats, personal blogs or journals on social networking websites) to the public arena (i.e. global-scale transmission of information and knowledge in public blogs or media-sharing communities), shedding light on the rapidly changing global web scenario.
Spoken Language Difficulties: Practical Strategies and Activities for Teachers and Other Professionals
by Lynn Stuart Felicity Wright Sue Grigor Alison HoweyIntended as a practical approach to helping children who have spoken language difficulties because of general language delay or specific language impairment, this book contains ideas and activity sheets as well as structured guidance. Areas of language difficulty are identified, activities are suggested to meet these language needs and all this is supported by a developmental framework. This book also provides advice on classroom management and grouping, in addition to a bank of individual targets for IEPs which are linked to the activities and strategies suggested within the book. Suitable for non-specialists and specialists alike, many professionals find this book to be an invaluable resource, including mainstream teachers, teaching assistants, speech and language therapists working in schools, SENCOs, nursery nurses and special school teachers.
Spoken Language Understanding
by Renato De Mori Gokhan TurSpoken language understanding (SLU) is an emerging field in between speech and language processing, investigating human/ machine and human/ human communication by leveraging technologies from signal processing, pattern recognition, machine learning and artificial intelligence. SLU systems are designed to extract the meaning from speech utterances and its applications are vast, from voice search in mobile devices to meeting summarization, attracting interest from both commercial and academic sectors.Both human/machine and human/human communications can benefit from the application of SLU, using differing tasks and approaches to better understand and utilize such communications. This book covers the state-of-the-art approaches for the most popular SLU tasks with chapters written by well-known researchers in the respective fields. Key features include:Presents a fully integrated view of the two distinct disciplines of speech processing and language processing for SLU tasks.Defines what is possible today for SLU as an enabling technology for enterprise (e.g., customer care centers or company meetings), and consumer (e.g., entertainment, mobile, car, robot, or smart environments) applications and outlines the key research areas.Provides a unique source of distilled information on methods for computer modeling of semantic information in human/machine and human/human conversations.This book can be successfully used for graduate courses in electronics engineering, computer science or computational linguistics. Moreover, technologists interested in processing spoken communications will find it a useful source of collated information of the topic drawn from the two distinct disciplines of speech processing and language processing under the new area of SLU.
Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English
by John Russell Rickford Russell John Rickford"Spoken Soul brilliantly fills a huge gap... a delightfully readable introduction to the elegant interweave between the language and its culture."-Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown University. "A lively, well-documented history of Black English... that will enlighten and inform not only educators, for whom it should be required reading, but all who value and question language." -Kirkus Reviews. "Spoken Soul is a must read for anyone who is interested in the connection between language and identity." -Chicago Defender Claude Brown called Black English "Spoken Soul." Toni Morrison said, "It's a love, a passion. Its function is like a preacher's: to make you stand out of your seat, make you lose yourself and hear yourself. The worst of all possible things that could happen would be to lose that language." Now renowned linguist John R. Rickford and journalist Russell J. Rickford provide the definitive guide to African American vernacular English from its origins and features to its powerful fascination for society at large.