Ronald Butters, Margreta de Grazia, Connie Eble, and Michael Montgomery mull over the richness and fluidity of written English in the age of Shakespeare and the King James Bible, before the language moved toward standardization a century later with the creation of dictionaries. They discuss, among other topics, Americans’ perception of linguistic history, exemplified by Appalachian slang; the debate over standards and eloquence such as the views of drama critic John Simon; and “pop grammarians.” They conclude that change is the natural state of language, and no human language is completely fixed.
In a commentary [23:50], Werner Dannhauser claims that “it is as forthrightly sexual beings” that people are most natural. He cites the women’s liberation movement as responsible for most of the changes to sexual attitudes and “natural” behavior in the United States from the late 1960s until the time of this commentary.
At the time of this interview, Butters was professor of English at Duke University and editor of the journal American Speech. De Grazia, a Fellow at the National Humanities Center (1982-83), was professor of English at Georgetown University. Eble was professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Montgomery was professor of English at the University of South Carolina.
At the time of this recording, Dannhauser, a Fellow at the National Humanities Center (1982-83), was professor of government at Cornell University.
This edition of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.
