Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language Usage

By: John McWhorter, The Great Courses

Narrated by: John McWhorter

Conventional wisdom suggests English is going to the dogs, that bad grammar, slang, and illogical constructions signal a decline in standards of usage - to say nothing of the corruption wrought by email and text messages.

But English is a complicated, marvelous language. Far from being a language in decline, English is the product of surprisingly varied linguistic forces, some of which have only recently come to light. And these forces continue to push English in exciting new directions.

These 24 eye-opening lectures dispel the cloud of confusion that clings to English, giving you a crystal-clear view of why we use it the way we do and where it fits into the diverse languages of the world. Like an archaeologist sifting through clues to a vanished civilization, you'll uncover the many features of English that sound normal to a native speaker but that linguists find puzzling and also revealing.

For example, the only languages that use "do" the way English does (as in "do not walk") are the Celtic languages such as Welsh, which were spoken by people who lived among the early English and influenced their language in many subtle ways.

You'll also delight in considering modern controversies about how English is used. For example, "Billy and me went to the store" is considered incorrect, because the subject form, "I," should be used instead of "me." But then why does "Me and Billy went to the store" sound so much more fluent than "I and Billy went to the store"?

These examples and many more represent a few of the flash points in English's long history of defying rules, a process that occurs in all languages. You'll come away from this course with every reason to be a proud, informed, and more self-aware speaker of English.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2012 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2012 The Great Courses

John McWhorter at his best

John McWhorter is at his amusing & informative best in this series. He always wields his expertise impressively, and his voice is simply without parallel, but his impish sense of humor is on full display here, conjouring up memorable analogies for otherwise abtruse ideas.

Interesting and understandable.

Professor McWhorter presented this in a very clear and understandable way, in spite of the vast random and sometimes unfathomable ways our language has formed. I'm glad I'm not graded on these lecture aeries, but I enjoy them.

pure genius. very insightful

loved it. didnt expect it to be humorous as equally informative. glad I purchased. will share

good intro to McWhorter and linguistics

John McWhorter is always funny and this is a fascinating look at some selected linguistic topics. I especially enjoyed the ones on poetry and texting. This would be a good one to listen to if you are new to him, and would be accessible to an interested high schooler. If you have listened to his other Great Courses and books, some of this will be repetitive. In any case, he's always a joy for me to listen to.

Even if you don't agree with him on current politics (I happen to, but it really doesn't come up in these lectures), you will enjoy this offering.

For grammar pedants everywhere

I include myself into this group and I learned so much from this course. The most important lesson is that what I thought to be immutable laws of English grammar are far from it. I am not only humbled but better for this new-found knowledge. Thank you Professor McWhorter as always for another delightful course.

One of my favorite great Courses audiobooks of all

insight into the passage of languages and the origin of all languages. Language history and the understanding of how languages has evolved.

language usage

This is a great history of how we, English speakers in particular, use language.

Mostly interesting

The professor is often as interested in talking about himself as the material, which can be annoying at times.

Excellent

What made the experience of listening to Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language Usage the most enjoyable?

Well, this professor has a gift, he is able to talk, no matter what he says, you will not want to stop listening to him.

What other book might you compare Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language Usage to and why?

The History of language

Which character – as performed by Professor John McWhorter – was your favorite?

There are not characters here, these are lectures, but Professor John McWhorter is a character on his own, I love when he pronounces different languages, his voice changes completely

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

not the kind of cry or laugh reaction, but makes you think, a lot.

Any additional comments?

the only danger I have with this professor is to believe everything he stays, but after thinking coldly, there are some points which could raise some discussion, pity this is a recording and I do not have the chance to ask him

How to Speak Improper English (and it's OK)

There really is only one myth about English, that there is only one proper way to speak it and all other ways are wrong. Columbia linguist John McWhorter has many angles and innumerable examples of why that is not and should not be the case, how the English language evolved to its pre-eminent place atop contemporary world languages precisely because of its tolerance for adaptation to changing usage.

As a big fan of McWhorter's books and Great Courses lectures on language (although not a fan of his prescriptivist intolerance of what he calls cancel culture), I've learned almost all of this from him before -- the Welsh "do", the Viking ESL effect, the complex Tzez language, the Phoenician factor in old German, texting, etc. There are a few new wrinkles, but if you've listened to McWhorter before, much of this is familiar. If on the other hand you're new to him, this may be the most concise introduction.

Proving McWhorter's point of how language can evolve, his lecture on pronouns, recorded in 2012, is already outdated in one key area -- the lecture on pronouns. While he spends considerable time defending the use of "they" as a singular noun, we have since witnessed the introduction of "they/them" as a non-binary gender-neutral singular pronoun. So that stands out as a noticeable absence, but only because of the passage of time.

I've always given McWhorter five stars across the board -- even his narration, which some people don't like (but I do). In this case, four stars -- dated, a repeat of other lectures, and in the narration, maybe I just never noticed this before, but I started to wince every time he said "for example" because he said it so much, even when he wasn't actually giving examples (just a verbal tic).