Review Article: Contesting Language

A review of four books: Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (New York: William Morrow, 1994), Randy Allen Harris's The Linguistics Wars (New York: Oxford Press, 1993), Ronald Macaulay's The Social Art: Language and Its Uses (New York: Oxford Press, 1994), & Jennifer Coates's Women, Men and Language (2nd edition, London, England: Longman, 1993 [see listings in IRPL, this issue]). The books are examined for the way in which they display both consensus & conflict between the fields of linguistics & English studies. It is suggested that Pinker's book presents generative linguistics solely from the perspective of language as a cognitive object; Harris's work describes linguistics from the perspective of conflicts in its disciplinary history; & Macaulay's & Coates's volumes approach linguistics from the perspective of language as a social object. The content of each book is detailed by chapter, & situated in the context of the field of composition studies. It is contended that Coates's work is a more comprehensive & representative addition to the field of sociolinguistics than competing volumes. However, the amount of detail included in Harris's book makes it unlikely to be included in composition studies graduate courses. Moreover, it is argued that although Pinker's volume should be important reading in composition studies, his argument against the sociolinguistic tradition, & in favor of the cognitivist tradition, is unsupported by his evidence. It is suggested that Macaulay's volume is not as provocative in a general sense as Pinker's work, or in a more specialized sense, as is Harris's. 30 References. D. M. Smith