Linguistics 10 / English 10
Professor Potter
NPR Assignment
Go to the NPR website (National Public Radio) and listen to “How the Web Is Changing
Language” It’s about 35 minutes long. Answer the following questions.
1) What is Grant Barrett’s job? What does he do in his job?
2) Who is Geoffrey Pullum and what does he do? What does “snowclone” mean?
3) Who is Martha Barnette? What is her opinion of the following statement?
“English is going to hell in a handbasket.” What’s your opinion?
4) They discuss the definition of “awful” from an old Concise Oxford Dictionary.
What meaning do they give for the word and is it a good definition?
5) Which kind of dictionary, descriptive or prescriptive, do you think is more
practical?