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Can We Talk?

“What time are you going to be home at?” “Does the car need washed?” There are many contemporary words or phrases that are grammatically or syntactically incorrect, but they flourish in the popular culture. Who decides proper usage --- especially when it crosses boundaries of race and identity? Some critics see the popularity of texting as a degradation of our common parlance, but others say it’s just an efficient form of communication. Join us for an encore presentation of this show as we explore and challenge some of the assumptions that are made about the common language that we supposedly share.

Bob Dyer, columnist, Akron Beacon Journal.
Amee Shah, speech pathologist, Cleveland State University
John McWhorter, linguist, author of The Power of Babel - A Natural History of Language