Verbal Hygiene

In Verbal Hygiene , Deborah Cameron explores popular attitudes towards language and examines the practices by which people attempt to regulate its use.

Instead of dismissing the practice of 'verbal hygiene' as a misguided and pernicious exercise, she argues that popular discourse about language values, good and bad, right and wrong, serves an important function for those engaged in it.

A series of case-studies deal with specific examples of 'verbal hygiene': the regulation of 'style' by editors, the teaching of English grammar in schools, the movements for and against so-called 'politically-correct' language and the recent explosion of advice to women on how they can speak more effectively.

In each case she argues that verbal hygiene provides a way of making sense of linguistic phenomena, and that it represents a symbolic attempt to impose order on the social world.