Language Authority in the United States of America

Thesis: Language and people in the United States would suffer if the nation was to mirror France by standardizing language.

Quote 1
"I remember coming home and my grandma asked me to talk Indian to her and I said, 'Grandma, I don't understand you,' " Wright says.”She said, 'Then who are you?' "
Wright says he told her his name was Billy. “‘Your name's not Billy. Your name's 'TAH-rruhm,' “she told him.”And I went, 'That's not what they told me.' " (Bear, paragraphs 14-15)

This quote helps to convey the message that standardizing English isolates people from older generations who may or may not have been through the educational system. It also shows that when America tried to control language win the past with the American Indian people, the general effects were negative.

Quote 2
“There has never been a successful academy to govern the English language, either in Britain or the United States”. (Curzan page 34)

This quote will help me to show that previous attempts to standardize English have failed, which could lead me to saying that the English language is too complex and diverse to ever really restrict by the method of standardization.

Quote 3
“An arbitrary, open conventional system of sounds used for communication within a linguistic community”. (Tomassi’s definition of language)

This definition shows that standardizing English would be a direct contradiction of Tomassi’s definition of language; we are supposed to be able to come up with new words and be free to use them as the evolution new words and phrases helps language, rather than hindering it.