Do You Speak American Summary

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The article “Do You Speak American” by Robert MacNeil has a very interesting take on the idea of the English language in the United States and whether it is deteriorating or prospering. MacNeil writes to linguists, prescriptivists and descriptivists to show them the different sides of their arguments and to make the prescriptivists believe that the English language is actually growing and becoming, in a sense, better. He uses this article to describe all the changes that Americans have made to the English language and how they have made it more intricate in the different areas of America and how they have made it more personal and more relatable to them. In this article Robert MacNeil uses expert opinions, many forms of rhetorical questions, allusions, and many other rhetorical choices to show the reader how the English language has been tweaked and changed into what we call American today and how that is not necessarily a bad thing. In this article …show more content…
MacNeil uses Pathos in a way because he knows that if he portrays the prescriptivists he knows less of his readers are likely to side with them just because of the simple fact that they are not portrayed as necessarily good people, but rather high, uptight, and pompous. One specific prescriptivist that MacNeil talks about is John Simon, otherwise known as the “prince of prescriptivists.” MacNeil says “Simon sees the language today as ‘unhealthy, poor, sad, depressing, and probably fairly hopeless.’” (MacNeil 307) He uses this to show how Simon views the American public in a negative way and how he believes anyone who speaks this American form of English, rather than the old way that it was spoken, is basically useless. Simon does not believe that the form of English many Americans speak today is as good

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