Linguistics for Dummies

I've been reading this great book written for laymen (like you!) about language called The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker. It has some really interesting examples that I thought I'd share for your general edification.

"Most educated people already have opinions about language. They know that it is man's most important cultural invention, the quitessential example of his capacity to use symbols, and a biologically unprecedented event irrevocably separating him from other animals. They know that language pervades thought, with different languages causing their speakers to construe reality in different ways. They know that children learn to talk from role models and caregivers. They know that grammatical sophistication used to be nurtured in the schools, but sagging educational standards and the debasements of popular culture have led to a frightening decline in the ability of the average person to construct a grammatical sentence. They also know that English is a zany, logic-defying tongue, in which one drives on a parkway and parks in a driveway, plays at a recital and recites at a play. They know that English spelling takes such wackiness to even greater heights- George Bernard Shaw complained that fish could just as sensibly be spelled ghoti (gh as in tough, o as in women, ti as in nation)- and that only institutional inertia prevents the adoption of a more rational, spell-it-like-it-sounds system."

If you believe these, get annoyed by people speaking "Bad English," and could not understand the Ebonics use in Oakland schools not long ago, perhaps I can help to change your perspective on language and its use.