Kate Burridge Quotes:

All euphemisms are dishonest, but many are designed to make life easier

Topics: Easier, Euphemism

'Bloody' has now become an important indicator of Australianness and of cultural values such as friendliness, informality, laid-backness, mateship - and perhaps even the Australian dislike and distrust of verbal and intellectual graces

Topics: Grace, Intellectual, Important, Informality, Indicators

A non-standard dialect is as valid communication system as the standard

source: - Kate Burridge, Jean Gail Mulder (1999). “English in Australia and New Zealand: an introduction to its history, structure and use”

Topics: Communication, Dialect, Standards

All taboos serve different human interests by avoiding those things which threaten to cause offence or distress

Topics: Different, Causes, Interest

Because of the way our society is structures, using sentences such as "I don't it" can put people at a disadvantage. And this is, of course, why teachers have to give students access to Standard English, in order to protect them against this sort of prejudice.

Topics: Teacher, Order, People, Standard English

Underhand euphemism are used, not so much to conceal offence and to deliberately disguise a topic and deceive

Topics: Topics, Deceiving, Used