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{{Short description|normative forms of English-language varieties}}
{{Short description|normative forms of English-language varieties}}
In an English-speaking country, '''Standard English''' ('''SE''') is the variety of English that has undergone substantial regularisation and is associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and official print publications, such as ] and ], etc.<ref>Carter, Ronald. "Standard Grammars, Spoken Grammars: Some Educational Implications." T. Bex & R.J. Watts, eds. ''Standard English: The Widening Debate.'' Routledge, 1999: 149-166.</ref> "Standard" should be understood to refer to this process of regularization and not to minimal desirability (e.g., a ]) or interchangeability (e.g., a ]).<ref>Williams, Raymond "Standards", ''Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society'' 2nd Ed. (1983) Oxford UP, pp. 296–299.</ref> For example, there are substantial differences in the varieties that countries of the ] identify as "standard," as their different names suggest: in England and Wales, the term ''Standard English'' identifies ], the ] accent, and the grammar and vocabulary of United Kingdom Standard English (UKSE). In Scotland, the variety is ]; in the United States, the ] variety is thought of as the spoken standard; and in Australia, the standard English is ].<ref>]</ref> Sociologically, as the ] of the nation, Standard English is generally associated with education and ], but is not inherently superior to other English dialects used by an Anglophone society.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y6r-K8JYUOoC|title=An Introduction to English Grammar|author=Sidney Greenbaum; Gerald Nelson|publisher=Pearson Longman|year=2009|isbn=9781405874120|page=3|language=en}}</ref>
In an English-speaking country, '''Standard English''' ('''SE''') is the variety of English that has undergone substantial regularisation and is associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and official print publications, such as ] and ], etc.<ref>Carter, Ronald. "Standard Grammars, Spoken Grammars: Some Educational Implications." T. Bex & R.J. Watts, eds. ''Standard English: The Widening Debate.'' Routledge, 1999: 149-166.</ref> "Standard" should be understood to refer to this process of regularization and not to minimal desirability (e.g., a ]) or interchangeability (e.g., a ]).<ref>Williams, Raymond "Standards", ''Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society'' 2nd Ed. (1983) Oxford UP, pp. 296–299.</ref> For example, there are substantial differences in the varieties that countries of the ] identify as "standard English", as their different names suggest: in England and Wales, the term ''Standard English'' identifies ], the ] accent, and the grammar and vocabulary of United Kingdom Standard English (UKSE). In Scotland, the variety is ]; in the United States, the ] variety is thought of as the spoken standard; and in Australia, the standard English is ].<ref>]</ref> Sociologically, as the ] of the nation, Standard English is generally associated with education and ], but is not inherently superior to other English dialects used by an Anglophone society.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y6r-K8JYUOoC|title=An Introduction to English Grammar|author=Sidney Greenbaum; Gerald Nelson|publisher=Pearson Longman|year=2009|isbn=9781405874120|page=3|language=en}}</ref>
== Definitions ==
== Definitions ==
Revision as of 13:00, 11 September 2020
normative forms of English-language varieties
In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone substantial regularisation and is associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and official print publications, such as public service announcements and newspapers of record, etc. "Standard" should be understood to refer to this process of regularization and not to minimal desirability (e.g., a standard of care) or interchangeability (e.g., a standard measure). For example, there are substantial differences in the varieties that countries of the Anglosphere identify as "standard English", as their different names suggest: in England and Wales, the term Standard English identifies British English, the Received Pronunciation accent, and the grammar and vocabulary of United Kingdom Standard English (UKSE). In Scotland, the variety is Scottish Standard English; in the United States, the General American variety is thought of as the spoken standard; and in Australia, the standard English is General Australian. Sociologically, as the standard language of the nation, Standard English is generally associated with education and sociolinguistic prestige, but is not inherently superior to other English dialects used by an Anglophone society.
Definitions
Although a standard English is generally used in public and official communications and settings, there is a range of registers (stylistic levels), such as those for journalism (print, television, internet) and for academic publishing (monographs, academic papers, internet). The distinction among registers also exists between the spoken and the written forms of SE, which are characterised by degrees of formality; therefore, Standard English is distinct from formal English, because it features stylistic variations, ranging from casual to formal. Furthermore, the usage codes of nonstandard dialects (vernacular language) are less stabilized than the codifications of Standard English, and thus more readily accept and integrate new vocabulary and grammatical forms. Functionally, the national varieties of SE are characterized by generally accepted rules, often grammars established by linguistic prescription in the 18th century.
As the result of colonisation and historical migrations of English-speaking populations, and the predominant use of English as the international language of trade and commerce (a lingua franca), English has also become the most widely used second language. Countries in which English is neither indigenous nor widely spoken as an additional language may import a variety of English via instructional materials (typically English English or North American English) and thus considered it "standard" for teaching and assessment purposes. Typically, British English is taught as standard across Europe, the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia, and American English is taught as standard across Latin America and East Asia. This does, however, vary between regions and individual teachers. In some areas a pidgin or creole language blends English with one or more native languages.
Although the standard Englishes of the anglophone countries are similar, there are minor grammatical differences and divergences of vocabulary among the varieties. In American and Australian English, for example, "sunk" and "shrunk" as past-tense forms of "sink" and "shrink" are acceptable as standard forms, whereas standard British English retains the past-tense forms of "sank" and "shrank". In South African English, the deletion of verbal complements is becoming common. This phenomenon sees the objects of transitive verbs being omitted: "Did you get?", "You can put in the box". This kind of construction is infrequent in most other standardized varieties of English.
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