Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 17:26, 23 August 2007

Standard English is a nebulous term generally used to denote a form of the English language that is thought to be normative for educated users. There are no set rules or vocabulary for any putative "Standard English" because, unlike languages such as French, Spanish or Dutch, English does not have a governing body (see Académie française, Real Academia Española, Nederlandse Taalunie) to establish usage.

Definitions and controversy

Moreover, many contend that one should rather speak of "standard Englishes", or "standard English dialects", given that there are large, distinct English language communities with distinct standards.

Another complication is that English has become the most widely used second language in the world, and as such it is subject to the most alteration by non-native speakers, and numerous "non-native dialects" are developing their own standards (those, for example, of English language publications published in countries where English is generally learned as a foreign language).

According to Peter Trudgill, "Standard English is that set of grammatical and lexical forms which is typically used in speech and writing by educated native speakers. It includes the use of colloquial and slang vocabulary, as well as swearwords and taboo expressions." This definition is also often given by American linguists. Most linguists recognise that the notion of a standard English that covers all native speakers, educated or not, would be very difficult to articulate.

This definition refers only to grammar and vocabulary, but not to pronunciation. Trudgill claims that Standard English is only spoken by a very small part of the population of the British Isles (about 12-15%). This means it is an even smaller fraction of all native speakers. Further, Standard English speakers often speak in regional and class accents. One might expect that Standard English speakers would use a particular pronunciation, for example Received Pronunciation in the UK, or General American in the US. In fact, only a third of the speakers of UK Standard English have an RP accent, with the rest of the speakers using their own regional accents, which shows that standard dialect and regional accent do not exclude each other. In the US, regional variations in pronunciation are smaller, thus there is a great tendency of Americans to speak in General American. Trudgill concludes in this matter, that "...Standard English is a dialect that differs from the others in that it has greater prestige, does not have an associated accent and does not form part of a dialect continuum". Hence, Standard English is purely a social dialect.

The two most commonly recognised varieties of English are British English and American English. However, notwithstanding the various historical migrations of English-speaking populations, colonisation and the effects of local native languages on the creation of creoles or pidgins, English has risen to the status of a global lingua franca, primarily due to its predominant use as the international language of trade and commerce, and its widespread use outside exclusively English-speaking countries has accounted for the development of many local varieties of English.

See also

• International English
• Modern English
• Formal written English
• American and British English differences

Literature

• Bex, Tony (1999). Standard English: The widening debate. Routledge. ISBN 0415191629. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Coulmas, Florian (2006). Sociolinguistics: The study of speaker's choices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521836069. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Crystal, David (2006). The Fight for English: How language pundits ate, shot and left. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019920764X.
• Gramley, Stephan (2004). A survey of Modern English. London: Routledg. ISBN 0415049571. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Hudson, Richard A. (1996). Sociolinguistics (2nd ed. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521565146. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)

External links

• "Set us free from standard English" by a teacher at the University of Hertfordshire

• English language
• Standard English