Defining " Standard English "

Question

Hi all,What is Standard English ( or is it standard English ) ? How do you define it? Is there a Standard English?

MrPedantic · Accepted Answer

I see it like this, M²S:

[url="http://perception.st-and.ac.uk/Prototyping/prototyping.htm"]Standard English[/url]

MrP

Rvw · Answer

Paul Roberts, in Understanding Grammar, describes the five following levels of usage:

1. Choice Written English: This is the writing found in carefully edited and copy-read books and magazines. ... This is the usage described in most handbooks of English.

2. General Written English: This is exemplified by the ordinary run of newspapers the country over and by the scripts read by the average radio announcer. ... General Written English is probably the level attained by the average college graduate who takes pen in hand.

3. Choice Spoken English: This is the language heard in formal and serious speeches and addresses. ... Choice Spoken English is the language of many college graduates and of some others as well.

4. General Spoken English: This is the level used by most educated people in conversation. It is the level indicated by the label "colloquial" as this term is used in most dictionaries....

5. Vulgate English: This is the term used for all expressions associated with the uneducated. (...one who speaks Vulgate English is not necessarily vulgar, any more than one who speaks Choice English is necessarily snobbish or affected. Most of us simply speak the language of our fathers and our friends.)

Anonymous · Answer

Standard English

SYLLABICATION:
Stan·dard English

PRONUNCIATION:

st

n

d

rd

NOUN:
The variety of English that is generally acknowledged as the model for the speech and writing of educated speakers.

USAGE NOTE:
People who invoke the term Standard English rarely make clear what they have in mind by it, and tend to slur over the inconvenient ambiguities that are inherent in the term. Sometimes it is used to denote the variety of English prescribed by traditional prescriptive norms, and in this sense it includes rules and usages that many educated speakers don't systematically conform to in their speech or writing, such as the rules for use of who and whom. In recent years, however, the term has more often been used to distinguish the speech and writing of middle-class educated speakers from the speech of other groups and classes, which are termed nonstandard. This is the sense in which the word is used in the usage labels in this dictionary. But it should be borne in mind that when it is used in this way, the term is highly elastic and variable, since what counts as Standard English will depend on both the locality and the particular varieties that Standard English is being contrasted with. A form that is considered standard in one region may be nonstandard in another, and a form that is standard by contrast with one variety (for example the language of inner-city African Americans) may be considered nonstandard by contrast with the usage of middle-class professionals. No matter how it is interpreted, however, Standard English in this sense shouldn't be regarded as being necessarily correct or unexceptionable, since it will include many kinds of language that could be faulted on various grounds, like the language of corporate memos and television advertisements or the conversations of middle-class high-school students. Thus while the term can serve a useful descriptive purpose providing the context makes its meaning clear, it shouldn't be construed as conferring any absolute positive evaluation.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/22/S0702225.html

My2sense · Answer

My2sense
Hi all,

What is Standard English ( or is it standard English ) ? How do you define it? Is there a Standard English?

I was hoping that this would generate some kind of well thought out debate....

X11 · Answer

I seem to recall that Standard English is what is also refered to as Received Pronounciation. However, the English of today is moving very much towards the so-called BBC-English, i.e. the speech one can hear in the media.

Do not know whether I am totally wrong about this one, as it is about six months ago that we had it under debate in/at class. Moreover, I am from Denmark which probably undermines my "authority" to some extent seeing that it would be more appropriate to hear the answer from a native English speaker.

But anyway. This is my contribution. And as I am new at this forum and rather new at learning the English language, I hope that everyone is able to understand my writing

Regards

Julielai · Answer

Hi Mr. P.

Your link takes us to something related to facial prototyping.

MrPedantic · Answer

Yes...I felt it was analogous...

MrP

Defining " Standard English "

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