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Milky Posted 19 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Worrying too much about the difference.

0David Crystal, in an article called 01i00Little Need to Worry02i00, said "I've never counted just how many non-standard constructions of the type "we was" and "ain't" there are, but I would be surprised if the figure were more than 100".02br
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00How many do you think there are? Is there a really major difference between so called Standard English and so called Non-Standard English?0-
  

Top answer

0 Well, in my dialect, constructions such as "we was", or "ain't" are simply incorrect. Nobody around here would ever use them. They are simply not part of the dialect, no matter what level of education the person has, or social class.

— Marvin A.

  • 0 Well, in my dialect, constructions such as "we was", or "ain't" are simply incorrect.
  • Nobody around here would ever use them.
  • They are simply not part of the dialect, no matter what level of education the person has, or social class.
  • "Standard" vs "non-standard" is more about prescriptivism than descriptivism, and if you compiled a descriptive grammar of this area, "we was" and "ain't" would not be found.
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17 Answers
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0 Well, in my dialect, constructions such as "we was", or "ain't" are simply incorrect. Nobody around here would ever use them. They are simply not part of the dialect, no matter what level of education the person has, or social class. "Standard" vs "non-standard" is more about prescriptivism than descriptivism, and if you compiled a descriptive grammar of this area, "we was" and "ain't" woul
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0First, we need to know how many items there are in the set {constructions}, of which {non-standard constructions} is presumably a subset.02br
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00The figure "100" is meaningless, otherwise. 02br
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00MrP0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10MrPedantic12cite10First, we need to know how many items there are in the set {constructions}, of which {non-standard constructions} is presumably a subset.12br
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10The figure "100" is meaningless, otherwise. 12br
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10MrP12br
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12blockquote
10Just
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0< "Standard" vs "non-standard" is more about prescriptivism than descriptivism, >02br
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00That is often the case with presciptivists, yes. So, to the prescriptivist who rant on about the importance of using only Standard forms, can we ask them to identify just how many non-standard forms separate their idea of Standard English and Non-Standard English?0-
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0I suppose that the issue is that even if there are not that many differences between standard and non-standard English, many non-standard forms are considered to be a sign of lack of education, and that can have an effect on people's job prospects for example, or the type of treatment they may receive from others. They may be more readily forgiven in a native speaker whose accent shows that a n
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0<I suppose that the issue is that even if there are not that many differences between standard and non-standard English, many non-standard forms are considered to be a sign of lack of education, and that can have an effect on people's job prospects for example, or the type of treatment they may receive from others. >02br
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00In my experience, the same can be said of
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0 I hear many commentators, both here on this forum and elsehwere, warning students about learning or and/or using non-standard English, but what do those teachers mean by that? Just how many forms should I avoid or not learn? 0-
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0 Hmmm, yes I'd agree with you generally on your comments above Milky but I strongly disagree that 'ain't' is acceptable in many contexts. In British English, at least, it is considered one of the main pointers towards 'uneducated/lower-lower class'. 0-
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0< In British English, at least, it is considered one of the main pointers towards 'uneducated/lower-lower class'. >02br
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00Really? By whom? And aren't you just inventing that 01i00lower-lower class02i00 label? 0-
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01) considered that way by pretty much everybody02br
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002) Yes, I'm inventing it as I can't think of an appropriate existing label without getting very perjorative, as generally 'aint' is regional but still only usually used by the, ummm, well, lower working class let's say. The social class D2 and E groups if you are aware of these. British society is very hung up about
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