The Debate Over Standard English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The Debate Over Standard English - Essay Example This paper illustrates that students have to be taught something, and so Standard English has become a way of attempting to overcome the differences which are, in reality, an inevitable part of language use. This standardization presents two linguistic problems. The first is that there is no one form of English which has officially been taken as standard. The second is that even were such an agreement to exist, any form of English is constantly subject to changes in usage by the people who use it. Â  It is first necessary to explore and challenge current issues present in the definition of Standard English. Trask puts forward some useful key points which he considers fundamental in the definition of Standard English. The first is that ‘Standard English itself is not quite uniform: for example,e there are detectable differences between standard American and standard British English’. These differences, although they do not inhibit understanding between speakers, are clea r evidence of the fallacy of a standard English. Indeed, it is necessary to speak not of ‘English’ but rather of Englishes. The use of this plural in a number of critical works on the subject is already clear evidence that standard English is an unsuitable term. Gilsdorf is more emphatic in underlining the differences in standard English than Trask. Trask plays down this difference, while Gilsdorf states that ‘English, of course, is multiple Englishes. We are familiar with the U.S.’s regional dialects and to some degree with British English, Australian English, and Irish English, and perhaps a few others. Differences can be considerable’. To say that standard English is ‘not quite uniform’, therefore, is somewhat of an understatement.