Standard English (for Structure of the English Language)

English is a language that constantly adapts, adopting words from other languages, creating new words to meet the needs of its culture and times, but retaining its foundation to allow the reader to understand what was being said and written down hundreds of years ago. The collective dialect has changed over time, just as surely as it is different from region to region, but we are still connected to people in the past through our language.

Jones describes Standard English as “pronunciation” and argues that its adaptation comes from formal, informal, familial, and local influences (450). Knott’s definition for Standard English is even broader:

Standard English is that aggregate of forms, idioms, patterns, words, phrases, and usages, which has been in part inherited and adopted, and in large part devised, cultivated, and perfected, by the aggregate of the long succession of professional literary composers whose oral, manuscript, and printed work constitutes the body of English literature in the broadest sense. (83)

The words you hear, even the way they are pronounced, can be vastly different from region to region (even leaving out the differences between American and British speech), but we are all affected by broader influences which also unite us. Every one of us helps define Standard English, though not on our own. Our first influences are our family and the people we are surrounded with as a baby, for they are who we instinctually learn how to speak from. As we grow older we go to school and learn how to read, and our influences suddenly become vaster. Each one of us is taught by our teacher what formal English was, from our peers what informal English is, and are constantly redefining what English will become. If Knott had written today he might cite the influences of music, television/films, and magazines, but during his childhood the greatest influences were most likely the stories his grandparents told him, plays, and books.

I doubt that Knott could have even imagined YouTube or blogs in his wildest dreams (he was writing this when my grandfather was an infant). In the past new words and expressions were adopted and adapted by word of mouth, most likely changing quickly in a select peer group but more slowly in a larger region and the world. Today anyone can instantly self-publish themselves on a blog or podcast and be read or heard milliseconds later just as easily by someone who lives next door as someone on the other side of the planet. The news of election results and disasters once took days and weeks, if not months, to be reported on, then heard by word of mouth or read in a letter or newspaper, now we have instant access. On September 11th the entire world gave a collective gasp when they saw the Twin Towers collapse. When the next Election Day comes around, we will probably know who the new President of the United States is by the same night or next morning.

In today’s world it is more important than ever to be able to effectively communicate with others. If we all used the same words, but didn’t use punctuation, or tense, and generally we were taught is good grammar, then many people will be scratching their heads and some will most likely be offended. I predict that as technology and cultures continue to adapt and collide that Standard English will be more important than ever, will have to change drastically to meet other languages halfway, or will become a dead language itself. English may be the language of communication and free trade now, but that was because the British Empire spread the language throughout the world. In today’s world birth rates are on the decline in English speaking countries, while on the rise for Muslim people, and all of us are still vastly outnumbered by the Chinese people. As much as I love to speak, read, sing, and write in English, in today’s political environment one starts to wonder how long it will last.

Grey writes, “The only way we can understand our world is through language” (Does Thought Depend on Language?), but what would we become if our language changed? Will our children and their children speak English, and if they do speak another language will they think the same way we do? We don’t know the answers to these questions yet. Language separates us from other cultures, and they usually learn our language, but I wonder what will happen if the United States is overthrown, or evolves into something else, and English is no longer the unofficial national language, but is instead replaced with something else. We all instinctually know what Standard English is now, but if that day ever comes then all of these definitions will be thrown out the window. Instead of being part of our being and life the will become part of history. We cannot know the answers to these questions: not yet, at least, but no matter what happens we will continue to learn what Standard English was as we influence the English of tomorrow.



Annotated Bibliography

Barry, Anita K. English Grammar: Language as Human Behavior. 2nd. ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1997.
Our textbook and the beginning point of my research.

Buckhurst, Helen McM. “Some Recent Americanisms in Standard English.” American Speech, Dec. 25. 159-166. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=9942053&site=ehost-live
Discusses how some slang is forgotten yet some is adopted into the English language. The article is written from a British perspective and points out that Americans are usually more concise.

Grey, D.S. “Does Thought Depend on Language?” Language in Use. 2007. Cambridge, UK. 20 Feb. 2008. http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/research/thought.html
---. “Endangered Languages.” Language in Use. 2007. Cambridge, UK. 20 Feb. 2008. http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/04change/endangered.html
---. “The Notion of Correctness.” Language in Use. 2007. Cambridge, UK. 18 Feb. 2008. http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/07crect/07crect.html
---. “The Standard English Dialect.” Language in Use. 2007. Cambridge, UK. 18 Feb. 2008. http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/12dial/standard.html
The links that were in our checklist along with other articles available on the same site. Short, but sparks some interesting ideas.

Jones, Margaret E. “The Case for Standard English.” Quarterly Journal of Speech, Oct. 36. 449-456. 20 Feb. 2008. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=9225206&site=ehost-live
A college professor discusses Standard English and its relationship with dialect and education: this is especially influenced by the fact that her fellow professors are from various areas of the country and even abroad.

Knott, Thomas K. “Standard English and Incorrect English.” American Speech, Apr. 34. 83-90. 20 Feb. 2008. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=9989499&site=ehost-live
Examines Standard English in regard to mass education, new technology, population growth, and (then) current world events. This is interesting to read in contrast to the technology and war that we are currently experiencing.