Is there a Standard English?

Anthony Pym

Is it just power…?

“A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.”

Or education…?

‘Standard English: A widely used term that resists easy definition but is used as if most educated people nonetheless know precisely what it refers to.’ (McArthur 1982: 982)

Or class-based education…?

The standardization of English

Or grammar textbooks…?

‘...what we ordinarily mean by “English” is a common core or nucleus which is realized only in the different forms of the language that we actually hear or read...’.

‘...the “common core” dominates all the varieties...’ ‘...however esoteric or remote a variety may be, it has running through it a set of grammatical or other characteristics that are common to all...’

But read the grammar closely…

Region: ‘dialects become so distinct that we regard them as different languages’ Education: Major polarity: uneducated speech is regional; educated is ‘a form of English that cuts across dialectal boundaries’ (i.e. standard?).

‘The degree of acceptance of a single standard of English throughout the world [...] is a truly remarkable phenomenon...’. tendency towards even greater uniformity... e.g. in spelling.

Quirk continues…

Subject matter: Code-switching (code switching tends not to happen for regional or educational varieties). Attitude: ‘...it is useful to pursue the notion of the “common core” here, so that we can acknowledge a neutral or unmarked variety of English...’. Interference: From other languages: ‘I am here since Thursday’.

Quirk concludes…

‘Our approach in this book is to keep our sights firmly fixed on the COMMON CORE which constitutes the major part [??] of any variety of English, however specialized, and without which fluency in any variety at a higher level than a parrot is impossible.’

Quirk on new regional varieties:

With non-British students, teachers cannot reject the notion of correct or incorrect English.... The institution’s duty is to teach Standard English. “No one would quarrel with this provided there was agreement within each country that it was true, or even that there was a determined policy to make it true...” Most people in authority want “real English”. Teachers in India and Nigeria “where the English of the teachers themselves inevitably bears the stamp of locally acquired deviation from the standard language (‘You are knowing my father, isn’t it?’).

Quirk continues…

“It is neither liberal nor liberating to permit learners to settle for lower standards than the best, and it is a travesty of liberalism to tolerate low standards which will lock the least fortunate into the least rewarding careers.” “I gently explained about Standard English being the norm by which we taught and made judgements.”

Responses to Quirk:

Torkil Christensen (1992): Quirk has misread sociolinguistics; there is no clean distinction between native and non-native speakers. Paul Christophersen (1990): Heterogeneity of native and non-native speakers means that Quirk does not have any evidence to draw conclusions concerning millions of people.

Kachru on Quirk:

Kachru (1991): Non-native use of language may be valid even when purpose-specific. Quirk has no real argument against the development of new national standards. Quirk adopts the ideology of ‘deficit linguistics’, the view that certain varieties of language (normally those associated with working-class or minority groups) are inherently inferior to others.

Kachru’s further points:

International English is frequently for communication between non-natives. English is often a standard of intra-national communication (e.g. in India). It is thus one language in speakers’ repertoires, so that speakers can individually change varieties.

It is no longer possible for all learners to be in touch with native speakers. In general, Quirk takes no account of sociolinguistic realities.

Basic questions:

Should we distinguish between native and non-native varieties? Should native varieties be the only standards?

Should national standards be developed in India, Nigeria, Malaysia, etc.? Should English be standardized so as to become the only international language?