the arbitrariness of language structure

[Zev bar-Lev]

Yes, non-standard is a linguistic term, sub-standard is not.  One can say
"prestige dialect" and "non-prestige dialect" to describe the subjective
attitudes without paticipating in them.

What is non-standard in a given language is completely arbitrary, just as
the structure of a language is.  The same for levels of style.

For example, contractions are often a sign of colloquial English -- but the
contractions 'tis and 'twas are signs of "literary/poetic", highly elevated
style.

An example my students find interesting from a wholly nother language:
Which do you think is most literary, which most colloquial, of the
following 3 ways to say "Jacob's house"?

     a) ha-bayit shel yaaqov   "the house of Jacob"
     b) bet-o shel yaaqov      "house-his of Jacob"
     c) bet yaaqov             "house Jacob" (with contracted form of "house")

In fact, c is literary/archaic "the house (family, offspring) of Jacob", a
is colloquial, b modern literary.

Back to language in general, things do get complicated in that, for
example, some foreign speakers of a language may unwittingly enter
non-prestige dialects.  For example, Spanish speakers may substitute /t/
for /theta/ (as in "think"), thus falling into a non-prestiage dialect of
English.  French speakers, substituting /s/ for /theta/, may be harder to
understand, but are less stigmatized.

Further confusion comes from the fact that some other languages may have
more prestige than others in the eyes of speakers, bringing us back to the
Russian and Ukrainian situation.  As an embattled minority language,
Ukrainian is obviously fighting an up-hill battle, and is in some danger,
while perhaps not of being swallowed whole by Russian, certainly of being
nickel-and-dimed to death, with lexical and other encroachments.  Some
linguists take an "ecological" approach of trying to save every endangered
language;  but others have wondered whether it doesn't make more sense to
take a laissez-faire, "Darwinian" approach, letting speakers preserve their
language if they wish.

Let's recall that English was not swallowed up by French:  As an English
speaker (or writer), one can have various attitudes towards particular
latinate words, but it's far too late to worry about English losing its
original Germanic "character" (including words like "telephone" vs.
"far-speaker" or the like, as is done in other Germanic languages -- most
interestinbgly Icelandic).

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          zev bar-Lev (prof.)
          dept. of linguistics & oriental languages,
          san diego state university, san diego CA 92182
          e-mail ZBARLEV at mail.sdsu.edu
          tel. (619)-594-6389
          fax: (619)-594-4877
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