Still :-) mostly -- McWhorter on "standard English"

[Jonathan Lighter]

>>Received Standard English -- "I say, my good man (or woman, or person as
the case my be), would you do me the favour of providing me with nourishment
in the form of ground up cow clasped in a bun?"

Doesn't this just make RSE equivalent to "fossilized, circumlocutional
English suitable only for class-directed satire?"

If so, amusing; but surely the reality is more subtle.

JL

On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 3:25 PM, Robin Hamilton <
robin.hamilton2 at btinternet.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Still  :-) mostly -- McWhorter on "standard English"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > As for Matt Gordon's comment about standard English having been
> > "consciously constructed", isn't everyone's language constructed,
> > from hearing and reading others?
>
>        [SNIP]
>
> > Joel
>
> All languages are constructed, but some are more constructed than other.
> Lallans (or Braid Scots), for example, was very consciously constructed by
> Burns (in the eighteenth century) through McDiarmid (in the early twentieth
> century on).
>
> In this sense, "Standard English" is certainly less of a conscious
> construct
> than Lallans, but more of a deliberate imposed standard than other dialects
> of English.
>
> That the effective social and political priviledging of one dialect of
> English over others occurs through the mechanism of journal editors, peer
> group reviewing, political process through voters' choice, et alia, etc.,
> rather than royal fiat, changes the mechanism, not the result.
>
> Not that Received Standard Written English is a bad thing.  I'm quite happy
> to use it when it seems to be called for.  But I wouldn't try to order a
> hamburger in a restauraunt in Received Standard English -- "I say, my good
> man (or woman, or person as the case my be), would you do me the favour of
> providing me with nourishment in the form of ground up cow clasped in a
> bun?"
>
> The Wee M'Greegor
>
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