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Answer the following questions:
1. What is a functional style?
2. What is the basic classification of the functional styles?
3. To which style do we refer learned and poetic words?
4.What words do we call ‘archaisms’?
5. What examples of informal styles do you know?
6. What is slang? What types of slang can we distinguish?
LECTURE 18. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE VARIETIES
The plan of the lesson
1.The main variants of the English Language
2. British English as the national language and its influence on other variants
3. Local dialects in the British Isles
4. American English and its dialects
5. Major differences of English variants from Standard English
In present-day linguistics the term variety is used to refer to any variant of a language which can be sufficiently delimited from another variant. The grounds for such differentiation may be social, historical, spatial or a combination of these. The necessity for a neutral term such as variety arose from the loaded use of the term dialect: this was not only used in the neutral sense of a regionally bound form of a language, but also with the implication that the linguistically most interesting varieties of a language are those spoken by the older rural population. This view is understandable given the origin of dialectology in the nineteenth century, that is in the heyday of historical linguistics.
Nowadays, sociolinguistic attitudes are prevalent and the need for a term which can include the investigation of the urban population of a language from a social point of view became evident. The neutrality of the term variety must be stressed. It simply refers to a distinguishable variant of a language. This means that there are a large number of varieties of any given language, indeed the number is theoretically infinite. The sole criterion to be fulfilled by a particular variety is delimitation vis à vis other varieties.
Dialects within a variety framework are frequently referred to as regional varieties and sociolects as social varieties, though the label dialect can be retained if used objectively.
Strictly speaking the term dialect refers to a geographical variant of a language. However, it is used loosely, not only by non-linguists, to talk about any variety of language. For sociolinguistic purposes one must distinguish various sub-types of dialect. The term ‘dialect’ is used to denote a geographically distinct variety of a language. There is no reference to the social dimension of language here. It is also important to stress that the standard of a language is nothing more than a dialect which achieved special political and social status at some stage in the past and which has been extensively codified orthographically:
a) koiné is a term deriving from ancient Greek ‘common’ and refers to the situation where, in a group of dialects, one is predominant and used outside of its natural boundaries as a means of inter-dialectal communication.
b) patois is a French term which refers to a dialect which is unwritten and as such without a literary tradition. The (French) term dialecte conversely refers to a geographical variety which has an associated literature. This use is to be found in other countries of Europe as well, such as Sweden.
In a country with a so-called Kultursprache, a language with a long written tradition and a literature, such as the majority of countries of the West, it makes sense to talk of a codified standard. By implicit or explicit comparison with this standard one can then classify other varieties as non-standard or substandard (a more loaded term than the former). In each country there is a term for the standard. In Germany this is simply Hochdeutsch whereas in England there are various terms such as The Queen’s English, Oxford English, BBC English, Received Pronunciation. Only the last of these finds favour with linguists.
Although the layperson may use these terms indiscriminately and although he/she may not be able to be precise about what he means by them, he/she is always able to recognise them and may not infrequently be in a position to imitate them also. Here one sees that the receptive ability of a speaker is greater that his/her productive ability. There are a number of further labels which are used to refer to language variation along various axes
Vernacular is a term which is only found in English. The nearest equivalent in German is Volkssprache. The term refers to the language spoken naturally by the inhabitants of a country as opposed to a possible classical language which may have a position of dominance in cultural or ecclesiastical spheres. 4) Mutual intelligibility of dialects This consideration presents us with the problem of how to distinguish between language and dialect and the related problem of how to decide what a language is. One way of characterising ‘language’ and ‘dialect’ is to regard languages as a collection of mutually intelligible dialects and a dialect as a recognisable variety within this group.
Dialects can be defined as "sub-forms of languages which are, in general, mutually comprehensible. English speakers from different countries and regions use a variety of different accents (systems of pronunciation), as well as various localized words and grammatical constructions; many different dialects can be identified based on these factors. Dialects can be classified at broader or narrower levels: within a broad national or regional dialect, various more localized sub-dialects can be identified, and so on. The combination of differences in pronunciation and use of local words may make some English dialects almost unintelligible to speakers from other regions.
The major native dialects of English are often divided by linguists into three general categories: the British Isles dialects, those of North America, and those of Australasia. Dialects can be associated not only with place, but also with particular social groups. Within a given English-speaking country, there will often be a form of the language considered to be Standard English – the Standard Englishes of different countries differ, and each can itself be considered a dialect. Standard English is often associated with the more educated layers of society.
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