STANDARD ENGLISH ESSAY PLAN

Question 1

INTRO

Answer 1

Many languages have national organisations that are in place to establish a standardisation of the respective language, such as France’s Académie Française and Italian’s Academia della Crusca.
English has no such governing body and it should continue that way because standardisation of language can be both socially damaging and somewhat impossible.
However, there are arguments for standardisation - especially in some formal settings.

Question 2

POINT 1 - Language is a performance of Identity

Answer 2

People have an active role in their lang use: Dr Rob Drummond asserts that we perform our identity through our language.
Jenkins believes people should be able to decide how they speak - for instance some variations of English may be easier than others.
Urszula Clark - “Speaking with a regional accent more likely indicated a working-class background and state education for children, with various stereotypical characteristics assigned to different regions”
Trying to prevent this identity also shows prevalence of negative social, racial, xenophobic etc attitudes = very bad

Question 3

POINT 2 - It is impossible to standardise language

Answer 3

Crystal’s tide metaphor - language constantly ebbs and flows in a natural way and interfering with this process would be like interfering with nature
World Englishes emerge as they represent diff cultures. Crystal highlights that “everywhere in the word there is a new variety of English growing which is culturally influenced” (e.g. SA English has 10k words exclusive to that region) - standardising would be a deterministic approach (Sapir-Whorf) whereby the language would control society as there wouldn’t be neologisms for the developing society etc
Liberation linguists Kachru argues English has diff purposes around the world and standardising would destroy this
Halliday’s Functional Theory = language changes to meet the needs of its users e.g. corona coinages (Zimmerman) and the general effect the pandemic has had on language

Question 4

POINT 3 - Standardised English would eradicate confusion and promote inequality

Answer 4

Snell - non-standard English users in school are often picked on; this would be mitigated by a standard English just like school uniform prevents teasing about clothes
When there are myriad dialects it is hard to understand one another - standard English required for formal situations (legal, business, politics etc.)?
Within politics, media etc of the UK a convergence towards the less prestigious but more approachable Estuary English has been noted (first noted by David Rosewarne in 1984). This convergence which links to Giles’ Accommodation Theory has been received well
A blueprint for this standardisation can be seen with Académie Française - they try to avoid Anglicisms (English loanwords to French) and this echoes the rising debate within the UK about the increased number of Americanisms in British English

Question 5

POINT 4 - English is deteriorating

Answer 5

Aitchison’s metaphors
John Humphrys ‘Lost For Words’ 2004 = lang is now obese too many tautologies e.g. ‘rise up’ ‘reach out’ etc - “equivalent of having chips with rice” (Independent) - same with euphemisms
Americanisms in view of purists = bad
R.l Greene declinist approach
Lynn Truss = “plummeting punctuation standards” (2003 - ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves’)
Queen’s English Society
Apostrophe Protection Society
Conservatives align declining language standards with declining social standards (Deborah Cameron ‘Verbal Hygiene’, 1995)

Question 6

CONCLUSION

Answer 6

Taking the above into consideration, I am of the opinion that the English language should not have a national organisation to standardise the language, because it would heavily restrict our ability to express our identity. Although many prescriptivits would argue that the language has deteriorated over time, language change is completely natural and in truth it would be near impossible to standardise the English language. However, if a national organisation was to be established, I believe it could be useful n formal situations or situations where the audience is very wide, for example the media. This is due to the increased efficiency and ease of access that would occur as a result of the decreased confusion.