Fair enough, this was an in class essay though and the word limit was something like 700-800 wordsHmm, don't think my contention was clear enough then. I'm not so much arguing that a standard is nt necessary, rather that it is impossible to really assign a true standard in these regards. I'm arguing that "standard english" as a phrase is oxymoronic because its not possible to assign a standard in all these respects and not so much that the current "Standard English" is not able to serve as a standard with respect to say, pronounciation (I hope this makes sense)
Good point.
Yeah I actually had a lot more points I wanted to write in but didn't really have the time. Is it fine for paragraphs to just become a huge block consistent of mainly examples? Trying to fit too much in makes it seem really hard to read coherently.
Perhaps, but on what basis should a language even be assigned the title of a standard? I'm (trying) to contest the notion that the current Standard English is even a standard; I'm not arguing that its bad to have a standard, more so that with so much variation just how is a standard chosen, if not for the sake of its ability to serve as a linguistic standard? We might have a standard english, but its not truly a standard if its assigned this purely due to its formality.
Oh, think you misread it. I'm saying they don't, and even if we were to pretend that this was the case, the idea of championing one idea over another is a bad one.
THANKS! Really appreciate it man. Nah, it's far better for people to actually look at it critically than to simply go "oh GJ man!" like my teacher does...
Also Vish says hi.
(He's the guy next to me in class right now, I don't think you know him... He just wanted to say hi.)
Edit: what's the distinction between dialect and register? Isn't register a measure of formality?
By definition, Standard English is not meant to serve as a standard for pronunciation. You have stuff like Received Pronunciation for that.
If you want to argue down the pronunciation path, that's fine.
Paragraphs aren't meant to be a massive block of examples, but they should at least contain lots of relevant examples with commentary.
You are saying that it is ridiculous to have a standard. Directly quoted from your essay. Just because there is variation, doesn't mean we cannot have a standard. Standard English, as it is, confers overt prestige onto its speakers as it demonstrates education. Other forms of English, while not "standard", have an equally important role in society. I still think that's a problem with your essay. In my mind at least, Standard English has a purpose to enable communication between all English speakers, regardless of geographical origin. But in some cases, we don't need to let everyone understand what we're saying. In those cases, the "standard" form of English isn't necessary. It's like saying that Standard English is a rule, and just because people don't follow the rule, it's absurd.
A dialect is characteristic to a particular social group or geographical region, generally used to denote the latter. A register, on the other hand, is a variety of language used to suit a particular social setting. For instance, you can have formal registers, informal registers, technical registers etc.
Yes, I know you weren't trying to classify language as a dichotomy, but analysing that is sort of irrelevant. Language does not exist as a dichotomy, so why assume it does?
And yeah, I don't know this Vish guy
![Tongue :P](https://www.atarnotes.com/forum/Smileys/default/tongue.gif)