language

[Malignd]

<<The idea that "standard" American English is the
"dominant" language has been one of the main thrusts
of Charles' argument. Yours too, I assumed. If it
isn't, I'm not at all clear what other criterion
you're actually using to assert the notion of a
"standard" variety of English.>>

Standard in the sense that if you look up a word in a
dictionary, you'll find a standard spelling.

Standard in the sense that if you want to find the
correct way to conjugate a verb, you'll find a
standard answer.

Standard as agreed-upon.  The MLA style book may
differ in small ways from the NY Times's, but both
work from a readily recognizable standard.

<<For "white bread" (used once only, I'd add)
substitute "standard" or "normal" - your terms - if
they make you happier.>>

Sorry if you intended no coloring; but Charles and I,
it appears, each took the same inference.

<<Such thinking certainly does exist, particularly
amongst the predominantly conservative politicians and
pundits who are making policy decisions and
manipulating public opinion. Point is, you're echoing
their sentiments, and the outcomes are the same.>>

The point is I'm not echoing their sentiments and what
outcomes are the same?

<<I understand your aversion to talking about the
sociocultural implications of the issues but they're
there ..>>

They're there, in this discussion, if you put them
there; the implications don't insert themselves.

<<... and the terms are apt, certainly more so than
the use of "mangled" and "aberrant" to describe
African-American English, and what I can only imagine
as your disingenuousness in claiming these two
adjectives as non-pejorative.>>

Imagine what you will.  "Dawg" for "dog" is an
aberrant spelling.  It's a statement about the
spelling, not about the person who spelled it.  If
such spellings are consistent in African American
English, then African American English employs
aberrant spelling.

<<Are you using spoken English or written English as
the defining example of this imaginary grammatical
"standard" you keep insisting upon?>>

Since I've been speaking of spelling throughout, it
would seem clear I'm referring to written English.

And if the "standard" is imaginary, what is it, then,
so remarkably keeping newspapers, scholarly works,
non-fictional prose, etc., etc., spelling words and
conjugating verbs so similarly?  And makes it possible
for us so readily to note the examples that fall
outside this imaginary standard?  That allows us to
note that African-American English (to cite only the
example we're debating) is non-standard, however much
you dislike the term?







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