310 T E R T T U N E VA L A I N E N A N D I N G R I D T I E K E N - B O O N VA N O S TA D E
40 years does render it somewhat out of date’. Although a new edition of Kenyon & Knott appeared in 1975, there is apparently no great demand for a codified version of GA.
5.3.7 |
Conclusion |
|
History suggests that the two requirements set for a standard language, maximum application (generality) and minimum variation (focussing), are not likely to be met by an international language like English. These conditions are best fulfilled by the spelling system, which is the most fully standardised part of standard English: it is shared by all English-writing nations and shows the least national variation (such as the -our/-or variation between British and American English in words like harbour/ harbor). This global success of spelling standardisation may be attributed to its continued institutional support: it is maintained by the systems of education and government and the role played by the printed word in the mass media.
On all other linguistic levels, the standard proves either less focussed or has a more limited distribution. Besides features shared by the great majority of English dialects, standard English grammar contains a codified set of features that rarely appear in other, non-standard varieties, such as the suffix -s in the third-person singular present indicative. Although the core grammar of standard English is fixed worldwide, the problem of fuzzy edges, however, remains: it is not always easy to tell where standard grammar ends and non-standard begins. Pressure continues to be exerted even on the codified core by colloquial usages. The New Fowler notes, for instance, that the old resistance to the conjunction like is now slowly beginning to crumble (Gordon needs Sylvia like some people need to spend an hour or two every day simply staring out of the window – P. Lively, Moon Tiger, 1987; Burchfield, 1996: 458). As this and many other cases indicate, the history of standard English clearly continues as a combination of processes, not as a fixed product, both in terms of levels of language and of individual linguistic elements.
The common core of English vocabulary consists of a large, mostly Germanic element shared by all speakers of English, standard and non-standard alike. The extension of the vernacular in the Modern English period to all domains of language use and to all four corners of the world has led to further lexical convergence – but also to divergence. On the one hand, the global expansion of English has been followed by growing lexical differentiation to fulfil the local needs met by national varieties. On the other hand, many international domains of language use such as the news media now further strengthen the worldwide common core. In many technical registers, the usage does not, however, build on the core. As the tradition in word coining from the Renaissance onwards has been to resort to foreign borrowing in technical and learned contexts, Latinate lexis has come to dominate them. These borrowed elements effectively reduce the number of competent native speakers in many specialised domains of standard language use.
Standardisation 311
On all levels of language, register variation emerges as one of the key factors setting limits to the codification and generalisation of language standards. While it may not be unproblematic to regulate all the various aspects of the written word, many of them are maintained and reinforced through the institutions of education and the printing press. It is harder, if not impossible, to do the same with colloquial speech. This is particularly true of pronunciation. There has never been one standard accent shared by all speakers of standard English. The current norms are further affected by the fact that national broadcasting companies such as the BBC no longer serve as the norm enforcers they used to be in the past. New local centres of pronunciation focussing also emerge. For some English speakers, Estuary English, ‘a cockneyfied RP’, lends the kind of prestige combined with popular acceptance that they value in their social and working lives. But even with the vastly improved communications of the electronic age, it is unlikely that an international pronunciation standard comparable to the spelling standard would see the light of day in the near future.