STANDARD ENGLISH: WHAT IT ISN’T

is a reasonably clear consensus in the sociolinguistics literature about term standardised language: a standardised language is a language une of . varieties has undergone standardisation. Standardisation, too, appears a relatively uncontroversial term, although the terminology employed discussion of this ropic is by no means uniform. I myself have defined indlarciis;nion (Trudgill 1992) as 'consisting of the processes of language ~termimltion, codification and stabilisation'. Language determination 'refers i'de:cis,iOllS which have to be taken concerning the selection of particular or varieties of language for particular purposes in the society or in question' (ibid.: 71). Codification is the process whereby a language 'acquires a publicly recognised and fixed form'. The results of codifi'are usually enshrined in dictionaries and grammar books' (ibid.: 17). lbil:isation is a process whereby a formerly diffuse variety (in the sense of and Tabouret-Keller 1985: 70) 'undergoes focussing and takes on a fixed and stable form'. therefore somewhat surprising that there seems to be considerable in the English-speaking world, even amongst linguists, about what English is. One would think that it should be reasonably clear which varieties of English is the one which has been subject to the process stand;lrdisation, and what its characteristics are. In fact, however, we do even seem to be able to agree how to spell this term with an upper or lower case ? a point which I will return to later. Also, the use term by non-linguists appears to be even more haphazard. this chapter, I therefore attempt a characterisation of Standard English. ld be noted that this is indeed a characterisation rather than a strict ;Il1UllUll language varieties do not readily lend themselves to definition We can describe what Chinese is, for example, in such a way as to ourselves very well understood on the issue, but actually to define would be another matter altogether. The characterisation will also much negative as positive a clearer idea of what Standard English is