ENGLISH USAGE GUILT-FEELINGS

[metal56]

What do you imagine the statement in blue means?

THIS STUDY OF LANGUAGE PRESENTS A SPECIFIC, SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF THE WAYS IN WHICH A SPEAKER ADJUSTS HIS MANNER OF SPEAKING ACCORDING TO THE CONTEXT IN WHICH HE EMPLOYS LANGUAGE. FOUR USAGE-SCALES OF "NATIVE CENTRAL ENGLISH" ARE INTRODUCED--AGE, BREADTH, RESPONSIBILITY, AND STYLE. A KNOWLEDGE OF THESE FOUR DIMENSIONS HOPEFULLY WILL OVERCOME THE NORMAL AMERICAN'S "ENGLISH USAGE GUILT-FEELINGS," AND HELP HIM REALIZE THAT DEPENDING ON DIFFERING NEEDS AND OCCASIONS THERE ARE AT LEAST FOUR ACCEPTABLE WAYS IN WHICH ENGLISH CAN BE USED. IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND HOW PEOPLE CHOOSE FROM AMONG GRAMMATICALLY EQUIVALENT FORMS, STYLISTICS MUST BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION.

http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.p ... 0b800c9d31

[revel]

Hey all!

"Speak like an Englishman and they think you're Jesus Christ". (B. Brecht "The irresistable rise of Arturo Ui")

Doesn't the author of this fragment have better things to spend his thought processes on? Oh, well.

peace,
revel.

[Stephen Jones]

"The Five Clocks" is an 108 page book, now apparently out of print. It appears quite interesting, but short of buying a second-hand copy from Amazon one has no way of finding out what the author meant.

[Stephen Jones]

This article might have some relevance to metal's question.
http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/Lingui ... ching.html

[metal56]

Hey all!

Doesn't the author of this fragment have better things to spend his thought processes on? Oh, well.

peace,
revel.

His thought processes ceased to function way back in 1956.

[metal56]

"The Five Clocks" is an 108 page book, now apparently out of print. It appears quite interesting, but short of buying a second-hand copy from Amazon one has no way of finding out what the author meant.

Unless we find someone who has read it.

[JuanTwoThree]

We've skirted round these guilt feelings before.

No British paper has a column advising readers on correct English.

In my far from humble opinion my English couldn't get much better and even if it could, what do I care?

Whereas for many AmE speakers speaking "better English" is aspirational. A poster here has stated that he/she is still trying to improve.

Is it an immigrant society thing (according to Crystal there are states with 30% of the population having a non English-speaking background whatever that means)?

Or is it social mobility? Being in denial about one's hillbilly or in some other way socially unacceptable grandparents?

Br NS once they are 16 seem to think that their English is good. Am NS often seem to think that there is a Platonic "good English" that they fail to reach at any age. And they feel bad about it and read advertisements that exploit this.

I don't get it.

[metal56]

Wow! How revealing. Thanks.

I don't get it.

Me kneetheir.

[jotham]

Is it an immigrant society thing (according to Crystal there are states with 30% of the population having a non English-speaking background whatever that means)?

I think that has a lot to do with it. We are a mixing pot and, historically speaking, language was one of the unifying factors — it was practical from an education point of view. Many of our American dialect differences that are considered ungrammatical today were a result of influences from other languages.

Or is it social mobility? Being in denial about one's hillbilly or in some other way socially unacceptable grandparents?

I don't think it has to do with shame about one's roots. (This may be a factor in UK though.) I think it has to do with education level. My Kansas grandparents and their same-age friends, who went to one-room schoolhouses in the boonies and whose immigrant descendants were more proximal, often say "She don't care" and other anomalies. My parents and their same-age friends never say that I've noticed. It was because the education system improved. The more educated one becomes, the more proficient they become in Standard English — almost as if by magic. And they have the choice to revert back to non-Standard when they need to.

[metal56]

<We are a mixing pot >

That used to be "melting pot". When did it change?

[metal56]

And they have the choice to revert back to non-Standard when they need to.

But not when in the vicinity of Standard English speakers, eh? Too ashamed?