Why Not Use Standard English All the Time
Why not use Standard English all the time?
Standard English is a powerful tool that one can take and use from the arsenal of English Language; it is the benchmark that other “varieties” of English measure itself against and also allows us to form effective communication between communities and people that have different ways of speaking. The other “varieties” of English all fall under the category of nonstandard English, which is defined as “not conforming in pronunciation, grammatical construction, idiom, or word choice to the usage generally characteristic of educated native speakers of a language” Even though the definition hints that nonstandard English is less prestigious than Standard English, there are still many examples out there that help to show that there are certain advantages of using non-standard English over Standard. One, it helps to forge a person’s identity (whether it be through the use of slang or a certain type of speech) and secondly, it allows for information to be transmitted across to another party in a faster, more effective manner. Lastly, non-standard English helps the English Language to constantly evolve and adapt to the ever-changing world that we live in.
The most famous (or infamous) way we can identify non-standard English is inarguably slang. Slang is ephemeral, informal, and usually peculiar to a certain group. But most importantly, it helps people to forge their identities. Being Australians (or /and living in Australia), we tend to use or hear a lot of slang in our daily lives, phrases such as “Fair dinkum” and “bugger”. As these phrases are specific to Australia, it can help people of other nations to identify us as such. However, being Australian is such a broad term; slang can help us to forge our identities even further, to the core of our being. Slang such as “awesome” and “totally” would help identify you as a child of the 21st century and possibly belonging to generation Y, but it can take us even further. Slang
Standard English is a powerful tool that one can take and use from the arsenal of English Language; it is the benchmark that other “varieties” of English measure itself against and also allows us to form effective communication between communities and people that have different ways of speaking. The other “varieties” of English all fall under the category of nonstandard English, which is defined as “not conforming in pronunciation, grammatical construction, idiom, or word choice to the usage generally characteristic of educated native speakers of a language” Even though the definition hints that nonstandard English is less prestigious than Standard English, there are still many examples out there that help to show that there are certain advantages of using non-standard English over Standard. One, it helps to forge a person’s identity (whether it be through the use of slang or a certain type of speech) and secondly, it allows for information to be transmitted across to another party in a faster, more effective manner. Lastly, non-standard English helps the English Language to constantly evolve and adapt to the ever-changing world that we live in.
The most famous (or infamous) way we can identify non-standard English is inarguably slang. Slang is ephemeral, informal, and usually peculiar to a certain group. But most importantly, it helps people to forge their identities. Being Australians (or /and living in Australia), we tend to use or hear a lot of slang in our daily lives, phrases such as “Fair dinkum” and “bugger”. As these phrases are specific to Australia, it can help people of other nations to identify us as such. However, being Australian is such a broad term; slang can help us to forge our identities even further, to the core of our being. Slang such as “awesome” and “totally” would help identify you as a child of the 21st century and possibly belonging to generation Y, but it can take us even further. Slang