单项选择题
| Standard English is that variety of
English which is usually used ill print, and which is normally taught in schools
and to non-native speakers studying tile language. It is also the variety which
is normally spoken by educated people and used in news broadcasts and other
similar situations. The difference between standard and non-standard, it should
be noted, has nothing in principle to do with differences between formal and
colloquial language; Standard English has colloquial as well as formal
variants. Historically, the standard variety of English is derived from the London dialect of English that developed after the Norman Conquest resulted in the removal of the Court from Winchester to London. This dialect became the one preferred by the educated, and it was developed and promoted as a model, or norm, for wider and wider segments of society. It was also the norm that was carded overseas, but not one unaffected by such export. Today, Standard English is codified to the extent that the grammar and vocabulary of English are much the same everywhere in the world where English is used: variation among local standards is really quite minor, so flint the Singapore, South Africa, and Irish varieties are really very little different from one another so fax as grammar and vocabulary are concerned. Indeed, Standard English is so powerful that it exerts a tremendous pressure on all local varieties, to the extent that many of tile long-established dialects of England have lost much of their vigor and there is considerable pressure on them to converge toward the standard. This latter situation is not unique lo English: it is also true in other countries where processes of standardization are under way. But it sometimes brings problems to speakers who try to strike some kind of compromise between local norms and national, even supranational ones. |
What are the characteristics of Standard English