Diversity Within English Essay -- essays research papers

Diversity Within EnglishIn order to take in how language variation descriptors ar used, wefirst must understand what language variation is. We can say that the U.S. islinguistically diverse because of the multitude of languages spoken here, scarcewe can also find diversity within these languages. every(prenominal) languages move over bothdialectical variations and registral variations. These variations, or dialects,can differ in lexicon, phonology, and/or syntax from the Standard Language thatwe often think of as correct Language, although they argon not necessarily lessproper than, say, Standard English. It depends on where, by whom, and in whatsituation the dialect is used as to whether or not it is appropriate. some people are familiar with regional dialects, such as Boston,Brooklyn, or S extincthern. These types of variations usually occur because ofimmigration and settlement patterns. People tend to seek out differents likethemselves. Regional variations tend to become mo re pronounced as the speechcommunity is more isolated by physical geography, i.e. mountain ranges, rivers.Linguists have done extensive studies on regional dialects, producing detailedLinguistic Atlases. Many linguists can tell where a person is from just byknowing whether a person carries groceries class from the supermarket in a paperbag or from the grocery store in a paper sack (Yule 184). And the person whocomes home from the supermarket with a paper sack serves to remind us thatlanguage variation is not a discrete, but rather a continuous variable.Characteristics of the dialect are more pronounced in the center of the speechcommunity and tend to be less discernible at the outer boundaries, where theyoften overlap other regional dialects.Within, and between, these regional variations we find the socialdialects. The primary social factors that influence dialects are class,education, occupation, ethnicity, sex, and age (Ferguson 52, Yule 191). Andsocial dialects can vary on any o r all three descriptor levels syntax orgrammar, lexicon or vocabulary, and phonetics or pronunciation. Socialdialects are also where the described differences are often defined asstigmatized or nonstigmatized (Ferguson 52). Stigmatized items include use ofthe double negative (grammar), substituting the d sound for t... ...frequency. Using in for ing, as in goin is universal acrossstatus groups, but it is found almost twice as often in the lower working classthan in the lower middle class, and almost four multiplication more than in the uppermiddle class (Ferguson 61).With all these different variables that intersect and overlap with thedifferent dialect variations is is a wonder that any smell out can be made ofAmerican English at all. But there two other important point to remember.Language universals such as displacement, arbitrariness, productivity, culturaltransmission, discreteness and duality are unique to human language (Yule 22)and provides a base or norm for measuring var iations. Implicationalrelationships provide a way of measuring relative distance between the differentvariations and also serve as a means to predict changes in individual dialects(Ferguson 66). workings ConsultedFerguson, Charles A., and Shirley Brice Heath, eds. Language in the USA.Cambridge Cambridge UP, 1981.Piatt, Bill. Only English? Law and Language Policy in the United States.Albuquerque U of New Mexico P, 1990.Yule, George. The Study of Language. Cambridge Cambridge UP, 1985.