The Importance Of Standard English And Dictionaries

Standard English and dictionaries as its council

Words are all over the place all the time. They go out our mouths and maybe in our ears, we speak words, we write words and we read words. But, what is a ‘real’ word? Who’s to say? What most the English-speaking population categorises as a real word, is if it is found in the dictionary or not. Many of us see a place in the dictionary as the requirement for a word’s value and legitimacy. Language has always been in constant change; the change includes the addition of words; for example, to describe computers and social media. There has also been a decreased use of words which describe living in the 18th century for example, for logical reasons. Thus, language evolution is a documentation

Looking back to the past and finding the differences between the language used by Shakespeare and ourselves, presents a very clear change, but it’s still understandable – so staying true to the essence, which is difficult to define, is vital in the way a language changes. To limit what way we play with verbs, nouns and adjectives distinctly and jointly, and over-regulating dictionaries would be a linguistic crime in my eyes. As humans evolve, the English language may never be complete. It is a hope of mine that the human population are here to stay a long while into the future, along with English. So as long as we are on this planet, there’s always room for change in languages. There are several nations, along with different cultures, which are part of the English-speaking world. This creates a need for the Standard English, which helps with international communication. I believe Standard English is a tool which can navigate and benefit international conversations, when culture and context is difficult to include and explain. But, within countries and cultures Standard English should not hinder one’s interpretation of English, and standard English and one’s native English is usually not compatible with each other. A language should have the room to develop within individual cultures, but there

Will excluding new words and disvaluing them not to also have disregard for the future in some way? There is a need for “hashtag”, “selfie” and having the letter “E” in front of words like mail and book, because it concerns the daily life of many 2017 English communicators. Nevertheless, the majority is quite conservative regarding the words which get VIP-passes into the dictionaries – and this can be for better or for worse. There is little doubt that some words which are included in dictionaries are not necessary, and they disappear from conversations quickly, and other words are commonly used but are nowhere to be found in dictionaries. But who oversees dictionaries? As a professor and educator in linguistics, I am quite familiar with the concept of teaching students to be critical of all texts, but with the dictionary it’s different. To be critical of the dictionary as a source, examining the editors and year which it was published is not a common norm, neither is to not see it as just a net of “set in stone”-words. A reason for this is perhaps that we often view the dictionaries as the council of Standard English. It is practical to see the dictionaries as such, but dictionaries are not associated with law and education systems in the same ways as councils for other languages. In contrast with France’s council; Académie Française and its 40 members, speakers of