Graddol, D. Dick Leith, Joan Swann, Martin Rhys and Julia Gillen (eds.) (2007) Changing English.

Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

Changing English
Chapter One
Follow Up Class

Analyze the following extract from Deborah Cameron’s Verbal Hygiene and
answer question 1) below:

The linguistic questions laypeople care most about are questions of

right and wrong, good and bad, 'the use and abuse of language'. In fact,
it would not be overstating the case to say that most everyday discourse
on language is above all evaluative discourse (even the language maven
who simply collects unusual words has made a judgement that some
words are more interesting than others). This overriding concern with
value is the most significant characteristic that separates lay discourse on
language from the expert discourse of linguists. As scientists, professional
linguists aspire to objectivity and not to moral or aesthetic judgement. So
when the man in the Conway Hall asked me what linguists were doing to
combat the abuse of language, I did not know what to say. I could hardly
give the textbook answer: 'Nothing. That isn't what linguistics is about.
Linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive.' I could not say this, or anything
like it, not only because it would have been intolerably rude, but
also because my interlocutor would not have understood it.

1) What are the implications of studying language from a prescriptive approach vs.
a descriptive approach?

2) What is the difference between variety and variation?

3) What is an accent? What about a dialect? Provide examples.

4) Explain the differences between English as a National Language (ENL), English

as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

5) What are pidgins and creoles?

6) What are borrowings? Provide examples.

7) Why do we speak of “Englishes”?

8) Define the concepts of code-switching, sociolect and ideolect.

9) What is Standard English?

1
 Graddol, D. Dick Leith, Joan Swann, Martin Rhys and Julia Gillen (eds.) (2007) Changing English.
Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

Read the following extract by linguist Jennifer Jenkins on ELF or English as a

Lingua Franca and answer question 10) below:

Some linguists question the assumption that native English is the ideal choice for intercultural
communication and make a vigorous argument that native English is irrelevant for ELF
communications (e.g., Jenkins, 2014; Seidlhofer, 2011). While native English is associated with
idealized monolingual native English speech communities, ELF communication takes place in
multilingual contexts where people from different first language backgrounds use English to
communicate and they use English to suit the social contexts which might not resemble the contexts
where ideal native English speaker-hearer communication happens (Seidlhofer, 2011). [...] In this
sense, the exclusive orientation towards native English is problematic given its limitation on
language users’ choices of linguistic forms, that is, only “correct” forms, which conform to native
English norms.

10) What is ELF communication? Why does Jenkins claim that relying exclusively
on native English forms is problematic in this case? Does native English equal
“correct English”?

Analyze the following poem by John Agard, born in British Guyana. What
attitudes towards English does it convey?

Listen Mr. Oxford Don

Me not no Oxfod don Dem accuse me of assault
Me a simple immigrant On de Oxford dictionary
From Clapham Common Imagine a concise peaceful man like me/
I didn’t graduate Dem want me serve time
I immigrate For inciting rhyme to riot
But listen Mr Oxford don But tekking it quiet
I’m a man on de run Down here in Clapham Common
And a man on de run I’m not a violent man Mr Oxford don
Is a dangerous one I only armed wit mih human breath
I ent have no gun But human breath
I ent have no knife Is a dangerous weapon
But mugging de Queen’s English So mek dem sen done big word after me
Is the story of my life I ent serving no jail sentence
I dont need no hammer I Smashing suffix in self-defence
To mash/ up your grammar I bashing future wit present tense
I warning you Mr Oxford don And if neccesary
I’m a wanted man I making de Queen’s English accessory/
And a wanted man to my offence
Is a dangerous one