Understanding Language Variation: Standard English and Pidgins
Statements About Standard English
Consider the following statements about Standard English and try to decide whether you agree or disagree with them, providing a reason in each case for your decision.
Standard English is not a language.
Agree. It is considered to be an “idealized variety” and, as a variety of English, it would be treated more as a dialect than as a separate language.
Standard English is an accent.
Disagree. Partly because Standard English is tied to a written variety more than a spoken variety, it doesn’t have a definitive pronunciation. People with different regional accents can use Standard English, so it is technically not an accent itself.
Standard English is a speech style.
Disagree. Since Standard English doesn’t have a definitive pronunciation, it can’t represent a speech style. It can have an association with formal situations for many people, especially post-literate speakers (i.e. those adults whose spoken language is influenced by having spent a lot of time with the written language), but it isn’t restricted to one type of social situation. It might be said that Standard English is the basis of a writing style for many people.
Standard English is a set of rules for correct usage.
Disagree. Because Standard English is a variety of a language that has social prestige, it may be treated as a “good” variety for social purposes. It may, as a result, represent a model that many people, especially second language learners, aspire to use, especially in their writing. But “a set of rules” sounds more like a grammar than a variety. So, we could rephrase 4 as “A grammar of Standard English is a set of rules for correct usage” and agree with that.
Substrate and Superstrate in Pidgins
In the study of pidgins, what is meant by a “substrate” and a “superstrate language? Which of the two is likely to be the source of intonation, syntax, and vocabulary?
A Pidgin often develops in situations where there is contact between one group that is less powerful and another group that is more powerful. The language of the less powerful becomes the “substrate” (i.e. the one below) and that of the more powerful becomes the “superstrate” (i.e. the one above). In the development of the pidgin that later became Hawai’i Creole English, the English language was the superstrate. The substrate languages were Cantonese, Hawaiian, and Portuguese. Generally speaking, the basic syntax and intonation are more likely to come from the substrate(s) whereas vocabulary is more likely to come from the superstrate (i.e. the lexifier language).
Tok Pisin Translations
The following examples are based on Romaine (1988), quoted in Holmes (2008). Using what you learned about Tok Pisin, can you complete the translations of these examples with the following English words and phrases: bird’s feather, bird’s wing, cat’s fur, eyebrow, hair, weed?
- gras antap long ai = “eyebrow”
- gras bilong hed = “hair”
- gras bilong pisin = “bird’s feather”
- gras bilong pusi = “cat’s fur”
- gras nogut = “weed”
- han bilong pisin = “bird’s wing”