this essay will discuss

8/10/2019 This Essay Will Discuss

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This essay will discuss "Standard English is the yard stick of measuring forms that deviate in

phonology and grammar, from the Standard English of England". Firstly, it will identify what is

meant by Standard English. Secondly, it will discuss grammar and phonological variation and their

causes. Finally, it will identify three examples of phonological variation that Arabic speakers use in

producing English sounds, three examples of syntax variation that Arabic learners use in producing

English sentences, and three examples of morpheme variation in prefixing or suffixing words in

English. At the same time, it will explain the causes of such variation, that is the errors in the

performance of Arabic learners.

First of and foremost, Standard English is the variety that is taught in schools, used in formal writing

and media. It is codified in dictionaries and associated with the speech of well educated persons.

There are some standard English varieties spoken in different parts of the world. These are Standard

English English, Standard Scottish English, Standard Irish English, Standard Australian English,

Standard Canadian English and Standard US English. These varieties have few differences. ( Thomas

P222

However, there is much greater regional variation between nonstandard varieties of English in

England. The causes of these variation, according to Joan Beal, are the clear contrast between urban

and rural communities , as in Tyneside and Tyne and Wear in the north of England. Beal added that

social factors also have a great effect in that people of higher social status tend to use fewer local

forms of language. Moreover, the context of situation is another main factor that play a part in

making people avoid local features on more formal occasions. ( Thomas P.224 )

In focusing on the grammatical constructions of Standard English, we as learners can understanding

the differences between Standard English and nonstandard English. In this respect, we have to

examine the structure of the English sentence. A standard English sentence is made up of group of

words that termed phrases . For example, "the girls will cook a delicious dinner ". In this sentence,

"the" is a determiner, "girls" is a noun, "will" is an auxiliary verb "cook" is a lexical verb, "a" is

another determiner, "delicious " adjective, and "dinner" is another noun. In the above example,

"the girls" and "this delicious dinner" are noun phrases, while "will cock" is a verb phrase.( ( Thomas

P226 )

In terms of verb phrase, there are several differences in the form verbs that occurs in different

varieties of English. For instance, the speaker from South-west England used the phrases " I loves,

you loves, she/he/it loves, we loves and they loves'. On the other hand , a speaker belongs to East

Anglia used the phrases " I love, you love she/he/it loves, we love and they love'. This shows that

there is only one present- tense form used in these areas. This is , according to Chesire and Milory,

because non-standard varieties of English have not been codified. (( Thomas P227 )

However, Standard English, the codified one as stated above, distinguishes between the third-

person singular and other verb forms in the present tense(I love, you love, she/he/it loves, we love

and they love). ( Thomas P. 227 )

Moreover, there are also differences in other verb forms. In examining, for instance, strong verbs,

differences appear in the form of past tense and past participle in Tyneside comparing with Standard

English. For example, in Standard English ,the past tense of "give" is "gave", and the past participleis "given", in Tyneside it remains in the base "give". ( Thomas P.228 )


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Differences between Standard varieties of English can be seen in how verbs are used. In this respect,

the verbs "have" and "do" may function as lexical or auxiliary verbs. For example, in " you had a

good time", "had" functions as a lexical verb, but in "had you a good time?", which is used in

Scotland, "had" functions as an auxiliary verb. ( Thomas P.230 )

"Do" in " He's doing very well in school" functions as a lexical verb, while, in the south of England,

the form "do" is found for the auxiliary verb and "does" for the lexical verb. However, in Australia, a

farther distinction between negative and positive forms are found. For example, " It don't look all

that good, does it ? " (( Thomas P,231 )

Another difference in grammatical construction is that Standard English English used the simple past

verb form "went" with time adverbials such as " last year". As in," I went to the camping last year.

On the other hand, Scottish and Irish English, Us English and Indian English, used a present

perfective form such as "have been" as in "I have been to the camping last year. ( Thomas P..234 )

Furthermore, in examining the progressive aspect usage with stative verbs (such as believe, like andknow), one can notice that this is a normal feature of varieties of English in Irish English, Indian

English and Scottish English,. For example," I was knowing it ". However, this feature does not occur

in Standard English of England. ( Thomas P. 235 )

There is also considerable variation in the use of modals verbs ( can, might, will, should, must etc ) in

English. In this respect, Trudgill and Hannah stated that "could" and" would" are used in Indian

English rather than "can" and " will" as in " we hope that you could join us". This is because these

two modals seen as more tentative and therefore show politeness. ( in Standard English, we hope

that you can join us). ( Thomas P.238 )

In Standard English, "must" has the meaning of obligation as in "you must be at the airport by ten"

,however, Miller argued that " have to" and " need to" are preferred for the use of obligation in

Scots ( a non-standard English) ( Thomas .P 238 )

Moreover, there is a rule of Standard English that only one modal verb can appear in a single verb

phrase. Verb phrase in Scottish English may contain double modal such as "He will can help us

tomorrow ". This can be understood in Standard English English as He will be able to help us

tomorrow. ( Thomas P. 238 )

In terms of noun phrase, nouns in Standard English either countable ( like pens, apples and

computers), or uncountable ( like milk, water and money). Uncountable nouns are themselves differ

in different varieties of English . For example, furniture would normally be a non-count noun in

Standard English, but in the English of India, furniture appears as a count noun Thus, forms such as"

a furniture" and "furnitures" are found. ( Thomas P.242 )

In terms of the pronoun usage, Tyneside speakers use the pronoun "us" rather than "me" as a first-

person non-subject pronoun (as in "Give us a kiss" ). Forms such as Usll do it have also been

found in this variety, effectively reversing the subject and non subject pronoun forms found in

Standard English. ( Thomas P..244 )


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The second-person pronouns, both singular and plural, also can take place in comparing its use in

several varieties. According to Dick Leith and David Graddol, English originally had a distinction

between singular "thou" and plural "you", which has been lost in the standard variety.

However, some traditional dialects are still used the singular "thou", but many other varieties are

used "yous" instated of "you " as plural form.

In this respect, Milroy and Milroy quote the following example: " So I said to our Trish and our

Sandra, yous wash the dishes". This can be seen in north-east and northwest England, Scotland,

Northern and Southern Irland parts of North America and Australia. This is because many languages

use the plural; forms of pronouns as a polite form of address when referring to only one person. (

Thomas P.245 )

On the other hand, Standard English use the form " you" for the second-person pronoun both

singular and plural. What is striking is that in the south states of America, the plural made with " y'all

" to distinguish it from the singular "you". ( Thomas P245 )

Variation also exists at clause or sentence level. That is to say, in the way words, phrases and

clauses are but together. Subject, verbs and objects is the usual sentence construction in English,

however, subject and verb can be inverted as in, "Was he angry?" ( Thomas P. 247 )

Moreover, " it-clefting " is one construction that may be used in English to shed light on a particular

part of a sentence. For example, "Ahmed loves flower", in it-clefting system it will be: "It is the

flower that Ahmed loves", as the focus of information goes on "flower" rather than Ahmed. This

feature appears more in written English and less in spoken as speakers made the focus of

information by using stress or intonation on a particular part of the word. ( Thomas P.249 )

However, the use of intonation, according to Filppula and Harris, is not possible in Irish. That is to

say, this system of " it-clefting" is very famous in Irish English. So, "it's looking for more land a lot of

them are" can be found in Standard Irish English, not Standard English English. ( Thomas P.249 )

So far, this essay discuses some aspect of variation in grammar between Standard English and other

non-standard English. Now, it will discus some aspects of variation in phonology. "Phonology is the

study and identification of significant sound". (English Phonetics and Linguistics, P. 56)

There is no doubt that speakers of English do not speak the language identically. Every English-

speaking country, and practically every region within those countries, has a distinctive accent.

In Britain, the desirable accent held up as a model is Received Pronunciation (RP). It is considered as

social rather than regional British English accent. It also can be called "The Queen's English" and BBC

English. P. 259 Therefore , it can be said that RP is the most preferred and respected accent in the

English speaking world. ( Wright P. 259 )

The same phoneme could be pronounced differently in different accents. For example, some

English speakers may or may not pronounce / r / in cart depending on where you come from. (

Wright P. 263 )

A distinction is often made between rhotic and non-rhoic accents. Speakers of both kinds of accents

will pronounce the / r/ in words like "carry". Speakers of rhotic accents will also pronounce an / r / in


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words like " car" ; in this case, the / r/ is not followed by a vowel. This kind of pronunciation is also

called non-prevocalic. This system of distinction has also been used to distinguish between accents

in US, Canadian, Irish and Scottish accents may be identified of prevocalic / r / . (Wright P.262, 264 )

There are farther pronunciations of / r / that distinguishes speakers in terms of age and social class.

In this respect, Peter Trudgill argued that young speakers in Norwish, England pronounce / r / as / w

/. This makes the word rabbit sound like wabbit.; and this can be noticed in working class and middle

class urban accents in south and east England. (Wright P. 264

Moreover, a phoneme may be pronounced differently depending on its position in a word. In RP,

there is a "clear" and "dark" / l / . For example, when / l / occurs at the beginning of a word as in

leaf, or between two vowels as in feeling, it is known as a clear / l /. On the other hand, when it

occurs at the end of a word as in feel, it gives a different dark sound quality. . However, there is an

exception of this contrast between dark and clear / l/ . For example, speakers of Lancashire, as do

most American , typically use dark / l / regardless its position in a word. On the other hand, many

Irish English speakers use clear / l / wherever the sound occurs. (Wright P. 266)

There are other ways in which accents of English differ. They may differ in terms of prosody. This

concept includes features like rhythm, which is the use of stress to highlight one syllables in an

utterance, and intonation, which means a manner of producing tones, especially with regard to

accuracy of pitch. These make an important contribution to the overall sound of an accent. (Wright

P. 267 )

In this respect, different varieties of English used rhythm and intonation contrast to highlight the

same differences in meaning. In Jamaican English, for instance, many words receive stress on their

final syllables as in "celebrate". On the other hand, the same word tend to be stressed initially in RP" celebrate". (Wright P.267 )

According to Gregory Guy and Julia Vonwiller, the high rising tone (HRT) occurs at the end of a

declarative sentence in Australian English ; it does not necessary indicate that the speaker is asking a

question, as in the following examples ; " she didn't relies what was wrong with it And it fell off

and she got the cane for breaking it ". (Wright P. 268 ) (Note, the symbol is used to indicate

HRT)

HRT can be noticed in other varieties of English. It occurs in the varieties of spoken English in

Tyneside, Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham. Guy and Vonwiller stated that spoken texts

require the speaker to monitor the listener. One way in which the speaker can check whether the

listener is following the strand of talk is to use HRT.

Most people tend to associate accents of English with different English-speaking areas. In examining

the regional variation in accent, one should know that dialect consists of grammar, words and their

meanings, and pronunciation. That is to say, some speakers may use formal speech marked by a

distinctive pronunciation features of ,for example, Tyneside English. But in casual talk ( as in a close

family setting ) they may use vocabulary, word forms and grammatical structure mark the variety of

English as being rooted in Tyneside. (Wright P. 270 )

The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the English language that took

place in the 15 th century. For example, in the Middle English period the long vowel that is now


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pronounced in a word like food / u: / in RP was the typical pronunciation in a word like caw . So, a

systematic shift that affecting- becoming closer- the long vowels of English. (Wright P. 272 )

The Great Vowel Shift had a great impact on the pronunciation of English in different parts of

England. That is to say, it gave a rise to a division between northern accents ( that have kept some of

the old pronunciation ) and the rest.

Moreover, Chambers and Trudgill have documented the gradual diffusion of more resent sound

changes through the vocabulary of English ; a process they called "Lexical diffusion" . In this respect,

people in the south eastern part of England who first began to change the way they pronounced

vowels like those in blind and cow .

This is because the movement of wealthy and influential people from East Anglia and Kent to London

in the 15 th century helped the speared of the innovative pronunciation to London accents. Then,

these innovation was carried westwards and northwards as speakers with new pronunciation moved

around the country. (Wright P. 273 )

Furthermore, the mechanism by which new pronunciation spread from community to community

across the country is called "regional diffusion ". That is to say, the geographical spread of a

linguistic innovation depends on the movement of people and the continuing contact with the

speech communities they pass through.

In this respect, it is useful to mention the concept " vowel merger " which has resulted from that

mechanism. It means that two vowels merge to become a single vowel. For example, the

progressive merger of the vowels in words like cat and caught or hock and hawk in general American

English. The resulting merger of these two vowels sounds similar to the vowel in RP father / a: /

Moreover, Chambers and Trudgill have documented the gradual diffusion of more resent sound

changes through the vocabulary of English ; a process they called "Lexical diffusion" . In this respect,

people in the south eastern part of England who first began to change the way they pronounced

vowels like those in blind and cow . (Wright P. 273 )

This is because the movement of wealthy and influential people from East Anglia and Kent to London

in the 15 th century helped the speared of the innovative pronunciation to London accents. Then,

these innovation was carried westwards and northwards as speakers with new pronunciation moved

around the country. (Wright P. 273 )

What happens when English speakers from a number of different places end up forming a new

community, as in the case of Australia, is that new combination of accents grew up on their own in

this new place. (Wright P. 275 )

In the following pages, this easy will give three examples of phonological variation that Arabic

speakers use in producing English sounds, , then, three examples of syntax variation that Arabic

learners use in producing English sentences, and finally, three examples of morpheme variation in

prefixing or suffixing words in English. At the same time, it will explain the causes of such variation,

that is the errors in the performance of Arabic learners.

First, three examples of phonological variation that Arabic speakers use in producing English sounds:


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1- In Arabic language the phoneme / fa / stands for the phoneme / v / and / f / in English . So,

in producing words that contain the sound / v / as vacancy, and words that contain the sound / f /

as fast, Arabic speakers will pronounce them as / facancy / and / fast /.

2- Egyptian accent has the phoneme / s / that stands for the consonant phoneme / / as in

words like thank and think. Thus , an Egyptian speaker may say "I sink " instead of "I think".

3- Some young Arabic learners may pronounce the phoneme / k / as in words like cat and

cycle as / s /. So, cat is pronounced as / sat / , and cycle is pronounced as / si sel /. This is because

these young learners have no knowledge in how to pronounce consonant letters that followed by

vowels letters (a, o, u, e , i ).

Secondly, three examples of syntax variation that Arabic learners use in producing English sentences:

1- As stated above, whereas English sentence structure is SVO, Arabic sentence structure can

be either SVO or VSO. In this respect, Arabic learners may write a VSO sentence directly into a SVO

sentence. Thus, " Ya'akul Ahmed jazar", which means Ahmed is eating carrots, will be written in

English as something like " Eating Ahmed carrots ".

2- In terms of writing wisdom in English, Arabic learners may write the wisdom "A sound mind

in a sound body", as something like " a fine mind in a fine body ". This is because she or he

translates a word by word from Arabic into English.

3- There is also some errors in the use of English preposition that are frequently made by

Arabic learners. For example, she or he may write " I will be there at Saturday " instead of on

Saturday.

In English, the meaning of the prefixing is that a morpheme which is placed at the beginning of a

root word. For example, im + possible = impossible. Suffixing, on the other hand, is a morpheme

that is placed at the end of a root word . For example, free + dom = freedom. (English Phonetics

and Linguistics. P 77)

Finally, some examples of morpheme variation in prefixing or suffixing words in English.:

1- When an Arabic learner tries to write or say a sentence like " Al Sayara Allati Eshtaritoha " in

English, which means " the car that I bought", she or he may add an Arabic morpheme " ha" at the

end of " bought". So, the sentence will become as " the car that I bought it " . This is resulted

because the influence of mother tongue.

2- Once again, young Arabic learners, may add the morpheme " ed " to the irregular past tense

forms " drinked". This is due perhaps to the fact that during the early stages of learning English,

students do not have good command of grammar rules.

3- In Arabic, the verb could be in the plural form in case it follows a plural noun. For example,

Arabic young learner may write "the students studies their lessons." That is to say, she or he add " s

" to the verb study as a plural verb form.

4- Arabic adjective can be either singular or plural. So, some Arabic students may also write anEnglish adjective in plural form. For example, " the boys are smarts ".


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To sum up,

This essay discussed "Standard English is the yard stick of measuring forms that deviate in

phonology and grammar, from the Standard English of England". Firstly, it identified what is meant

by Standard English. Secondly, it discussed phonological and grammar variation and their causes.

Thirdly, it identified three examples of phonological variation that Arabic speakers use in producing

English sounds, three examples of syntax variation that Arabic learners use in producing Englishsentences, and three examples of morpheme variation in prefixing or suffixing words in English. At

the same time, it will explain the causes of such variation, that is the errors in the performance of

Arabic learners. Finally, I believe that, in ordering to learn a particular language, students should not

follow their mother tongue rule of grammar or pronunciation. They should only follow the system

and rules of the language they are learning.

this essay will discuss

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