Caribbean And Standard English

HASSAN BASARALLY 806007430 LING 2402 WED. 3-4P.M

February 20, 2008

What do the terms Caribbean Standard English and Internationally Accepted English mean? How are the two related? Provide arguments and clear examples in your discussion. English is one of the most widely spoken languages today; seven hundred and fifty million people speak it as either a first or second language (Crystal, 360). With such a large number of speakers spanning different continents the question of what is Standard English arises. Caribbean Standard English (CSE) and Internationally Accepted English (IAE) are two varieties of the English language in existence today. Both varieties have similarities and differences. While CSE has a distinct phonology, lexicon, syntax and phonology, it shares with the artificial IAE core features that make both varieties of English and mutually intelligible. “Caribbean English is a collection of sub-varieties of English distributed… over a large number of non contiguous territories” (Allsopp, Introduction). The process involves taking the standards of different Caribbean territories and finding the core features of them. Each territory has a standard. According to Romaine “a simple definition of a standard is that it is a highly codified variety of a language, which has been developed and elaborated for use across a broad range of functions (231-232). In addition it is as a result of “conscious and deliberate planning” (232). As a standard is specific to a certain area it cannot be termed the English language. “Standard English is thus not the English language but simply a variety of it” (Trudgill, 118). The lexicon of CSE is influenced by French Creole; in addition there exists several allonyms. Allonyms are simply different names for the same lexical item, in Trinidad there is the fruit chenette while other Caribbean territories have canep and chenep. Though CSE may share the core features that comprise IAE the main difference lies in pronunciation which is not the focus of IAE. However the differences in pronunciation as opposed to Received Pronunciation were taken into account when creating the CSE. For example according to Allsopp there is more “lung pressure and mouth pressure in articulation” (Introduction). There is a reduction of diphthongal glides and the platalisation of [k] and [g], so girl would be gyrl. Therefore the standards of each

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HASSAN BASARALLY 806007430 LING 2402 WED. 3-4P.M

February 20, 2008

territory were compared to produce the core features, while allowing regionalisms such as allonyms and pronunciation. Due to the fact that several standards exist the IAE was created to account for the question of what is English. This variety takes the core features of all standards to create a variety that is acceptable to the educated speakers of all. This may be deemed as elitist but according to Crystal two thirds of the world’s scientists write in English (360), which makes this group a useful source of core grammatical features. Therefore the CSE, British Standard English and Canadian Standard English etc. would be intersected to produce the core features that represent English. These features include: 1. Standard English fails to distinguish between the forms of the auxiliary forms of the verb do and its main verb forms. This is true both of present tense forms, where many other dialects distinguish between auxiliary I do, he do and main verb I does, he does or similar, and the past tense, where most other dialects distinguish between auxiliary did and main verb done, as in You done it, did you? 2. Standard English has an unusual and irregular present tense verb morphology in that only the third-person singular receives morphological marking: he goes versus I go. Many other dialects use either zero for all persons or -s for all persons. 3. Standard English lacks multiple negation, so that no choice is available between I don’t want none, which is not possible, and I don’t want any. Most nonstandard dialects of English around the world permit multiple negations. 4. Standard English has an irregular formation of reflexive pronouns with some forms based on the possessive pronouns e.g. myself, and others on the objective pronouns e.g. himself. Most nonstandard dialects have a regular system employing possessive forms throughout i.e. hisself, theirselves.

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5. Standard English fails to distinguish between second person singular and second person plural pronouns, having you in both cases. Many nonstandard dialects maintain the older English distinction between thou and you, or have developed newer distinctions such as you versus youse. 6. Standard English has irregular forms of the verb to be both in the present tense (am, is, are) and in the past (was, were). Many nonstandard dialects have the same form for all persons, such as I be, you be, he be, we be, they be, and I were, you were, he were, we were, they were. 7. In the case of many irregular verbs, Standard English redundantly distinguishes between preterite and perfect verb forms both by the use of the auxiliary have and by the use of distinct preterite and past participle forms: I have seen versus I saw . Many other dialects have I have seen versus I seen. 8. Standard English has only a two-way contrast in its demonstrative system, with this (near to the speaker) opposed to that (away from the speaker). Many other dialects have a three-way system involving a further distinction between, for example, that (near to the listener) and yon (away from both speaker and listener) (Trudgill, 124). From these features it is evident that IAE is only an artificial variety of English. It is artificial as it is not specific to a geographical area and pronunciation, which gives rise to a regional accent, is not dealt with. It is not formal or Standard English, it is as a result of the norms associated with educated people, which in fact can be subjective and prescriptive. From this Allsopp’s definition of English can be used: It is an analytic language with a morphology strongly characterised by adaptive features , the sense of any continuous utterance being governed by and dependant on a strong traditional word order (subject+ verb+ complement) as its

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international structural base, which can accommodate a number of distinctive national features at all linguistic levels, chiefly in the field of lexicon (Introduction). In conclusion, CSE is the core linguistic features of English spoken in the Caribbean territories. IAE takes CSE along with all other standards to produce variety encompassing all. The process of arriving at the respective varieties are similar, the major difference being IAE does not focus on accents.

Bibliography

Allsopp, Richard. ed. “Caribbean English.” Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. Crystal, David. Ed. The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. Romaine, Suzanne. The Language of Children and Adolescents: The Acquisition of Communicative Competence. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984. Trudgill, Peter. “Standard English: What it isn’t.” Standard English: The widening debate. Ed. Tony Bex and Richard J. Watts. London: Routledge, 1999. 117-28. 19 Feb. 2008

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