Social Variation Of American English

African American English is diverging from Standard American English. As shown in Do You Speak American (2005), AAE originates from the time of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. English was introduced to trade ports in Africa by colonialists, resulting in the creation of pidgin - a mixture of English and African languages that is still in use today. More recently, African Americans who have moved from the South to the North have been more segregated, creating greater divergence between AAE and SAE

The three levels of standardness in English are formal standard English, informal standard/mainstream English, and vernacular English (Wolfram & Schilling, 2016). Based in written language, formal standard English is greatly enforced in formal institutions such as schools and is codified in English grammar texts. It is resistant to change and only used in formal written or spoken language (Wolfram & Schilling, 2016). Informal standard English exists on a continuum in which speakers are judged to

Diversity Within English      In order to understand how language variation descriptors are used, we first must understand what language variation is. We can say that the U.S. is linguistically diverse because of the multitude of languages spoken here, but we can also find diversity within these languages. All languages have both dialectical variations and registral variations. These variations, or dialects, can differ in lexicon, phonology, and/or syntax from the Standard

Communication can be performed using different means, including languages such as English, where it has become preferable and prominent for both local and global interaction among people of different cultural backgrounds. The high demand in acquiring English for international politics, science and technology has led to the global spread of the language. Consequently, English is recognised as an international language, and its ownership is considered to be denationalised and renationalised. The understanding

communicate every day through different means, including speech and writing, and the use of languages such as English for both local and global interaction is becoming popular among those of different cultural backgrounds. The high demand in the use of English in the fields of international politics, science and technology has led to the global spread of the language. Due to this, English is currently seen as an international language, and its ownership is considered to be denationalised and renationalised

public perception. For example, America is a growing world power that has strong social, economic and political influence on the world stage. It is this status symbol that many Americans identify with, irrespective of race, gender or sexual orientation. Identifying as American citizen creates an image of perceived wealth, power and intelligence perpetuated by media and misleading myths of the “American dream”. The American dream is an idealistic notion of freedom and equal opportunity that implies the

1 Three Waves of Variation Study: The emergence of meaning in the study of variation Penelope Eckert Stanford University Abstract The treatment of social meaning in variation has come in three waves of analytic practice. The first wave of variation studies established broad correlations between linguistic variables and the macro-sociological categories of socioeconomic class, sex class, ethnicity and age. The second wave employed ethnographic methods to explore the local categories and configurations

Language can be considered a social process in that it is continually changing and evolving as a result of its context. Just like a fish, language is a dynamic being and as soon as it is placed in its natural environment, is in constant motion (Grugeon & Gardner, 2000). As time progresses and technology advances, language too adapts and changes to align with its environment. This concept is referred to as Diachronic change (Gardner, 2017b). As the social values and ideals change over time, certain

In her essay, Amy Tan effectively convinces her readers that “broken English” is not an inferior language, but just a different style of English that has values in it by depicting her personal experiences and strong appeal to pathos. She makes her readers to have sympathetic emotions for her mother and hostile emotion for people who was rude to her by

Communication can be performed through the utilisation of languages, such as English. Presently, English has become a favourable and prominent tool for interaction among people of different cultural backgrounds. The high demand in acquiring English for fields such as international politics, science and technology has led to the global spread of the language. Consequently, English is recognised as an international language, and its ownership is considered to be denationalised and renationalised. The