Language Variety in England英语国家英语的多样性研究.doc

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1、Language Variety in England英语国家英语的多样性研究内容摘要：本文就英语国家的方言问题进行探讨，列举了英语方言的种类以及形成原因，并就标准英语的划分标准进行分析,以求能对英语语言学的研究有所帮助。关键词：语言多样性 方言 口音 标准英语Outline1.Introductin 2.The reason for English dialect.2.1. Pride and Interest 2.2.Regional features3. Standard English and non Standard English4. Conclusion 提纲1.引言 2.英语方

2、言形成的原因2.1.自豪感与兴趣2.2.地理特征3. 标准英语与非标准英语4. 结语1.Introductin Nowadays, English has become an international language which is spoken by about 265 millions of people in the world. In China, there are increasing numbers of English learners, many of them , I believe, are interested in the language variety be

3、sides the English grammar and vocabulary. In China, one thing that is important to us is where we are from , this is equally important to m any English people. For m any of them , whatever happens to them in later life, and how ever much they move house o r travel, the place where they grew up and s

4、pent their childhood retains a special significance. More often than in previous generations, families may move around the country, and there are increasing numbers of people w ho have had a nomadic childhood, and are not really from anywhere. 2.The reason for English dialect.2.1. pride and interest

5、 But for a majority of English people, pride and interest in the area where they grew up is still a reality. For example, just like our Spring Festival time when most of the trains, buses and p lanes are filled with people going back to their hometown for family reunion, at Christmas time in England

6、, the roads and railways are full of people returning to their native heath for the holiday period.Where they are from is thus an important part of their personal identity, and for many of them an important component of this local identity is the w ay they speak -their accent and dialect. 2.2.region

7、al featuresearly all of them have regional features in the way they speak English. Of course there are upper- class people who have region less accents, as well as people who for some reason wish to conceal their regional origins. The vast majority of the population, how ever, speak in a manner whic

8、h identifies them as coming from a particular place. They speak like the people they grew up with, and in a way that is different from people who grew up some where else.Of course, people m ay change the way in which they speak during their lifetimes, especially if they move around the country, but

9、most of them carry at least some trace of their accent and dialect origins with them all of their lives. Other people w ill use this information to decide w here they are from , and will say things like “You must be a Londoner”, “You are from Yorkshire, arent you?”. In fact, similar questions could

10、be heard in China: “ You must be from Beijing ”, o r “W hereabouts in N northeast are you from ?”This article on English dialects is about this variety in the way they speak English, and it is about the w ay all of them who are from England speak their native language, because all of them speak with

11、 an accent, and all of them speak a dialect. Ones accents the way in which he pronounces English, and since all of them pronounce when they speak, they all have an accent. Some accents, it is true, are mo re regional than others. Some people have very regional accents, so that you can tell exactly w

12、 here they come from. Other people have fewer regional features, you might be able to place them only approximately “You re from somew here in the West Country, but I cant tell w here. ”And yet other people may have very few regional features at all, so that you might be reduced to saying something

13、as vague as “You are a southerner”.There are even a small number of people who have a to tally region less accent. These are usually people who have been to one of the big Public Schools, or who want to sound as if they have. This accent is sometimes referred to as a “BBC” accent because readers of

14、the national new s on radio and television are usually selected from this minority of the population. Similarly, everybody also speaks a dialect. When talking about dialect w e are referring to something more than accent. We are referring no t only to pronunciation but also to the words and grammar

15、that people use. Normally, of course, dialect and accent go together. If one speaks with Yorkshire dialect, he w ill obviously speak it with Yorkshire accent. But it is worth making a distinction between accent and dialect because what happens with the important dialect they call Standard English.3.

16、 Standard English and non Standard English Standard English is the dialect which is normally used in writing, and which is spoken by the most educated and powerful members of the population.The fact is that everybody w ho speaks with a BBC accent also speaks the Standard English dialect. But not eve

17、rybody who speaks Standard English does so with a BBC accent. Most people who speak Standard English do so with some kind of regional accent. This accent and this dialect dont therefore inevitably go together, and it is useful to be able to distinguish, by using the terms dialect and accent, between

18、 speakers who do combine the mind those w ho do not.Standard English is not often referred to as a dialect, but since it is a variety of the language that differs from others in its grammar, it is clearly just as much a dialect as any other variety.Standard English uses grammatical form such as I di

19、d it The other, Non standard Dialects may use grammatical form say I done it. Standard English also comes in a number of different form surround the world. The grammar of American Standard English is obviously a little different English Standard English. For example, English Standard English speaker

20、s say Its go t cold in here Americans would say Its gotten cold in here Scottish Standard English is a little different again, of course, so is Irish Standard English. Within England, how ever, Standard English is written and spoken more or less the same over the whole country. Standard English spea

21、kers from the south of England are more likely to say things like I wont do itW e havent seen him than speakers from the north of England, w ho are mo re likely to say Ill not do itW eve not seen him But what regional differences there are very few. It is important, too, no t to confuse the issue of

22、 Standard English versus Nonstandard dialects with the issue of form alversus inform al language. All dialects can be spoken in less or more formal styles, depending on the nature of the situation. If someone says I am bloody sizzled they are speaking an informal style of Standard English. If, on th

23、e other hand, they say I be very drunk they are speaking a more formal style but of some nonstandard dialect. Like all other dialects, Standard English admits stylistic variation, including the use of swearing and highly informal vocabulary, or slang, such as sozzled. We are not going to say much ab

24、out Standard English. Near all of the textbooks, grammars and dictionaries that have been compiled for the English Language are already about Standard English, even though most people dont speak this dialect. We shall be concentrating most closely on the nonstandard, regional dialects to be found in

25、 different parts of England, which are spoken by the vast majority of the population, and which have to do, among go there things, with where people are from. Most often, in talking about these regional dialects, we will be concentrating on those social dialects which are most unlike Standard Englis

26、h. In any given area, w e find a social scale of dialects, with people at the top of social hierarchy tending to speak Standard English, and with more and m re nonstandard regional features occurring as we go down the social hierarchy. 4. Conclusion We shall be focusing our attention towards the mos

27、t regional of the varieties. There are two different sorts of dialects. Traditional dialects are what most people think of when they hear the term dialect. They are spoken by a shrinking minority of the English speaking population of the world, almost all of them in England, Scotland and Northern Ir

28、eland. They are most easily found, as far as English is concerned, in the more remote and peripheral rural areas of the country, although some urban areas of the northern and western England still have many Traditional Dialect speakers. These dialects differ considerably from Standard English, and f

29、rom each other, and may be difficult for others to understand when they first to encounter them. People w ho say She brain a coming“Shes no t coming”are speaking Traditional Dialect.Mainstream Dialects, on the other hand, include both the Standard Dialect and the Modern Nonstandard Dialects. Most na

30、tive English speakers speak some variety of Mainstream Dialect. These dialects are associated with native speakers outside the British Isles, especially in recently settled areas which speak mixed colonial dialects, such as Australia and most of America and Canada. In Britain, they are particularly

31、associated with those areas of the country from which Standard English originally cam ethe southeast of England; with most urban areas; with places which have become English - speaking only relatively recently, such as the Scottish Highlands, much of Wales, and western Curnow all; with the speech of

32、 most younger people; and with middle and upper- class speakers every where. The Mainstream Modern Nonstandard Dialects differ much less from Standard English and from each other, and are often distinguished much more by their pronunciation- their accent- than by their grammar. Mainstream Dialect sp

33、eakers might say, for example isnt going or Hes not going The systematic study of Traditional Dialects began rather late in Britain compared to many other European countries, but up to now , there are a few important works on Traditional Dialects, such as the Survey of English Dialects by Harold Ort

34、on, “Dialect” and “Accent” in the industrial West Riding by Patty, K. M. , English Dialects by Wakelin, M. F. , English Accents and Dialects by Hughes, A and Trudgill, P. A good reading of these books will certainly help English learners to get to know mo re about the language variety.Reference Book:T rudgill, P. 1990 The Dialects of England